3/26/22

Trillin is at it again with a third and final installment of the Tummy Trilogy; another series of essays all about his idea of good eating. Third Helpings starts with Trillin's belief that Spaghetti Carbonara should be the national dish at Thanksgiving. It's a quirky idea, but I get his point. Fourteen essays follow.
The more I read Trillin, the more I admire his wife and her ability to travel to strange lands to eat even stranger foods without complaint, but my favorite character was Mrs. Rome. The list of food she sampled between pages 97-99 is very impressive. It is no wonder she gained nine pounds on that trip! ( )

Fifteen longish essays starting with an attempt to have spaghetti carbonara on Thanksgiving, and ending with a daughter who gets dear old dad to give her a hamburger instead of all the oddities he's been tasting at a catfish festival. This is travel writing with a core of food, includes a vist to Hong Kong while thinking of NY Chinatown, and island hopping from Capri to the Caribbean thinking of Santo Prosciutto and the possiblities if there had been an Italian West Indies. Oh my.