Saw Michael Stern, of the tireless non-fiction team Jane & Michael Stern, Saturday afternoon at the Yale Barnes & Noble Book Store. Didn’t hear a presentation by him or anything—the event was poorly attended, so the few of us there just chatted with the guy until an old friend of his showed up. It was like being at a cocktail party or food-tasting, where you know a few people, then your attention wanders, and… well, Mr. Road Food must live in that world a whole lot of the time.
Might have gotten a scoop (in the non-food sense) there though. I was unable to find much in common with Stern foodwise—he professed not to know much about soda pop, and when I asked about the latest food trends, he kind of changed the subject—but one of the B&N staffers had better luck, talking with him about barbeque recipes.
When the bookwoman mentioned that she’d had a barbeque treatment in which crumbled-up Captain Crunch cereal was a crucial ingredient, Stern was amused: “I’ve never even had Captain Crunch!”
What”?! The author of Real American Food, not to mention The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste, has never tried one of the great processed corn/oat taste sensations of modern history? Never had it atop frozen yogurt? Never been tempted by a Jay Ward-wrought TV ad?
This man Michael is made of Stern stuff indeed.