An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies

by Tyler Cowen

A leading economist, "who may very well turn out to be this decade's Thomas Friedman" (Wall Street Journal), illuminates the state of American food today.

Tyler Cowen, one of the most influential economists of the last decade, wants you to know that just about everything you've heard about how to get good food is wrong. Drawing on a provocative range of examples from around the globe, Cowen reveals why airplane food is bad, but airport food is improving, why restaurants full of happy, attractive people usually serve mediocre meals, and why American food has improved as Americans drink more wine. At a time when obesity is on the rise and forty-four million Americans receive food stamps, An Economist Gets Lunch will revolutionize the way we eat today--and show us how we're going to feed the world tomorrow.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Economics, Audiobook, Travel, Business, Cooking

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Tyler Cowen (born January 21, 1962) occupies the Holbert C. 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. He currently writes the "Economic Scene" column for the New York Times and writes for such magazines as The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly.

Cowen's primary research interest is the economics of culture. He has written books on fame (What Price Fame?), art (In Praise of Commercial Culture), and cultural trade (Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures). In Markets and Cultural Voices, he relays how globalization is changing the world of three Mexican amate painters. Cowen argues that free markets change culture for the better, allowing them to evolve into something more people want. Other books include Public Goods and Market Failures, The Theory of Market Failure, Explorations in the New Monetary Economics, Risk and Business Cycles, Economic Welfare, and New Theories of Market Failure.

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scattershot observations about food, contemporary culture, politics, and price vaguely yoked together by the author's training in economics. Economics speak does not make the banal insights that hole-in-the-wall restaurants in strip malls can be amazing or that milky sugary drinks in Starbucks are overpriced more exciting, and Cox's conviction that lax consumers are to blame for the broken U.S. food system and for the obesity epidemic is simplistic at best, pernicious at worst (as in the aside where he explains to his readers that many are choosing to be obese -- never mind all the processed sugars and fats that he acknowledges elsewhere have become omnipresent elements of cheap convenience food and some speculate are physiologically addictive, an idea that never comes up in his work, which wants to prize the perfect autonomy of the consumer in the free market). While the annoyance he articulates with locavores could be justifiable (Barbara Kingsolver's self-righteousness in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle grated for this reader, for example), his quibbles seem minor, as do his proposed "solutions" to problems with our food system. Indeed, most of the book is not really about this bigger scope suggested in the title's promise of "new rules," riffing on Michael Pollan's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, which he's of course rejecting, or in the introduction's allusions to larger debates about how we should eat well (in all senses of the word) in the twenty-first century. No, the book is mostly about how he finds good cheap restaurants at home and abroad and describing the distinguishing characteristics of particular cuisines he prizes. This restaurant focus would have been a perfectly good subject for a book, but then of course he could not have claimed the timeliness or political relevance he wants to attribute to his own work. Plus, to be honest, this white dude's confidence about his access to authentic ethnic cuisines, married to his pride about being a bargain hunter and befriending (and bribing) taxi drivers in new international locations ends up sounding disturbingly prideful about being a global consumer and discerning tourist--often orientalist and inevitably arrogant, tone-deaf to the racial and economic implications of his relationship to this food and its creators.

[David Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun book that is everything about food and its enjoyment. It covers agriculture, restaurants, gourmet culture, food vendors, airplane food, airport food, ethnic food, and finding good food in other countries. Much of what Tyler Cowen writes is different from commonly held ideas. For example, locally-grown food can be better quality, because it can get from the farm to your kitchen faster than non-local food. But local food is not necessarily better for the environment. Cowen describes the reasons for this, and they are quite believable.

Cowen describes how and why dining in restaurants in the United States is different from other countries. Generally, in the United States, American restaurants are lower in quality because (a) the Prohibition caused many of the best restaurants to go out of business (but hasn't the effect of the Prohibition declined with time?) and (b) the catering of Americans to kids and their tastes has allowed restaurants to cater to more juvenile tastes. Hmmm... I'm not so sure about this.

But the United States has an incredible array of ethnic restaurants, and if you know where they are, you can eat very well. Cowen gives a lot of guidance as to how to choose good ethnic restaurants. And Cowen does not simply discuss high-end, expensive restaurants. He goes into great detail about finding good barbecues in Mexico, Texas, and other locations.

Cowen also describes the experience of shopping at international-food supermarkets. The smell of fish can be off-putting to some American customers, but such supermarkets can be a wonderful source of authentic food products from other countries. And, when finding good food in other countries, cheap food can actually be the best food.

I greatly enjoyed this book. It is provocative, and just when you think that the author is starting to sound elitist, he starts describing how to find good, cheap food. As he says, some of his best meals have cost less than five dollars, and sometimes even much less.

