Back in April of this year, I think it was, I read a review of a book in the New York Times that made me put it on my list of books to buy when I visit Portland; Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day: The Delightful History of Food Language, by Judith Tschann. I finally got around to reading it the other day, and it was just as good as the review claimed.

The book is fun and lively work that is full of food related trivia and history using the etymology of words and phrases related to a day of dining, starting with breakfast and concluding with a night cap, the perfect book for a word-nerd foodie. One thing I learned that I had not been aware of is that I start most days eating “Welsh rarebit” (also called Welsh rabbit), something I had always referred to as “cheese toast.” I also learned that the original meaning of “gourmet” was a “wine taster.”

I could go on and on. Despite its 225 pages, it only took me half a day or so to read the entire book, even while taking time to jot down a few notes.

Judith Tschann. Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day: The Delightful History of Food Language. New York: Voracious (Little Brown & Co.), 2023.