Food: A Love Story

 

I just finished Jim Gaffigan's latest book.  It is called Food: A Love Story.  Gaffigan is a comedian known for his jokes about Hot Pockets.  If you read his previous book you know that he has five kids and lives with his wife in a two bedroom apartment in New York.  I'm sure he sold a lot of books and has enough money for a bigger apartment, but they are still there.  I can only imagine they just have no time to look.

I find Gaffigan very funny and sometimes I laughed out loud while reading Food.  That is my definition of funny.  Lots of books give me a smile.  I laugh out loud at the truly funny ones.

Gaffigan is a comedian, so that means he travels a lot.  Therefore, he is an expert on food in every state and most cities.  He also confesses to being fat and many of his jokes are about weight and food.  I don't think he is that fat, but it remains part of his act.

He even jokes that one of the best things about living in New York is the availability of food to be delivered to his apartment, so he can get food without moving.  Those are two of his favorite things.

When Weight Watchers says that nothing tastes as good as thin feels, he disagrees.  (After all, he is married to a beautiful (and thin) wife and no longer has to stress over what he weighs to get the girl.)  Many of those things end in the word cheese, like Cheddar cheese and grilled cheese.  "Even unsalted French fries taste better than thin feels."    Gaffigan believes this level of sacrifice, eating unsalted fries because it is too much work to get up and find salt,  would make him a great contestant on Survivor.

Most of the book involves riffs on what the different states feel is their finest food.  I happen to agree with him that lobster from Maine looks like a giant sea scorpion and the only reason people eat it is because it is swimming in sticks of melted butter.

He seems to not like fruit, unless it is in a pie or covered in chocolate, and he really hates vegetables. He figures people only eat vegetables in some insane effort to be healthy and he only eats them in front of his children.  A man has to be a good example, after all.  I doubt he will let them read this book, as all parental arguments on healthy eating from his wife will end up with, "Well, DAD hates vegetables, too!"

If you want some light reading and a good laugh, I would recommend this book.  If you are trying to lose weight, or you think young impressionable minds might find this book and make every mealtime an argument, save it for your next trip out of town.  It might even let you know where to get the best food for that particular city.  Or send him a message on Twitter.  I'm sure he knows.