I didn't read this book--I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Stephen Hoye. I enjoyed listening to his narration, and recommend it to everyone.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bleah.

I had such high hopes for this. Food! and Economics! Yay!

But it was illogical, poorly edited, and a general waste of time. The book splits into two general areas: tips on how to deal with food from a personal basis (like - if you want good Chinese food, go to the kind of place where large tables of Chinese people are arguing, which indicates that people who know the food are truly regulars and feel at home there), and why those damned liberal foodies are stupid.

There's a chapter on how Monsato is saving the world from starvation, and foodies with their small-producers ways will damn people to starvation...and then a chapter complaining why it's impossible to get decent Mexican food in the U.S., partly because nobody in the U.S. is willing to be a small producer.

And the editing.

One example - at one point, he talks about how genetically modified food will save the planet - for example, how Monsato is developing anti-fart grass. Then later he states that the whole reason that cow farts are bad is because the cows are overfed the relatively indigestable soybeans (not grass).

Another - "Most Americans prefer blander flavors, in part an outcome of being less willing to consume fatty cheese products in large quantities."

Um, WHAT?!? Did anyone actually look at this book with a critical eye? Or was it just copyedited for grammar and shipped?

So, so disappointed. How are we supposed to balance feeding a huge world population and still get tasty food? Um, sit down, shut up, and eat at the right restaurants and grocery stores, and evertying will be okay. Gah.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is breezy, informative, and occasionally provocative. Roughly 70% of the book is devoted to stories about his food travels, discussion of different cuisines, and advice to the reader. Everyone should enjoy this material.

More controversial will be the handful of chapters dedicated to (partially) defending modern agribusiness and debunking some of the conventional wisdom that self-described foodies have collectively internalized about the virtues of locally-grown food. I suspect many people who buy into this and who are not used to reading economists will be offended and not entirely convinced by some of his arguments. In classic Cowen style he states his case succinctly and assumes that the economically-literate reader will fill in the gaps. As someone who reads his blog every day (and has had him as a professor, twice), this works for me. I was also already suspicious of the localism stuff, so I didn't need much convincing (why, exactly, is it environmentally friendly for a farmer to grow produce 100 miles outside a city center and then drive it in on decrepit fuel-guzzling trucks so yuppies can feel good about themselves at the farmer's market?). Still, it's an argument that needs to be made and Cowen, as cosmopolitan of a public intellectual as currently exists, is a much more credible messenger than idiot right-wing pundits who are primarily interested in making fun of hippies and waging the culture wars.

Highly recommended if you like food, usually don't like books about food, or are a Cowen acolyte.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Consider this book the highlights of a unique food blog, where an economist living in the suburb puts a great deal of thought into what he eats, where he eats it, and why. The best parts of this book read like smart New York Magazine pieces. For instance, Cowen only shops at an Asian grocery store for an entire month in one fascinating chapter; in another, he expertly runs through the various regions of the world with quick-fire eating advice that both informs and entices. For instance, he explains why Sicily has the best restaurants in Italy: less tourism, higher standards, lower pretension. Think of him as a very amateur Anthony Bourdain, ready and willing for any adventure his stomach can handle.

The middling parts of the book read as half Yelp review, half Wikipedia article. Unless you are desperately interested in the various Thai restaurants of northern Virginia, or the most basic history of barbecue imaginable, you will find yourself a bit bored. And the worst section of the book, about GMO's and their supposedly unearned bad reputation, sounds like a position paper written for a lobbyist. Cowen fails to adequately to argue either side of the case, instead building up sad straw men, like one blogger who boycotted Monsanto for a month and then reverted, as proof that the companies are mostly doing good. He wants to make the argument that GMO's are ultimately a huge plus for society because they keep so many more people fed, but he fails to discuss both the crushing practices of their producers nor the possible technological alternatives. If you're reading this book, skip that chapter and instead find a book that focuses on those issues. You won't learn anything here.

Overall, the book is sprinkled with enough good advice and fascinating tidbits to make it a worthwhile read for an American foodie. There are things we're doing right and things you're doing wrong, and Cowen should be congratulated for playing devil's advocate on so many issues that we take for granted. Ultimately, you will come away with a more nuanced understanding of local food. There are many communities where you should cook something grown locally, but most likely, as a suburban or urban America, you don't live in one. Instead, think about how you can better use the best food resources you do have, and consider stepping way outside the box to find the best food your area has to offer. You never know - it could be the guy cooking tamales in the back of a gas station!

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I like about pop-culture economics books is how they look between the lines at trends, studies, statistics, etc, and unpack them in an interesting and accessible way. This book struck me as more anecdotal without any real evidence to back up its claims. For example, going to one ethnic grocery store for a month is drawn into an entire painful chapter of conclusions and commentary. Without a doubt, the author loves food and getting off the beaten path to find quality eats that may not always come from the most obvious places. But for whatever reason, he comes across as an awkward balance between Anthony Bourdain and Michael Pollan, and Mark Bittman, all of whom are better writers.

