Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals

Though Bauer's introduction invokes M.F.K. Fisher—in the early 1970s he escorted her for a magazine story on New Orleans restaurants—this collection of 20 essays concentrates more on nostalgia than on the actual pleasures of the table. From such writers as Amy Bloom, Claire Messud, Andre Dubus III, Richard Russo and Peter Mayle, Bauer gathers pieces about meals that were "unforgettable by occasion"—if not savoriness. Sue Miller's contemplative opener touches on the stupendous appetite of her teenage son, memories of her mother's dreadful cooking and the first meal her husband made for her. The reliable Jane and Michael Stern, here writing separately, provide the most humorous essays. In "Stir Gently and Serve," Jane details the first—and only—Thanksgiving she hosted, after which even the bulldog wouldn't eat the leftovers. Michael recalls a "night of a thousand embarrassments" in "My Dinner with Andy Warhol's Friends," when the Sterns took a Swiss art dealer to a fish house in Hoboken, N.J. Steve Almond's gem of a title story serves as one of the more appetizing tales, a funny, wonderfully descriptive account of a sensational homemade pad thai involving fresh Maine lobster. "Words are inadequate," Almond writes, but the reader will be salivating. (Oct.)