I read this book in 2014, and loveloveloved it. I recommended it to loads of people, until finally I thought, maybe I should reread this and see if it’s actually as good as I remembered before I continue spreading it.<\/p>\n
So I did.<\/p>\n
And it was.<\/p>\n
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl’s story of being the restaurant critic for the New York Times. As a reluctant foodie and an enthusiastic NYC lover myself, that in itself is enough to make it interesting for me, but there’s more.<\/p>\n
When Ruth moved to New York City to be the critic, she discovered that restaurant owners were posting her picture, and offering rewards to the employees who spotted her, so they could give her excellent service and get good reviews. Since she didn’t want to give unfair reviews, there was only one thing left to do. Go undercover!<\/p>\n
The book is full of stories of her disguises, and the characters she invented to go along with them. It’s naturally also filled with fantastic food descriptions and reviews, and recipes are sprinkled throughout. Ruth\u00a0can make liver and squid ink sound delicious, which I have to say\u00a0speaks pretty highly for her writing skills.<\/p>\n
If you’re looking for a fun vacation read, or for food inspiration, or for stories of how to go about life in disguise (you know, for all the celebrities reading my blog \ud83d\ude00 ), then this is the book for you. You can buy it here<\/a>\u00a0as a hard copy, or\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0in Kindle format. But let me warn you:<\/p>\n Do not read it hungry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I read this book in 2014, and loveloveloved it. I recommended it to loads of people, until finally I thought, maybe I should reread this and see if it’s actually as good as I remembered before I continue spreading it. So I did. And it was. Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl’s story of being the restaurant critic for the New York Times. As a reluctant foodie and an enthusiastic NYC lover myself, that in itself is enough to make…<\/p>\n Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83],"tags":[211,209,210],"class_list":["post-3628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-book-review","tag-garlic-and-sapphires","tag-ruth-reichl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0780.jpg?fit=4032%2C3024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8A8kG-Ww","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6998,"url":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=6998","url_meta":{"origin":3628,"position":0},"title":"Giveaway for Book Lovers","author":"Rachel","date":"January 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: We have winners! Congrats to Alyssa R for winning Mansfield Park, Vanya for winning Garlic and Sapphires, and Shianne Kropf for winning Canterbury Tales. The only thing more fun than finding a perfectly delicious book is forcing all your friends to read it as well. (Don't ask my friends\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_6964.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5805,"url":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=5805","url_meta":{"origin":3628,"position":1},"title":"Day 2: Food Memoirs","author":"Rachel","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When we lived in Honduras, Melissa and I would spend hours perusing cookbooks and drooling over all the recipes we didn\u2019t have the ingredients to make. And with the passing of years, my cookbook addiction turned to something even more interesting, a food memoir addiction. To the best of my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=308","url_meta":{"origin":3628,"position":2},"title":"The Best (and Worst) of 2015 Books","author":"Rachel","date":"January 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Most maddening book: \"Giant\", by Edna Ferber. If you like being left hanging in suspense at the end of a book, with no idea of what could properly finish the story, then this is just the book for you. After finishing it I had to storm into the hallway and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=258","url_meta":{"origin":3628,"position":3},"title":"Book List 2015","author":"Rachel","date":"January 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Follow my blog with Bloglovin<\/a> \u00a0 In 2014 I purposed to read a book a week, and approximately did so, by the skin of my teeth. In 2015 I didn't set any specific goals, but largely because I read aloud so much to my school kids, \u00a0I managed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6414,"url":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=6414","url_meta":{"origin":3628,"position":4},"title":"Currently Listening To…","author":"Rachel","date":"May 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're anything like me, sometimes you realize you are thoroughly tired of all your music. It all begins to sound the same, and you just need something new to get you out of your ten-favorite-songs rut. If this describes you, let me show you what I've been listening to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=244"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dscf8272.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dscf8272.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dscf8272.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dscf8272.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dscf8272.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7335,"url":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=7335","url_meta":{"origin":3628,"position":5},"title":"Catching Up","author":"Rachel","date":"June 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Contrary to appearances, I am alive and not dead. When I planned to move here, I thought, I'll have so many adventures and stories to tell, and since I won't have any friends, I'll have all the time in the world to write them! I planned to write voraciously, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life in NYC"","block_context":{"text":"Life in NYC","link":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=462"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_8743.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_8743.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_8743.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_8743.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3628"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3663,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions\/3663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}