The most interesting part of the book was the brief exploration of the development of food culture in the United States going back to prohibition and WWII. But it's a bit contradictory when the author claims that the best food can be found at low-scale spots around the country but at the same time the inability of fancy high-end restaurants to serve alcohol in the 1920s curbed the development of American cuisine.

Skip it.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, a professor of economics, writes about everything food-related, from “how American food got bad” (answer: Prohibition, watered-down immigrant food, the modern mania for catering to kids’ tastes) to eating great barbecue, from the delusion of the locavore movement to how to shop astutely at small groceries, from tips on finding a great restaurant (answer: find a hole in the wall with low overhead and loyal customers) to why Mexican food tastes better in Mexico (answer: America’s ingredients are fresher and safer but perforce blander due to transport, regulations and freezing; Mexico’s cheeses are richer and unpasteurized so banned in the USA).

I enjoyed this book, some sections more than others. His long chapter on barbecue covered some very old ground gone over years ago by Calvin Trillin; his “finding great food anywhere” section is disappointingly vague (London is expensive if you’re not eating fish and chips; you can get good ingredients in Germany thanks to the EU). The chapter on Mexican food, with its discussion of Mexican traditions of dry aging (again, largely considered unsafe in the USA) and fresh though limited ingredients, was highly informative. And although I’m not sure his claim that Prohibition hit American dining so hard is still valid today, he makes a thought-provoking case about American blandness. Despite the title, much of this book might have been written by anyone who enjoys food and travels a lot. That’s too bad, because Cowen is most interesting when he uses economic arguments. For example, he makes a case for GMOs (which lower overall food prices); attacks the locavore movement by noting that food transport costs are very low and what would really help the planet would be eating less meat, not fewer French cheeses; suggests that eating sardines has ecological value because they are at the bottom of the food chain; and advocates the spread of modern agribusiness giants to combat starvation. I don’t agree with it all, but it’s always interesting to see things from a new angle. I would have liked to have read less of Cowen’s salivating over barbecue and more economic analysis of the politics of food.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want advice on how to find a good meal while globetrotting, this would be the book to read- for example, if you are in India, your best shot at getting a good meal is at a hotel. Go to Sicily for great food. Swiss food is good and expensive, except for the bland cream sauces. He also has advice for finding a good meal while you are in the States: "eat at a Thai restaurant attached to a motel". A Thai family probably owns the motel, and someone in the family is a good cook. They're not paying extra rent for the space attached to the motel, so the meal will be reasonably priced. He dedicates a whole chapter to good BBQ and where to find it (Lockhart, Texas). It seems there are really two books here- a book of culinary travel advice, and commentary on the American agricultural and food transportation system, with some advice on how to address the growing obesity problem in the United States- the obesity problem, according to him, "has come about because imperfect self-control has met up with the modern food world, and some marketing and taste improvements get a lot of us to eat more than we ought to and to eat the wrong things". No mention of the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup in food items like yogurt and bread. He wonders "if a lot of American weight gain stem from people simply deciding that they are willing to weigh more, if they get to eat more of certain foods". I do think there is some truth to that statement for some people, but I think it oversimplifies a very complicated and sensitive issue.

The author is all over the political spectrum; he is supportive of American agribusiness and does not think highly of recent movies like "Super Size Me"; he endorses the use of GMO's; according to him, 94% of the soy crops and 88% of the corn crops in the United States are genetically modified, and that far from being "Frankenfoods", the "genetic engineering of corn, cotton, and soybeans has increased yields, removed pressure on the land, and reduced the necessity for agricultural chemicals and pesticides". He also advocates for a carbon tax on items with "some negative consequences for the environment"; possibly offsetting this tax with a lower corporate income tax. He cites a study, the "Weber and Matthews Carnegie Mellon study", that concluded that "shifting your eating away from red meat, one day a week, does more for the environment than eating all locally sourced food for all your meals". In some cases, in a desert environment like the American Southwest, it is actually better for the environment for people to eat food grown far away because of the water requirements for agriculture.

There is a lot more interesting material in this book as well as some fascinating insights into global food systems. I gave this book 5 stars not because I agree with everything he says (I don't), but he provides a lot of material to mull over, including chapters on how American food got bad to begin with (Prohibition, World War II, the advent of television and TV dinners, the American propensity to cater to their children's taste buds when planning meals or considering restaurants (guilty on that one).

