2010 FALL EDITION – NO. 39

Introduction

by the Editors

Welcome to dinner — and our biggest issue ever!

We weren't surprised that the subject of food inspired our contributors; it's about family, connectedness, now. It's about hunkering down as fall blows in. But food fades, too, in forgotten recipes, the ingredients we leave behind, our memories of Thanksgiving 1989, the singular taste experiences we can't ever repeat.

When we think about loss and food, we're thinking about moments.

We're thinking about how food dies, and how it helps us grieve. About the food we save, and the food we throw out. About hunting down ingredients, and hunting down jobs, about monkey heads and menus. We have seaweed and Mark Twain's San Francisco, lasagna and lemon meringue, British candies, pimento cheese, mom's recipe cards, very stiff drinks, and meaty lamb shanks.

We have published writers you've read before, and emerging writers you'll be reading again. It's an all-original ode to food. It's our fall issue, a feast of the lost and long-gone.