"Before the Internet made chowhound.com possible, I’d begun to follow the travels of Robert Sietsema, whose dispatches I first read in an occasional newsletter he puts out call Down the Hatch and then in
The Village Voice. I followed Sietsema’s adventures to the outer boroughs and beyond the way a sedentary Victorian burgher in Manchester or Leeds must have followed the travels of Henry Stanley in Africa." --Calvin Trillin,
The New Yorker "He probably spends as much time eating Senegalese lamb dishes in Harlem as the
New York Times critic does eating French food in Midtown." --Jonathan Gold,
The LA Times "Robert Sietsema inspired a generation of food writers to explore New York City's outer boroughs for undiscovered, authentic restaurants serving a wide array of ethnic foods." --Cathy Erway,
The Huffington Post
“A big, fat, juicy slice of what makes New York City the greatest city in the world—by the dean of food critics, the ONE guy who’s bothered to hunt down the very best wherever it might be. Sietsema KNOWS what’s good. When you visit a city, you should always ask yourself, ‘What do they do that’s better than everywhere else? What’s special? Iconic? Unmissable?’ If you’re talking New York, the answers are here.”
—Anthony Bourdain “Nobody knows—or appreciates—New York restaurants better than Robert Sietsema. But this wonderful book is not really about food; it’s an entirely new way to see this city. If you live in New York, or ever plan to visit, you need this book.”
—Ruth Reichl “Robert Sietsema knows New York restaurants on an almost molecular level. In
New York in a Dozen Dishes, we get to see him sequence the DNA.”
—Jonathan Gold “
New York in a Dozen Dishes is the culmination of a lifetime of culinary discovery. There’s a valuable history represented in every stand-alone chapter, each one worth the cover price. If you don’t live in New York, you’ll be planning a trip to discover the city’s food through Sietsema’s eyes. You’ll get hooked by the pastrami chapter, but stick around f or the barbecue brisket.”
—Daniel Vaughn, author of
The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue and Barbecue Editor of
Texas Monthly “Sure,
New York in a Dozen Dishes is a tour de force that shows Sietsema’s unrivaled knowledge of the city from tip to tail and back and forth through time. But that’s not the reason to buy it. You’ll do that because Robert has written the book in a style that puts you in a seat across the table from him in some out-of-the way restaurant while he holds court. The rhythm of his writing is hypnotic; he makes Senegalese geography seem approachable and he blazes through Chinese-American history as breezily as most guys talk about last night’s game. There’s an intimacy, an honest humor, and—what I feel is Robert’s true superpower—a contagious enthusiasm that makes this book a pleasure craft ripping a wide wake through a turgid sea of food history books.”
—Peter Meehan, editor of
Lucky Peach