Everything But the Kitchen Sink: Weird Stuff You Didn't Know About Food

This is just the type of read I find irresistible. By combining two great subjects: food and off-beat facts, the author gives us "bites" of tantalizing tales. For example, here you can find out what the deadliest food in the world is (it happens to be a fish that contains a paralyzing poison--and people really do prepare and eat it!) Also, there's a French cheese that is so stinky that you can't take it on France's public transportation system.

Do you like rare coffee? Well, how about drinking the Indonesian coffee called Kopi Luwak? Sure, it's $500/pound, but that might not stop you as much as the way it's prepared: wild cats eat the coffee berries. The cats' digestive systems break down the outer fruit, but the beans pass through whole. Yep, people pick the beans out of the cats' waste, clean it, roast it, and sell it for big bucks. Suddenly, I'm not in the mood for that latte.

You can also find out who started drinking tea, and why; how chocolate chip cookies were invented; the eating do's and don'ts of other countries . . .and so much more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of lively food stories, odd facts, and recipes, which will give me topics for conversation far into the New Year.