Eat MeEat Me

""Pancakes are a luxury, like smoking marijuana or having sex." Thus speaks Kenny Shopsin, legendary cook and owner of the New York City restaurant Shopsin's. Since it opened nearly forty years ago, Shopsin's has been a downtown institution. A meal there is more than just a meal. Yes, it's a way to eat the most satisfying comfort food possible, from White Trash Chicken Hash to Bread Pudding French Toast. But it's also a way to enter a world that barely exists anymore -- an old-fashioned salon, where customers interact and the ringmaster, Kenny himself, leads conversations (and arguments) on everything from the best way to raise children to the right way to run a business, from the benefits of Freudian analysis to the nature of friendship. Shopsin's, the restaurant, is all about what Shopsin, the man, considers the two most important things in life : food and people. Now, in the most profound and profane cookbook you'll ever read, Kenny Shopsin takes us through his nine-hundred-plus-item menu as well as his unique philosophical views of the world. His rant about why the customer isn't always right may make your jaw drop, and his explanation of how he deconstructed the entire soupmaking process may leave you shaking your head in wonderment, but his recipes will have you racing to the stove to try them out. Most of all, Kenny's musing on such topics as the art of grilling hamburgers and preparing eggs will forever change how you feel about cooking everyday, common dishes."--