[Erin Bomboy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tyler Cowen may have gotten lunch, but what he serves us is a hot mess. At its best, An Economist Gets Lunch unspools like a blog—over-sauced with useable tips but lacking in intellectual rigor. At its worst, which is most of the time, it reads like a college freshman paper where lived experiences and anecdotes stand in for facts, studies, and coherence. Often, the strongest taste is of bullshit, which wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but it's called An Economist Gets Lunch, not Random Middle-aged Dude Bends Your Ear About Contemporary Food Culture. And, because this is America where men of a certain age believe everyone is raptly interested in their opinions, weird, out-of-place rants about Monsanto and the Green Revolution spurt up among chapters devoted to shopping at an Asian grocery and getting good food in a new city.

Although my main gripes have to do with how unorganized he is as a writer, I should mention that Cowen is a lackluster prose stylist: boring, redundant, and wordy. Occasionally, he cracks a dad joke to break the textual white noise.

If you're an American and never eaten anywhere but Applebee's and Taco Bell, then Cowen has some decent advice about expanding your palate while not breaking your bank account. For everyone else, just go get lunch.

[Ian Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's probably fair to state at the outset that I have an ideological grudge with a lot of economists. As a result, I have a negative emotional reaction to some of the positions Cowen takes in this book, and like every biased human, I tend to heap extra scrutiny and skepticism on ideas that challenge my worldview while giving a free pass to anything I want to believe.

This feels like two books mixed together into one. Half of it is a guidebook to the world of food informed by principles of economics. Cowen offers some frameworks to use when thinking about food and some unconventional strategies to seek out good food for less money. He also does a nice job of introducing some economics theories in a clear and relatable way, and explaining how those theories relate to the food that ends up on our plates. This part of the book is a pretty light read, decently informative and entertaining. Not every chapter is perfect—one is just an extended description of the organization of his local Asian supermarket—but overall this half is a pretty good read.

The other half is a sort of a contra-locavore manifesto that I found to be pretty half-baked. It's a defense of American agribusiness premised mostly on a lot of softballs. Cowen presents the standard rote argument about how agribusiness feeds a huge number of people very efficiently, which is a fine piece of the discussion. But agribusiness has so many buts that a defense needs to extend well beyond that basic rationale.

The fact that these high levels of production are literally unsustainable between fossil fuel consumption, soil degradation, and environmental damage? He acknowledges these problems briefly and then never returns to them except to propose a carbon tax. I happen to agree with him that a carbon tax is a nice way to align market incentives with environmental stewardship, but his opinion circa 2011 is that this is politically a long ways out from having any chance of happening. He never returns to issues like pesticide use or fertilizer runoff, so I have to guess that his solutions to those would be similarly market-oriented, which is fine but if you think a carbon tax is a long shot, how much longer will it take to get the rest of these incentives enacted? So we're supposed to support agribusiness and all the damage it does, with the vague hope that maybe someday we'll be able to slow the hemorrhaging, but probably not actually stop it, because let's be realistic after all. What kind of vision is this? Does this dude have children?

My list of grievances goes on.

He mentions briefly the argument that we already produce enough food to feed everyone but do not distribute it fairly, but does not actually engage with the idea beyond the snide economist shrug of well it's not like we can expect justice in this world, can we?

His treatment of the obesity epidemic is one of the weakest and most insulting takes I have yet read—it would have been better if he had literally just omitted this section. He spouts the usual drivel about personal responsibility, and then has the gall to suggest that people would be healthier if they followed the example he set in his month-long experiment of shopping exclusively at an Asian supermarket. For starters, he explained in that earlier chapter that he bought fewer snack foods and processed products because he simply didn't understand them, and bought more greens because they were easier to understand and experiment with. This is fine, but… not actually a sound strategy for permanent dietary change. Secondly, he admitted that his experiment resulted in a trip to the store "on a one meal - one trip basis" and that he "found the cycle of always buying 'fresh' to be a little exhausting in terms of time and trouble." So he thinks that people prone to obesity should better themselves by adopting a regimen that requires driving to the nearest Asian supermarket every day. For someone who wants us to believe that he reads academic studies, it's pretty inexcusable to display this level of ignorance to the link between poverty and obesity.

He hates opposition to GMO crops and trots out the usual golden rice example to argue for, apparently, unfettered use of GMOs and giving Monsanto free reign to do whatever they want. I'm happy to acknowledge that GMOs are a complex issue and probably do not have a black or white answer, but the presentation here is like a love letter to the industry. How about the issue that GMO crops have markedly increased pesticide use in the United States? Well, we aren't dealing with pesticides at all in this book so of course it doesn't get a mention. Patents get a brief mention but not the way that Monsanto uses patents to trap farmers in indefinite economic servitude. That is probably just the market working properly or something.

