BBQ USA by Steven Raichlen

Another book I see on L’s bookshelf makes me smile. In 2004, BEA was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Since I was staying with her that weekend, L came to the show with me for a day.

I spent the morning explaining the careful balance between acquiring interesting books and the excruciating pain of overburdened shoulders. I urged her to use extreme prudence in choosing which review books we accepted into our totebags.

Late in the afternoon, we came upon the Workman Publishing booth. On the floor was a towering stack of Steven Raichlen’s BBQ USA. The book had to have been three inches thick, weighing in at about four pounds. We stood there paralyzed while the inner wars raged. It’s a cookbook! We love cookbooks! But it’s the size of two bricks! But I just got a new grill! But I’m not supposed to take anything I don’t really need…

L made a move. She grabbed one and shoved it in her totebag. “I just have to make it back to the car,” she said.

“I have to ship my books home!” I cried. “I can’t just put a few extra bricks in the box!” But in the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation of the cookbook, and I took one also. I even shipped it home.

It turns out that I’m a lazy griller, and the cookbook sits on my shelf completely unused. I usually just turn the gas on high and torch everything. I couldn’t care less about the finer points of barbequing, heat differentials, or even marinating. I throw meat on the grate and eat it when it’s medium rare.

And as far as I can tell, L doesn’t even own a grill.

BBQ USA by Steven Raichlen

tags: cookbooks book reviews barbeque BEA Steven Raichlen