Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8667 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780547059075
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Product Description

What are the all-time best dishes America has to offer, the ones you must taste before they vanish, so delicious they deserve to be a Holy Grail for travelers? Where’s the most vibrant Key lime pie in Florida? The most sensational chiles rellenos in New Mexico? The most succulent fried clams on the Eastern Seaboard? The most memorable whoopie pies, gumbos, tacos, cheese steaks, crab feasts? In 500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late, "America’s leading authorities on the culinary delights to be found while driving" (Newsweek) return to their favorite subject with a colorful, bursting-at-the-seams life list of America’s must-eats.

Illustrated throughout with mouth-watering color photos and road maps, this indispensable guide is organized by region, then by state. Each entry captures the food in luscious detail and gives the lowdown on the café, roadside stand, or street cart where it’s served. When "bests" abound--hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, apple pie, doughnuts--the Sterns rank their offerings. Sidebars feature profiles of idiosyncratic creators, recipes, and local attractions.

Memorable Mileposts from 500 Things To Eat Before It's Too Late: and the Very Best Places To Eat Them
(Click on Images to Enlarge)

Don't Miss Marquees

Chicken Annies in Pittsburg, KS

Burgerville in Portland, OR

Leonard's Pit Barbecue in Memphis, TN

The Cherry Hut in Beulah, MI

Must-Eat Meals

Deep Fried Hot Dogs at Rawley's in Fairfield, CT

Huckleberry Sundae at Ekstrom's State Station in Clinton, MT

Cinnamon Roll at Gus Balon's in Tucson, AZ

Barbecued Oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company in Marshall, CA

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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Veteran road dogs and James Beard Award-winning food journalists Jane and Michael Stern (Roadfood, Two for the Road) have what may be their best offering yet in this easy to use, consolidated guide to America's best off-the-beaten-path eateries. Along the way, the Sterns identify the best of everything crave-worthy: regional specialties like cheese steaks in Philly, southern sweets like banana pudding and key lime pie, as well as (admittedly subjective) national rankings for classics like ribs, burgers and French fries. They even scour elusive vendors like Connecticut hot dog wagons and San Francisco taco trucks. Other notable suggestions: a cool glass of the Latino rice milk beverage Horchata at Guelaguetza in L.A., the Northwest's best cup of coffee at Ristretto Roasters in Portland; and the best cherry pie in Michigan at Beulah's Cherry Hut. Homebodies can make do with a handful of recipes (including Cincinnati five way chili, and Massachusetts's Dirt Bomb, a cinnamon and sugar-rolled muffin), but the Sterns' lyrical and enthusiastic field reports, topped off with suggestions for after-meal exploring (Philadelphia's medical anomalies museum, New Orleans's Audobon Insectarium), should be enough to get any reader with a taste for mom-and-pop Americana hungry for the road.

About the Author

Customer Reviews

On the Food Road Again
On the Road Again

Once again Jane and Michael Stern have come up with a food guide, or rather a guide to places where you can get `real' food. Food that one just longs to eat -pies, ice cream, cake, ribs, just think of anything that you are warned is not health food... that is food to long for. Who wouldn't want to find the best, or the 500 things to eat before it's too late. Now whether that is too late for you or too late for these wonderful places to exist is a matter of conjecture.
The book itself is arranged in a different manner than the Sterns' other food books and most other foodie guides. First there are colored `tabs' for the different regions of the US - New England, Mid Atlantic, South, Midwest, Southwest and Great Plains and West. So you can immediately find the section of the country you want. At the beginning of each chapter is a map with the names of featured towns. Then each state list is divided into foods, such as Crumb Cake, Stuffed Ham, French Fries with the town and page numbers. Once you get used to this style it is easy to find information. The size of the book is very portable. Less than 1 inch thick and approximately 5 x 8 inches. Pages are smooth and colorful with plenty of pictures both of food and the stores themselves.
The back has two indexes; one to eateries, divided by state and city, handy if you are sitting somewhere looking for something other than golden arches and a general index which lists eateries, food, even a few recipes that are included.
Phone numbers, addresses, web sites are included - always helpful information Of course there are the reviews and information, sometimes a history or other fascinating tidbits. Better than just plain information is the poetic love of great food. I was impressed with several regional specialties that you will not find elsewhere and the style with which they are written of. When they write of southern Maryland's little known stuffed ham, they write of a dish that exists no where but in an ancient spit of land where the air smells of the sea - how can you resist the hunt for something like that?
My only complaint and frustration is the placement of National Best lists, which inexplicably are stuck in different places of the book and will for example list a food item from another region of the country -pizza in New England section, but Franks is in Illinois and then is not listed in the Illinois - Midwest section. That makes no sense. But it still isn't frustrating enough to give up on this as a guide, just surprising for what I expect from the Sterns
I have given these books as wedding presents, as going away presents and even to a friend from England who drove cross country - he now thinks America is the greatest country in the galaxy. How else could he or you for that matter find johnnycakes, shoofly pie, conch chowder, cinnamon buns, green corn tamales or huckleberry sweets. This book might be the utmost reason ever for a cross country trip. This is why I use these Road Food books as my traveling and local guides. This is my new guide that I can see will lead us to continued adventures, meeting the locals and going places that we might have by-passed on the super highways of life. Read this, follow some food adventures before it is too late

A Foodie Speaks Out
I bought "500 Things To Eat..." because I am a Stern's Junkie. I love these guys and the way they write up the places they visit, hear about or imagine in their minds. I don't always agree with their assessments of places or dishes but I spend hours reading and re-reading their books. Good Book, Good Price, Good Reading! )

The Enrico Biscotti Company in Pittsburgh
They were right! Just visited The Enrico Biscotti Company in Pittsburgh, PA. Attended one of their bread classes and WOW! Enrico/Larry is such an exciting guy and the stories with all the history about the importance of bread is just fantastic. Yes, the biscotti is incredible too! - Thanks Michael & Jane for this recommendation.