Chapter 8 argues that agribusiness should be not only maintained where it exists but aggressively expanded to other countries where it is not yet common. Chapter 9 explains at length why Mexican food never tastes as good in the United States as it does in Mexico, covering in detail how agribusiness practices ruin the quality of each of the component ingredients. There isn't even any acknowledgement that these two chapters seem at odds, as if he just… didn't notice?

He mentions several time that food waste "is a big problem in the United States, in large part because the decay of the food on compost heaps emits methane and creates environmental problems." I think he means food in landfills, where it decomposes anaerobically and produces methane. Properly composted food decomposes aerobically and produces little to no methane. It's a small thing, but why is this guy speaking with an air of authority on matters which he apparently does not understand at all?

One of the most puzzling things for me is that I can't figure out why exactly Cowen is so determined to defend agribusiness. He seems to want to disagree with Michael Pollan's school of thought but can't find very many points on which to actually disagree. Does Cowen care so much about feeding starving children in India (who merit one part of one chapter) that he's willing to sacrifice the quality of food worldwide (the subject of most of the rest of the book)? In the end, I could only come up with two hypotheses: a) agribusiness is the form of production that is most pleasingly aligned with dearly-held tenets of contemporary economics, and thus holds the most aesthetic appeal to someone like Cowen; or b) agribusiness plays a vital supporting role to Cowen's love of finding tasty cheap food and thus his sentimental attachment compels him to defend the system that produces it.

In the end, he's probably doing the same thing that all the rest of us do: starting with an emotional reaction and coming up with a bunch of higher-order rationalizations to defend it. Most of us don't turn those into books, though.

[Alvaro Berrios · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. Certainly not amazing, but interesting.

Pros:
It offers you tips on how and where to find good, authentic cuisine. Using principles of human behavior and economics (e.g. supply and demand), you'll find that lots of the best places to eat share very similar characteristics.

You learn a ton about different types of foods such as Chinese, Thai, Mexican and American BBQ. Moreover, you also learn why foods taste differently from one country to the next even when you're using the exact same ingredients.

Cowen teaches you some practical tips on how to cook at home or host a dinner party.

This book make you hungry :)

Cons:
Cowen calls himself a foodie but I find him to be more of a food snob. In his mind, if something's not authentic then it's not good. Or if something is nice, well decorated and trendy then it's not good. To say that places like are not good is a but of an exaggeration...they're just not authentic which is fine because sometimes it's fun to switch things up.

He loves GMOs and thinks they're going to save the world. He says that there's no evidence that GMOs are bad for you but, in fact, there is PLENTY to show that GMOs are indeed bad for you.

Some of the chapters really drag on for a while where he makes the same point over and over and over again.

The book feels a bit disorganized, the topics jump around too dramatically.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF ~50%

I agree with pretty much everything Cat said. The premise was interesting, but the execution and writing style were awful. This just felt like a bunch of vaguely connected intensely personal observations about how this author thinks you should be finding food, and despite his claims that "good food can be cheap" he ends up coming off just as insufferably elitist as the Michelin-star-obsessed food snobs he derides. Intense white male energy here, the requisite dash of anti-fat bias (fat people are choosing to be fat! they just need to learn moderation!), and heaps of food snobbery, even if he doesn't see it that way--heaven forbid you enjoy American-style Chinese food, like the babyish American you are...

[Stetson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lifestyle writing about cuisine by a quirky economist really works! My only gripes are that I can't entirely sympathize with Cowen's preferences, and stylistically, he's not suited for what works in this genre of writing. Regardless, this was a fun and informative read. I recommend.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book to read, where it combines economics with how to, and where to eat to get the most out of your eating and dining experience. I feel that some of the advice is steered towards the well-to-do and not a typical American, but the rules I feel are near universal, regardless of income. I am aware that this book is 12 years old and some of the places described in this book might be obsolete, but I also feel that some of the sentiments in this book remain true today, especially the environmental chapters.

I feel this was more of 11 essays put together into a book. The flow was choppy and some of the chapters were history, while others were more of an impromptu travel guide. Overall, a good book that is already starting to change the way I think about food, where to go, and how to eat it.

[JS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a bug fan of Cowen’s. I’ve been enjoying his appearances on podcasts and reading his blog for awhile. When I saw this book that mixed food and economics I had to read. It was a very 2011 book. Written before the term “foodie” was a pejorative, he leaned into the term and used it on himself many times. Overall it was quite good, but I’m a part-time farmer and cannot travel as much or or for as long as he does, so the travel-heavy nature of the book kind of fell on deaf ears a bit in places. I wish he had focused more on the economics and supply vs. demand than places where he liked to eat in different countries

