EATS

If you love to read about food (and really, if you don't, why are you here?), there are some new books out there that are excellent reads and would also make great holiday gifts for the literate foodie.

First on the list, because I kinda promised it would be, is Best Food Writing 2007 (Marlowe & Co., $15.95). This contains 52 entertaining pieces from a lineup of the best U.S. food writers, including the DMN's very own dining critic, Bill Addison. He was actually the San Francisco Chronicle's very own Bill Addison when he published "In Search of the Transcendent Taqueria," which told of his 10-week odyssey through 85 of the Bay Area's myriad taco and burrito joints. If you are not hungry for tacos after reading Bill's opus, you should have your salivary glands checked, because there must be something seriously wrong with them. Best Food Writing 2007 includes only a baker's dozen of recipes, but then it is not a cookbook, so any recipes were an integral part of the articles they accompany.

Next up: The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman (Scribner, $24). Anthony Bourdain, in his introduction, calls the book "an opinionated food glossary from a writer and cook who knows better than most what the hell he's talking about." That pretty well sums it up. Mr. Ruhlman, who co-wrote The French Laundry Cookbook with chef Thomas Keller, subtitles this book "Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen." He starts with essentials -- stocks, sauces, salt, eggs, heat, tools -- and then proceeds to enumerate and explain, in alphabetical order from Acid to Zesting, virtually every cooking term you are likely to run across. No pictures here; no recipes. Just solid information.

Last: The Taste of Conquest, by Michael Krondl (Ballantine, $25.95). Mr. Krondl, who is also a chef, weaves a rich historical tale of "The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice," which were Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam. It's hard to imagine now, but at one time the trade in peppers, cloves, cinnamon and other spices was a major impetus for Western European nations' exploration (and colonization) of Asia, Africa and the Americas. In his epilogue, Mr. Krondl also visits the contemporary cities of Baltimore (where McCormick & Co. is headquartered) and Calicut (aka Kozhikode), the center of India's spice industry.

More new books to come soon -- and I'll talk cookbooks for those who love recipes.