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An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies Hardcover – April 12, 2012
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Food snobbery is killing entrepreneurship and innovation, says economist, preeminent social commentator, and maverick dining guide blogger Tyler Cowen. Americans are becoming angry that our agricultural practices have led to global warming-but while food snobs are right that local food tastes better, they're wrong that it is better for the environment, and they are wrong that cheap food is bad food. The food world needs to know that you don't have to spend more to eat healthy, green, exciting meals. At last, some good news from an economist!
Tyler Cowen discusses everything from slow food to fast food, from agriculture to gourmet culture, from modernist cuisine to how to pick the best street vendor. He shows why airplane food is bad but airport food is good; why restaurants full of happy, attractive people serve mediocre meals; and why American food has improved as Americans drink more wine. And most important of all, he shows how to get good, cheap eats just about anywhere.
Just as The Great Stagnation was Cowen's response to all the fashionable thinking about the economic crisis, An Economist Gets Lunch is his response to all the fashionable thinking about food. Provocative, incisive, and as enjoyable as a juicy, grass-fed burger, it will influence what you'll choose to eat today and how we're going to feed the world tomorrow.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDutton
- Publication dateApril 12, 2012
- Dimensions6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-109780525952664
- ISBN-13978-0525952664
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Editorial Reviews
From Bookforum
Review
-Rocco DiSpirito, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Now Eat This!
"Tyler Cowen's latest book is a real treat, probably my favorite thing he's ever written. It does a fantastic job exploring the economics, culture, esthetics, and realities of food, and delivers a mountain of compelling facts. Most of all it's encouraging--not a screed, despite its occasionally serious arguments--and brings the fun back to eating. Delicious!"
-Stephen J. Dubner, author of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics
"A gastronomic , economic and philosophical feast from one of the world's most creative economists. Tyler Cowen offers the thinking person's guide to American food culture, and your relationship with food will be hugely enriched by the result."
-Tim Hartford, author of The Undercover Economist and Adapt.
“A fun and informative book that environmentalists, economists, and (most of all) foodies will enjoy."
-Library Journal
"Cowen writes like your favorite wised-up food maven...a breezy, conversational style; the result is mouth-watering food for thought."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Economist reveals how to find great food."
-Seattle Weekly
"Tips on eating food that's better for you, your wallet, and the environment."
-Fast Company
“Tyler Cowen explains with great authority why good food doesn't have to be expensive and why expensive food isn't inevitably good. Cowen makes an argument for affordable food that results in both economic and sensory benefits. He espouses a fascinating new discipline I couldn’t help but think of as ‘Foodienomics.’”
—Barb Stuckey, author of Taste What You’re Missing
"An Economist Gets Lunch is a mind-bending book for non-economists."
-USA Today
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 0525952667
- Publisher : Dutton (April 12, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780525952664
- ISBN-13 : 978-0525952664
- Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #431,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #133 in Agriculture Industry (Books)
- #137 in Restaurant & Food Industry (Books)
- #411 in Hospitality, Travel & Tourism (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Tyler Cowen (/ˈkaʊ.ən/; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert L. Harris Chair of economics, as a professor at George Mason University, and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. Cowen and Tabarrok have also ventured into online education by starting Marginal Revolution University. He currently writes a regular column for Bloomberg View. He also has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time, Wired, Newsweek, and the Wilson Quarterly. Cowen also serves as faculty director of George Mason's Mercatus Center, a university research center that focuses on the market economy. In February 2011, Cowen received a nomination as one of the most influential economists in the last decade in a survey by The Economist. He was ranked #72 among the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" in 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine "for finding markets in everything."
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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One reason you can quickly tell it is good: just by googling it, you can find intelligent discussions both pro and con Tyler Cowen's conclusions. But, as stated by the author himself, the goal is to inculcate a lens of viewing things which allows the reader to observe and draw their own conclusions about how the world of food works. This is a nuanced view of economics, which blends conventional price theory with other items such as behavioral economics, substitutes and complements, network effects, and the evolutionarily stable strategies of game theory.
Tyler deftly applies insights from the dry topics above to something universally accessible and fun: food. The pages crackle with Tyler's humane, deep appreciation of food and food culture, and how it is no mere commodity, but an essential part of what makes us human. Don't be fooled by the title: this is a book rich in culture and insight into the human condition. Recommended for foodies and humanists alike.
For the U.S., he gives a lot of attention to the creative possibilities of BBQ, one food that may be less available in authentic form in some parts of the country, but in wide-ranging profusion across a wide belt.
This book has less to offer for vegetarians, never mind vegans, than it does for people willing -- as is the author -- to eat the weird bits of meat and seafood, though he has great things to say about the greens, and the prices, at Chinese groceries. Cowen lives in Northern Virginia, and a lot of his examples reflect that. He does travel world-wide, and some of the most inspiring stories are from his low-budget eating adventures in Asia and South America, but readers in the Maryland / NoVa / D.C. area get some extra luck here.
Not everyone will like all of Cowen's rules of thumb (I think happy diners *can* be just as good a guide as angry-looking, family-fighting ones, as long as it's the food they're happy about), but they make a good starting point.
Bonus, for some people, and the main attraction for others: this is a book about food by an unconventional economist, and a book about economics by a broad-thinking foodie. Not many books about food make economic history a central component; with Cowen, you're going to learn some thought-provoking bits about incentives and supply chains. Why is America good at sauces, but bad at Cantonese food? He's got stories.
My 4-star rating loses the 5th only to account for some repetition and phrasing that I just found off; also (totally unfair) because I wish this book was a bit longer. Would like to hear more about coffee (he's got an upbeat assessment of Starbucks, which I share but for different reasons), about foods of the midwest and northwest, about central and eastern Europe ...
Highly recommended. It's already inspired me to get some local Texas barbecue, which turned out to include one of the greasiest and tastiest sausages I've ever had ;)
His methods of finding good food in various places seems to be very sound. We have found that the local working people can tell you where the honestly good local cuisine is available at a reasonable price.
Outlying restaurants in strip malls are one of the many surprises that do seem to follow his general rule.
His fixating on a particular Asian market in DC seemed a little tiresome, and his insistence that good barbeque is unavailable anywhere except a major wood pit seemed a little over done.
Overall I enjoyed the book and have recommended it to people, especially those who hate all agribusiness. I think he strikes a reasonable balance of the need for seeking good food and recognizing that with out big agriculture, the world would go hungry.
But thinking and writing about food and economics he is specially insightful and brilliant.
I strongly recommend the book.
Top reviews from other countries
But the copy I got seems like a pirated version – the page and print quality are subpar—1 star for that.
und warum kann ich hier nichts schreiben mit wenig Worten ? Merkwuerdiges System abc abc abc abc abc abc abc
El libro tardó casi un mes en ser entregado, recomiendo buscar otra librería!