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I was really excited about this book-- three hundred pages on the economics of food? I mean, come on, how much better can it get? (Well... for me anyway...) Unfortunately, this book is not a look at the food industry in the vein of Freakonomics, but is rather the scattered musings of an economist on whatever takes his fancy regarding food. Cowen jumps from the evils of junk food to the positives of GMOs to the best types of Asian cuisine to the different styles of BBQ in the South... you get the picture. Some chapters are interesting, and some do involve economic analysis, but these are far and few between, and none of these assertions are eye-opening or even terribly interesting. Some of his opinions (and they are just that, as he doesn't show much evidence to back up his claims) are interesting but not fleshed out, such as American food being terrible because American parents pander to their children, and children generally prefer blander food. Okay... I can roll with that, Tyler Cowen, but only giving me a two pages about it just isn't enough to make me totally buy it. After I realized that the book was not very cohesive, I was able to get over my initial disappointment and enjoy it more, learning quite a bit about different preparation of food (especially with barbeque and Asian food styles). Although Cowen touches on nearly every type of international cuisine, he shies away from discussing traditional American fare. As an American, it is the type of cuisine I eat the most, and I wish he could have given some suggestions on that style like he did with Mexican and Chinese food. Overall, an okay read with some nuggets of wisdom, but too scattered and, in some sections, cumbersome and repetitive to recommend highly.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the idea of this book, so I persisted with it much longer than I ought to have, but I just could not finish it.

I should admit there are interesting nuggets in here, if you're patient. For example, I loved hearing about the author's experience shopping exclusively at a Chinese-American grocery for a month: turns out supermarket design does nudge people toward certain choices (in this case, more greens).

However, so many parts of this book were so offensive and/or false that I ended up concluding that the author cannot be altogether serious. Three quick examples: 1. Part of the reason the American culinary tradition is not as strong as some other countries' is that women with children had to man the kitchens of restaurants during WWII. 2. Obesity (which the author attributes to a lack of self-control) has some health effects, but is generally a problem of "well-educated rich people criticiz[ing] the poor for not sharing their preferences or for not being aesthetic enough, by the standards of rich people of course." 3. In order to green your kitchen, you ought to use paper plates and disposable plastic cutlery.

Enough. In a world teeming with good books on food, this one should not occupy another moment of thought.

[David R. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book really only ended up reminding me why I don't prefer the company of "foodies" (at meal time at least). Cowen lives the high life and attempts to give an economic rule-based gloss to his culinary pleasures. But the consequent diatribe is off-putting. What do you think of a guy who thinks it is an environmental crime to compost food scraps but has no problem riding an ancient, polluting taxi two hours in Bolivia just to buy lunch? Or one who sneers at American produce and raves about Mexican food...largely because we have tougher food and drug safety laws -- as he himself acknowledges? And for Cowen, anyone else's food is better than ours, unless the restaurant is run by recent immigrants to the U.S. I'm sorry, I can respect the both. There are a few tidbits now and then in the book, but overall there's just too much gristle for my taste.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick read and fairly light on content (most of the good stuff was already in articles written about the book), but the author's background as an economist and conservative made his take on things different in interesting ways from most foodie books. I don't buy his arguments downplaying the importance of local foods (much less his defense of agri-business), but his approaches to different cuisines were thought-provoking, and he makes excellent points about the negative effects of Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II on the mid-twentieth century American palate. His chapter on the virtues of shopping at an Asian market was very good too.

Not the best book I've read on food culture, but a worthwhile change of pace from the usual perspectives.

[Taffnerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad but not very good either. It was surprisingly light on the economics and full of restaurant reviews for places I'll probably never eat.

[Kelly]

Cowen thinks anything American is pretty crummy. While I thought some of his insights were interesting, for the most part, I found this to be self-indulgent and snobby.

[anklecemetery · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I feel mildly complicated about this one. I think part of this stems from its age (it has not aged well, or my tolerance for this particular economist is limited to his brief appearances on a podcast I enjoy), and part of it may be that Cowen is by nature or profession… kind of pedantic. I really enjoyed his grocery store challenge, where he shopped at a large Chinese grocery story instead of an American supermarket for a month, and appreciated his insight that part of the change in his cooking had to do with his lack of cultural familiarity with the store and its contents.

But there were many chapters where there was less focus on the actual economics of food production and consumption and more focus on how fancy and smart and cool Cowen is for knowing so much about ethnic cuisine. His focus on purity or authenticity is kind of weird when placed alongside the book’s alleged scope of “eating well close to home”. I don’t know, maybe it was just 2011/12, when the book was written and released. 2012!!! What a time that was. Don’t send me back there.

Overall, not well unified and kind of random.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the appalling section Cowen devoted to obesity. It was wretched.

That being said: Cowen cares very much about eating well, and he’s also got a similar approach to cooking to me, so it wasn’t a total wash. Audiobook was nicely narrated, thankfully not by the author (like I said: I’m familiar with him as a guest on a podcast. 10 hours of that… would be too many hours). I also listened to this, so I don’t know if there are supporting notes or citations that would put some of his more abrupt statements or judgements into context.

