The Best Things I've Eaten on The Food Person Book Tour

From L.A. to S.F. to Portland to Seattle.

With Mario Lopez on Access Daily… you can see the whole clip on my Instagram.

Hey everyone,

I’m writing to you from… wait, where am I right now? Oh yes, the Pike Place Market, where I just grabbed a Dungeness Crab Roll at Matt’s before I go check into my hotel and then race over to dinner with the in-laws before hosting an event at Elliott Bay Books. This was after going on a morning show in Portland this morning and then hopping on a plane while scarfing down a blueberry muffin.

So this is what it’s like to be on the road! Now I know how Cher feels.

With Celia Stack at Omnivore Books in SF, one of my favorite stops on the tour.

I’m definitely running out of socks. I may be running out of underwear. Last night I ate mediocre Mexican food in my room while watching the Tonys (so thrilled for Cole Escola! Here they are on Lunch Therapy!) and I’ve collected so many cookbooks along the way, I’ve given myself a major back injury.

The best part, though, has been talking to so many amazing people about the book. In L.A., Chelsea Peretti grilled me at Skylight Books (I felt like I was at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, the questions were so zany!) and then at Now/Serving, Ben Mims asked more food world focused questions, which was perfect — especially with luminaries like Lisa Marie Donovan was in attendance!

Chatting with Lisa, Ben, and my friend Sundafu at Now/Serving.

I also went on Access Daily and cooked with Mario Lopez which was, as Katy Perry might say, a teenage dream.

In SF, I got to hang with my pal Celia Stack, who owns Omnivore Books, and then in Corta Madera, the wonderful Kate Leahy asked me really smart questions at Book Passage.

Said goodbye to SF and then popped up to Portland where Jonathan Kaufman interviewed me at Vivienne Culinary Books (such a fun store to poke around and so great to finally meet Jonathan) and before that I made a video at Powells which should be going up soon.

Now I’m in Seattle, hiding out in a coffee shop until my room is ready, and looking back over all of my pictures. I ate many good foodstuffs on this journey!

Let’s start with the chicken I had at All Time in L.A.:

This was a spectacular bowl of food. What I thought was polenta, was actually a tahini sauce. The chicken was seared to perfection and topped with the punchiest salsa verde. And then the seared cabbage on the side? An excellent grace note.

But the best thing that I ate this whole trip has to be the Ottolenghi pasta dish that my friend Jonathan Parks-Ramage — who has a novel out of his own, check it out! — made for me one night (remember when I taught him how to cook?):

Let’s look at that dish up close:

That’s yogurt-saturated malfade pasta; deeply roasted vegetables like squash and rutabaga; tons of spices (cumin! other spices!); and golden brown, crispy garlic. It. Blew. My. Mind.

I had another excellent pasta dish with my friends Sharon and Kristen at Itria in SF after the Omnivore event:

This was house-made rigatoni with — wait for it — fried mortadella, peas, and pistachios. Sounds weird, but it worked!

And carrying on the pistachio theme, we had this chocolate-covered pistachio thing (not ice cream but cold) that also had cherries — my idea of the perfect dessert.

On Saturday night, after my Corta Madera event, I took an Uber straight to The Zuni Cafe where I wanted to recreate Isabella’s experience eating at the bar with her dad in the novel. Technically, there are no seats at the bar, but there are bar seats in that there are little tables surrounding the bar and that’s still considered eating at the bar so — phew! — glad I didn’t get that wrong.

Zuni is such an enchanted space and it’s lost none of its luster. I can see why Isabella looks back on it so fondly.

I started with a melon salad that came with the most gorgeous scoops of goat cheese and the most Seussian mulberries:

For my entree, I wanted the porchetta but they ran out, so they substituted it with a buvette steak that was a bit under-seasoned and just a bit “meh.” Still, it was an impressive plate of food (note to self: add corn to your polenta):

I’d always wanted to try the famous espresso granita for dessert and it didn’t disappoint with its layers of coffee-infused ice and then the most elegant whipped cream.

Finally, when I arrived in Portland, my new BFF Sonya Michelle Sanford (I’m appearing on her podcast this week!) sent me to the TokyoSando truck right near my hotel:

It was 94 degrees outside (what’s going on, Pacific Northwest?) and that didn’t stop me from ordering the Miso Katsu Sando with chicken — a total knockout:

Crispy chicken? Toasted bread? Black garlic? Other things? A dream come true.

And that concludes my food tour thus far!

I have my Elliott Bay event tonight, my Bellingham event on Wednesday, and, finally, my East Troy event on Thursday, and on Friday I’m finally back home. Excuse me while I go collapse into a heap.

Hey, have you purchased Food Person yet? Have you read it? If you loved it, please write a review on Amazon or GoodReads… those things help!

And check out some of the press Food Person’s been getting:

• How the Amateur Gourmet Keeps the Freewheeling Fun of Food Blogging’s Early Days (Charlotte Druckman, the WSJ); (paywalled but free on MSN);

• The Novel ‘Food Person’ Loves Cookbooks, Has Suspicions About Food Media (Taste Podcast);

• Hear me on the How Long Gone podcast with some cool dudes, Jason Stewart and Chris Black (How Long Gone);

• NPR’s Book of the Day!

• The Books You Need to Read This Summer (SheerLuxe);

• 6 Great Audiobooks to Listen to This Month (Vulture);

• The Five Best Food Scenes in Literature by yours truly (LitHub);

• The Best Books to Read This Summer According to Bestselling Bay Area Authors (SF Standard).

Okay, time to splash some cold water on my face and to figure out where I am.

Until next time….

Your pal,

Adam