500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late: And the Very Best Places to Eat Them by Jane Stern, Michael Stern

From the Publisher

What are the all-time best dishes America has to offer, the ones you must taste before they vanish, so delicious they deserve to be a Holy Grail for travelers? Where’s the most vibrant Key lime pie in Florida? The most sensational chiles rellenos in New Mexico? The most succulent fried clams on the Eastern Seaboard? The most memorable whoopie pies, gumbos, tacos, cheese steaks, crab feasts? In 500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late, "America’s leading authorities on the culinary delights to be found while driving" (Newsweek) return to their favorite subject with a colorful, bursting-at-the-seams life list of America’s must-eats.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

Veteran road dogs and James Beard Award-winning food journalists Jane and Michael Stern (Roadfood, Two for the Road) have what may be their best offering yet in this easy to use, consolidated guide to America's best off-the-beaten-path eateries. Along the way, the Sterns identify the best of everything crave-worthy: regional specialties like cheese steaks in Philly, southern sweets like banana pudding and key lime pie, as well as (admittedly subjective) national rankings for classics like ribs, burgers and French fries. They even scour elusive vendors like Connecticut hot dog wagons and San Francisco taco trucks. Other notable suggestions: a cool glass of the Latino rice milk beverage Horchata at Guelaguetza in L.A., the Northwest's best cup of coffee at Ristretto Roasters in Portland; and the best cherry pie in Michigan at Beulah's Cherry Hut. Homebodies can make do with a handful of recipes (including Cincinnati five way chili, and Massachusetts's Dirt Bomb, a cinnamon and sugar-rolled muffin), but the Sterns' lyrical and enthusiastic field reports, topped off with suggestions for after-meal exploring (Philadelphia's medical anomalies museum, New Orleans's Audobon Insectarium), should be enough to get any reader with a taste for mom-and-pop Americana hungry for the road.
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Christine Bulson - Library Journal

Since the 1970s, the Sterns have been writing about American regional food in books (e.g., Roadfood), a James Beard Award-winning column in Gourmet magazine, and their web sites, roadfood.comand roadfooddigest.com. Their new book is arranged by region and then alphabetically by the food, with each description listing "the very best place" to eat it. The variety of food is as large as the country, ranging from the usual pizza, hot dogs, and French fries to the unusual-smoked eel, perloo (a Carolina low-country cousin of jambalaya), and hoppel poppel (a Midwestern scramble of eggs, meat, and vegetables). The descriptions are entertaining and enlightening, with the Sterns calling the cooks, bakers, and sandwich makers they encounter "American culinary folk artists." Descriptions include the addresses, phone numbers, and web sites, if available, of the restaurants visited, and sidebars offer information on museums, stores, etc., nearby. Recipes include one for Whoopie Pie Cake, which is easier to make than the famous whoopie pies. This should be popular with foodies and travelers alike.

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