[Jack Maguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Cowen shares a lot of sharp insights into how economics can inform food consumption decisions like picking a restaurant and purchasing the freshest groceries. He offers specific and practical advice. However, at times the book rambles on and seems to lack a coherent purpose, wandering for pages on food policy, environmental issues, and historical minutiae.

"An Economist Gets Lunch" is worth reading for Mr. Cowen's eludications on how to find incredible underpriced and delicious food. But the book lacks focus and concision.

[Jason M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed Tyler Cowen’s previous books, especially because I am a High School Economics teacher. Besides the Economic connections made in this book, I also love food…eating and cooking. A few sections lost my attention, but overall I definitely gained utility! The following quote from the book is an important theme: “Learning and absorbing makes us more culturally connected, more closely tied to other people, more structured in our daily enjoyments, and in some fundamental way more Human.”

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on the intersection between food and economics. Loved the chapter on barbecue. His opinion on how to choose the best European restaurants lined up perfectly with our own experiences dining in Paris/Nice/Geneva.

If you want to learn tips on how to find great (and inexpensive) restaurants in your neighborhood, or just anywhere, read this book!

[Alex Yauk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe my favorite Cowen book I’ve read? Fun to read 10 years after publication as a reader of his contemporary content. Cowen hops around all types of food and food adjacent topics using the lens of fundamental economics to weave all subjects together. Sage advice from a “pure” foodie who is solely interested in quality food at a low cost.

File on the list of books written specifically for me.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but it just ended up being a slog that ended with a meh. The author injected a lot of himself and his viewpoints and takeaways into the book. Which could be fine, but I realized that my viewpoints don’t align with his. There was hints of hubris and ‘my way or the highway’ to his suggestions. It’s not about you! It took about six chapters, but he finally started diving into food economics and that’s when this book got rolling and exciting. But it was fleeting and was only for a few chapters and then it went back to his opinions.

[Richelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't as practical as I thought it would be. A bit rambling, but the audiobook at x1.5 helped. Some good advice on enjoying good food abroad. Less on how to maximize your dollar but still get the best food with the least harmful effect on the environment.

[Kerith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finally had to admit I wasn't going to finish this. I was bored, and in some spots actually annoyed. I don't need that, not with all the books out there I want to read!

[Sanford Chee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun read for foodies but too superficial. Redundant in the age of Yelp & TripAdvisor.

Excepts highlights:
"Every meal really matters to me."
A bad or mediocre meal is more than just an unpleasant taste, it is an unnecessary negation of life’s pleasures. It is a wasted chance to refine our tastes, learn about the world, and share a rewarding experience.

When donkey carts are common and women carry baskets on their heads, eat your fish right by the ocean or lake. Their on-site owners and chefs are devoted to food they love to prepare.

Look for popular single dish specialty eateries that have stood the test of time - a lifetime spent honing one's culinary craft in the mastery of a single delicious dish

Rule: Try to figure out where the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative, and the demanders are informed.

On buffets, "Good & Plenty has always been more about the Plenty than the Good."

The link between good wine and good food runs deep. A lot of restaurants, especially of the fancy kind, make more than half of their profits from selling drinks.

During Prohibition, formerly legitimate restaurants that decided to serve alcohol suddenly had to operate outside the law and compete with mob-run rivals. The less reputable establishments used the law, and corrupt police, to close up their competitors. If a restaurant drew too many of your customers, you, as a competitor, could report it for breaching Prohibition. The surviving places were the best at bribery, corruption, and legal connections, not good cooking.

When it came to food, speed and convenience were at a premium. Families demanded foodstuffs that were cheap and could be eaten on the go. This gave an additional push to diners, malt shops, fast food, burger joints, and cafeterias.

These responses lowered the quality of European food, but they did not shunt Europe onto a convenience-oriented, quantity-emphasizing, low-quality food track during the postwar period. Europe did not have the factory capacity to shift into mass food production; if anything, the wartime responses to crisis solidified the European tendency to resort to local ingredients, at the same time the United States was turning to long-distance transportation. Ironically, because Europe suffered more, its food tasted better.

The United States did not really focus on wine, or wine as a complement to good food, until the 1970s or later (1976 Judgement of Paris).

American food is immigrant food. Many of our best food ideas came from immigrants or in some cases from African slaves. The New York deli blended numerous influences from Eastern Europe, the hamburger evolved from German meat cooking, American pizza is a remixed Italian idea, and barbecue probably came from the Caribbean and Mexico. The so-called “ethnic” cuisines now dominate our cities and suburbs. Fusion cuisines draw on European, Latin, Asian, and now African influences. California “Napa Valley” cooking is one of the most international styles that can be found.

