A Resource Worth Using: The Visual Food Lover's Guide

A few months ago my husband and I were hitting the slopes in Aspen, Colorado for the Winter X Games. No, we weren’t exactly skiing in the modern sense, but our feet were plunging into the soft-as-air snowy surface of Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk Mountain as we trudged our way from one high-flying skiing or snow boarding event to the next.

While taking in the sights and sounds of the infamous town, somewhere along the way food had to come into the picture, of which I was more than delighted to indulge in a plate or two (or six). We dined at several fabulous restaurants, including Cache Cache and the wonderfully unique Pine Creek Cookhouse, nestled at the base of the Elk Mountain range.

While we took in the culinary delights at Pine Creek Cookhouse, one of the dishes that we indulged in, the Pine Creek butternut squash ravioli carbonara, was sporting a tuft of ivory hued stalks perched on one side of the plate. Although I had seen the strange looking item on several occasions previously, I had no idea what it was called. I did, however, know that it was some sort of mushroom. Never being one to lay claim to knowing it all, especially when it came to food, I decided to do a little research.

This is where The Visual Food Lover's Guide became my tiny savior.

I had bought the book just a week or two earlier and it arrived only a few days prior to my quest for knowledge. I figured it would be of some help to me in identifying mystery foods, but didn't think it would be put to use so soon. After perusing the mushroom section of this handy dandy resource, I discovered that the long, thin fungus was called enoki, which I had in fact heard of before but never put the name with the mushroom. Even a gourmand at heart can learn something new every day.

On more than one occasion since I’ve gotten my hands on The Visual Food Lover’s Guide it’s been a valuable resource when I have questions about food items. What the heck is that? What does it taste like? Does it have an odor? People really eat this stuff? Does it come in different varieties? With over 1,000 types of foods at my disposal—including information on how to buy, prepare and store different foods—I feel just a little bit more intelligent in the kitchen every time I pick up this book.

From vegetables to legumes, seaweeds to fish, meat to mollusks—it’s all in this book. I’ve even found myself browsing through it at times just because. What in the world is whelk? Can you eat wakame raw? Is the skin of a mangosteen edible? Can I substitute kohlrabi for cabbage in recipes? These are questions I never would have thought to ask—and luckily, I didn’t have to, either! But the answers are in The Visual Food Lover’s Guide, one of the more regularly used books in my culinary arsenal.