Cookbook Survivor: Adele Yellin and Kevin West, The Grand Central Market Cookbook: Cuisine and Culture From Downtown Los Angeles
Sunday's Child Is Bonny and Blithe
I have a number of cookbooks that are connected to famous urban markets, and honestly most of them aren’t great. At least two of them follow my least favorite format for a cookbook, which is separate sections for different items of produce that indiscriminately mix salads, small dishes, desserts and main dishes under each of those headings. There are not that many vegetables and fruits that are headliners of that kind. I do buy some produce seasonally and I do buy some when I see a particularly good or fresh or ripe selection, but the only time I go off and see what’s good and interesting in that way is when I go to a major farmer’s market in the height of the season for that, and I don’t do that weekly for the most part out here in suburbia. (Swarthmore does have a nice farmer’s market for about six months of the year but I generally know in advance what’s there—it’s small.)
I also was struck on a recent visit to Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia that it feels like the pandemic has taken a toll. The prepared food stalls didn’t seem as good, the so-so fish mongers were more so-so than ever, the butchers had a slightly more restricted range of product. The Metropolitan Bakery stall has been folded into some other business. There is, as there has been for quite a while, only one produce stand. I wonder a bit at what’s happened at other markets like it. I know there are some that are doing just as well as ever. I had a chance to visit Borough Market in London this summer and it was great. What I really hope is that the Grand Central Market in LA is doing well, because it was the first of these kinds of places I ever went to and I think has long been one of the best.
Because of that, I’m relieved to say that this cookbook is great—it’s built around distinctive food stalls and their best dishes. There’s a ton of stuff in it that I want to cook right away—and it’s also a beautifully designed cookbook that is fun to look at and read.
Tonight, I’m going to try making some spinach and cheese pupusas and a lamb banh mi. The lamb has already run into a slight problem which was that I could not find lamb of any kind at several area markets yesterday—an oddity for late February and early March—but there isn’t any shortage as far as I know. So it’s going to be ground venison instead, which I did find in one of the markets that had no lamb. And I might go ahead after that and make a caramel bread pudding that looks good.
Sad news about Reading. I had similar experience. But it should recover, given the overall continued enthusiasm for good food in Philly
I think it'll come back, yes.