Food habits start in the family. That is where we learn what to eat, how to eat, and how to value food.

Television viewing, working mothers, and spoiled children all combined to dumb down American culinary tastes.

Parents also give their kids bigger allowances in the United States than in other countries of the world. In part the United States is a relatively wealthy country and in part Americans are, for whatever reasons, more willing to cater to children. Of course children spend a lot of their allowance money on candy, fast food, and snacks. This shapes their tastes and gives them some food autonomy, relative to their peers in other countries, who are typically more dependent on the food chosen by their parents. The result is a lot of bad food and a lot of sweet, bland food.

Fast food restaurants did not prosper in Western Europe until American social trends—albeit in weaker form—reached the continent. This includes the dual-income family, suburban commuting, a workday with no lengthy lunch break at home, widespread advertising, and greater purchasing power for children. Rising divorce rate forced many women out into the workplace and further cemented these trends.

Television encouraged the purchase of food that can be eaten in one’s lap or from a big bag or bowl. In addition to pizza, this also favored prepackaged, easy-to-handle snack foods such as cookies, potato chips, French fries, and wrapped candy. It disfavored fresh foods with easily spilled sauces and broths. The problem wasn’t agribusiness per se, it’s that consumers were not innovating enough, in part because TV was distracting them.

France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Singapore etc were also at war, some of these countries were too poor to enjoy a wine culture but it didn't impede their culinary standards. A simpler explanation (Occum's Razor) is that US inherited its culinary traditions from UK, where British cuisine is regarded as an oxymoron.
Other combination of factors for why US food is so bad:
1 working mom vs cooking housewives (higher divorce rates =>women to seek economic independence
2 TV, microwave, fast foods/TV dinners
3 spoilt children (smaller families)
4 commercialization, the rise of Big Food & the industrial food complex
5 Lack of royalty?

The ultimate low-rent venue is the food truck - food trucks serve some of the tastiest food in California, LA & Philadelphia

The problem is that when you see a cluster of beautiful women, a lot of men will go to the restaurant, whether or not the place serves excellent food. And that allows them to cut back on the quality of the food (Ladies' night concept)

Quality customers are often more important for a restaurant than is a quality chef.

If you don’t use sauces, sides, and condiments, as they were intended, your Vietnamese meal is almost certainly going to be far worse than it otherwise would be. The food will be either too dry or discordant.

The two worst signs for Thai restaurants are Thai restaurants with large bars and lots of drinks and also Thai restaurants that serve sushi. Those are both signs that the restaurant isn’t that serious about food. Stay away. Eat at a Thai restaurant that is attached to a motel.

The obesity problem has come about because imperfect self-control has met up with the modern food world, and some marketing and taste improvements get a lot of us to eat more than we ought to and to eat the wrong things.

Eco-friendly eating:
It takes four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag than a plastic bag, and it takes 98 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than a pound of paper.
The environmental impact of food comes from its production, not its transportation. The real culprit here is food that is flown in, as flying is an especially environmentally unfriendly activity. But the problem is the flying, not when food travels a great distance by water.
Eating away from red meat, one day a week, does more for the environment than eating all locally sourced foods for all of your meals.
Minimize the number of car trips
Limit food waste
Give up refined sugar as much as you can
Make virtuous behavior more fun

Mexican cattle munch on grass and thus their meat develops a stronger and gamier taste. It’s also well known that grass-fed whole steaks tend to be chewy rather than tender.
Think of beef as having 2 key dimensions: tenderness & beefiness
Grass fed vs grain fed: chewy, beefier & gamier,
Pigs are not ruminants: They don’t process the fat they eat in a second stomach. For this reason, pork fat has more of the subtle flavors of the acorns, soybeans, peanuts, and corn that the animal consumes. If the fat tastes good, so will the meat.”

The largest tomatoes have the most water, which also makes them the blandest.

The cheapest meals are very often the best, especially in Asia - befriend the local street food merchants, tip the cabbies. No matter where you are, the best food recommendations come from local transport drivers and operators.

https://www.legalnomads.com

Most Japanese restaurants in Tokyo are very good, most of all because picky Japanese customers enforce high standards. Event horizon: most restaurants in the neighborhood have gotten so good that the mediocre ones can't survive
In the Japanese urban centers, economic activity—especially retail—has reached new heights in the history of humanity and that includes the food too.

There’s another reason for saving up the expensive places for Europe, and that has to do with memory and also sociality. It’s the same reason why you might go to an especially fancy place on a birthday or an anniversary. You want your trip abroad to be special, so you can remember it for your entire life.

Buy and use a Michelin guide, but use the guide for the very cheapest restaurants it recommends. Look for restaurants that are certified with one or two forks and no stars.

Tourism and high rents work together to lower the quality of food.