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Willie’sFamily Restaurant6342 ST. JOE CENTER ROADFORT WAYNE • 260-485-3144BUY ONEGET ONEFREEOF EQUAL OR LESSER VALUEBREAKFASTOR LUNCHMONDAY-FRIDAY ONLYDAILYHOMEMADELUNCH SPECIALSFRIDAY NIGHTFISH FRY4-8PMAll You Can Eatand Drink,Served Family Style$8.95Hours:Monday-Thursday: 6AM-1PM(Breakfast Served All Day)Friday: 6AM-1PM & 4PM-8PMSaturday: 6AM-NOONSunday: 7AM-1PMPollan Cooks Up Yet Another BookCooked by Michael Pollan, The Penguin Press,2013In most of his books food journalist Michael Pollanhas backed himself into a difficult corner to get outOn Booksof. He’s told us, at length, in The Omnivore’s Dilemma EVAN GILLESPIEand In Defense of Food about the dangers of relyingupon industrially produced and processed food. He’s to spend much less time and resources on chewing andexplained how we’ve hurt ourselves and our environmentby becoming dependent on a food supply that is brains. Cooking, he says, made us into the human wedigesting and much more on growing and fueling bigmore focused on quantity than quality. The difficult are today. So that’s why we should elevate it: it’s thecorner, though, lies in a paradox: we’ve become the most important human activity.society we’ve become – relatively affluent with lots Pollan also comes up with an organizational gimmick.To divide the book thematically – and to furtherof time on our hands – precisely because we’ve hadcheap, easy food on hand, and now there’s no going emphasize the historical import of cooking – heback. Most of us can’t afford, in terms of money divides the act of cooking into four domains,or time, anything other than cheap food.each corresponding to one of the basic elementsOnly bestselling writers and othersof ancient philosophy. Fire is barbecueing, airwith above-average incomes have theis baking, water is braising and earth is fermenting.It’s a shaky premise, but it’s easyluxury of spending so much time thinkingabout and selecting the food theyenough to ignore inconsistencies (why, foreat. While acknowledging the dilemma,example, does baking bread not belong inPollan has always been short on suggestionsfor a solution. How can all of us eatgo along for the ride.the earthy domain of fermentation?) andthe way Pollan says we should eat? Well, heIn the course of the book, Pollan studiesunder – and writes extensively aboutdoesn’t know, really.In his earlier books Pollan was at least– master barbecuers, cooks, bakersable to make the problem compelling. Theand brewers, and then he puts whatOmnivore’s Dilemma, even if it didn’t offerhe learned into practice. He roasts anan answer, made just about everyone who readacorn-fed pork shoulder, and he brews artisanalthe book at least admit there was a problem. The beer. He cooks, and he studies his cooking while he’ssame can’t be said for Cooked, Pollan’s Homeric ode doing it, and he writes about it all in his usual finicky,to food preparation. The book is really just an excuse wordy way.for Pollan to dig into the subject of cooking, examiningit in the minute way that he loves to do, but it Pollan is enjoyable to read, even when – and prob-This sounds damning, but it should be said thatdoesn’t offer revelations; there are no a-ha moments in ably because – he goes off on so many wayward paths.this book, as there were in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The biggest problem with Cooked is its lack of the social,political and environmental hooks that made Thewhere it all became clear to us how the whole industrialfood system doesn’t work. This book is just about Omnivore’s Dilemma impossible to ignore. Despitecooking.the inclusion of all the anthropological theories andPollan’s writing so much about the simple act of the ruminations on ancient sacrificial roasting, thiscooking requires an excuse, a grand and noble reasonwhy we should think cooking is worthy of such the irony that Americans spend so little time cookingtreatise on cooking feels lightweight. Pollan lamentsscrutiny. Pollan’s rationale is this: cooking is the act and so much time watching cooking shows on TV, butthat, quite literally, makes us human. He latches onto it’s hard to believe that time spent reading Cooked isa theory that suggests that early in our evolution as better spent than time spent watching anything on thea species our discovery of cooking caused us to developdigestive systems and lifestyles that allowed usFood Network..evan.whatzup@gmail.com----------------------------------------------------------------------Weak Wolverine Ekes Out a WinTops at the Box: James Mangold’s The Wolverineopened big this past weekend, selling $55 million inthe U.S. over its first three days. Add to that another ScreenTime$86 million in abroad bucks, and this Hugh Jackmanaction flick has already earned back its budget. GREG W. LOCKEMangold is a fantastic commercial director and all,but reviews – both from fans and writers – have been respectable cast of indie-leaning actors, includingvery mixed. Some people even hate it. Me? I think ScreenTime favorites Lili Taylor and Ron Livingstonit looks to be pretty much exactly what I thought it as well as Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. Takingwould be: a quickly written studio film with flecks of the No. 3 spot at last weekend’s box office was Universal’sDespicable Me 2 which sold just over $16hip production moments sprinkled throughout. Sure,they could’ve probably done a super gritty, realisticleaningWolverine trilogy in the vein of Christopher has now surpassed the $300 million benchmark in themillion in the U.S. over its fourth weekend. The filmNolan’s Batman trilogy, but they went a different U.S. and is headed towards the $700 million markroute. Too bad. The Wolverine is a great character. worldwide, making it an official blockbuster. Roundingout last weekend’s Top 5 were Turbo (No. 4 withAlso at the Box: James Wan’s new horror flick,The Conjuring, continued to roll, selling another $22 $13 million in sales) and the dreaded Grown Ups 2million last weekend, upping the movie’s 10-day total (No. 5 with $11.5 million in sales). So, no, not theto $83 million in the U.S. and $96 million worldwide. most exciting box office ever right now. Guillermo delSo not only is this flick a huge hit with critics and Toro’s Pacific Rim continued to draw weak returns,fans, it’s already making some solid bank. If you’resomehow unaware of Wan or his movie, it stars a very(Breakfast Only Sat. & Sun.) Continued on page 2322--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.whatzup.com- ---------------------------------------------------------------August 1, 2013