Toast

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater, 238 pages

British food writer Nigel Slater offers up a memoir of growing up, framed by the touchstone foods of his youth. Everything from the trifle his dad used to make at Christmas to the spaghetti he had for the first time as a kid (that story's fantastic) to the steak Diane he always wanted but never got to try to the titular toast, which his mother burned EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. she made it. It's an interesting way to present a memoir, and one that's quite appropriate given the role food has played, and continues to play, in Slater's life. It's also an interesting book, full of great stories (I'm completely OK with never eating seafood cocktail, at least as prepared at the hotel Slater once worked at), though at times it got a bit disjointed. Overall, I enjoyed it. And now I must eat some toast.