An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies

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An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies

by Tyler Cowen

3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 · rating details · 547 ratings · 123 reviews

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published April 12th 2012 by Dutton Adult (first published January 1st 2012)

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May 18, 2012 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

What I tend to like about pop-culture economics books is how they look between the lines at trends, studies, statistics, etc, and unpack them in an interesting and accessible way. This book struck me as more anecdotal without any real evidence to back up any claims, for example, going to one ethnic grocery store for a month is drawn into an entire painful chapter of conclusions and commentary. Without a doubt, the author loves food and getting off the beaten path to find quality eats that may no...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Margaret Sankey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Cowen confirms many of my own theories on finding good food--go to places with cheap rents, a clientele of the ethnicity the food claims to come from, uses locally-sourced appropriate food to do it (i.e. Coq a Vin requires an old stringy chicken) and has a grandma in the back screaming at the sullen teenagers forced to work there. His tip for foreign eating is also a favorite of mine--enlist an older cab driver and ask him to eat with you, a move that has guaranteed me some of the best weird lit...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Rob rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book should be called "My thoughts on food". To suggest these rather odd and extremely limited observations should be considered "rules" takes quite a leap.

I had really high hopes for this, but the book can be summarized in a sentence: "Good food doesn't have to be expensive." If the author would have left it at that, I would have given that book (or rather that sentence) 3 stars.

Instead, he makes odd recommendations like eat Thai food in a restaurant attached to a hotel, reasoning that the...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars

An enjoyable book written by an economist? Yes, and far from a cure for insomnia, this is an enjoyable read if "pedantic" just isn't how you roll.

This book is a relatively unbiased consideration of the sustainability of current food trends. It sheds much-needed light on the limitations of growing our own food, and even the locavore movement.

However, I'd have granted even one more star but for Cowen's weak consideration of the sustainability, or lack thereof, of three of our biggest global food...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics, food

This book changed the way I eat for the better. It helps to have an economist's way of thinking about the world - always looking at where people have incentives and where competition will be more robust. I understand the complaints in other reviews that it is mostly based on anecdotes from Cowen's life, but I see this book as more of a manual for how an economist thinks about eating - which is important, since economics is essentially the science of getting the most out of life.

If you really wan...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Deanna Knippling rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bleah.

I had such high hopes for this. Food! and Economics! Yay!

But it was illogical, poorly edited, and a general waste of time. The book splits into two general areas: tips on how to deal with food from a personal basis (like - if you want good Chinese food, go to the kind of place where large tables of Chinese people are arguing, which indicates that people who know the food are truly regulars and feel at home there), and why those damned liberal foodies are stupid.

There's a chapter on how Mon...more

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May 18, 2012 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was a little disappointed - and disappointed to be disappointed if you know what I mean. I am a fan of Tyler Cowen and a regular reader of his blog, Marginal Revolution. I find him to be brilliant and iconoclastic. I expected this book to be the same. Instead, I am sorry to say, I found it tedious. Many of his so-called insights - expensive restaurants aren't such a good deal, you can eat great food cheaply off the beaten track, US agricultural techniques produce less tasty food than small, lo...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Cat rated it 1 of 5 stars

Scattershot observations about food, contemporary culture, politics, and price vaguely yoked together by the author's training in economics. Economics speak does not make the banal insights that hole-in-the-wall restaurants in strip malls can be amazing or that milky sugary drinks in Starbucks are overpriced more exciting, and Cox's conviction that lax consumers are to blame for the broken U.S. food system and for the obesity epidemic is simplistic at best, pernicious at worst (as in the aside w...more Scattershot observations about food, contemporary culture, politics, and price vaguely yoked together by the author's training in economics. Economics speak does not make the banal insights that hole-in-the-wall restaurants in strip malls can be amazing or that milky sugary drinks in Starbucks are overpriced more exciting, and Cox's conviction that lax consumers are to blame for the broken U.S. food system and for the obesity epidemic is simplistic at best, pernicious at worst (as in the aside where he explains to his readers that many are choosing to be obese -- never mind all the processed sugars and fats that he acknowledges elsewhere have become omnipresent elements of cheap convenience food and some speculate are physiologically addictive, an idea that never comes up in his work, which wants to prize the perfect autonomy of the consumer in the free market). While the annoyance he articulates with locavores could be justifiable (Barbara Kingsolver's self-righteousness in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle grated for this reader, for example), his quibbles seem minor, as do his proposed "solutions" to problems with our food system. Indeed, most of the book is not really about this bigger scope suggested in the title's promise of "new rules," riffing on Michael Pollan's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, which he's of course rejecting, or in the introduction's allusions to larger debates about how we should eat well (in all senses of the word) in the twenty-first century. No, the book is mostly about how he finds good cheap restaurants at home and abroad and describing the distinguishing characteristics of particular cuisines he prizes. This restaurant focus would have been a perfectly good subject for a book, but then of course he could not have claimed the timeliness or political relevance he wants to attribute to his own work. Plus, to be honest, this white dude's confidence about his access to authentic ethnic cuisines, married to his pride about being a bargain hunter and befriending (and bribing) taxi drivers in new international locations ends up sounding disturbingly prideful about being a global consumer and discerning tourist--often orientalist and inevitably arrogant, tone-deaf to the racial and economic implications of his relationship to this food and its creators. (less)

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Sep 26, 2012 Ensiform rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, food

The author, a professor of economics, writes about everything food-related, from “how American food got bad” (answer: Prohibition, watered-down immigrant food, the modern mania for catering to kids’ tastes) to eating great barbecue, from the delusion of the locavore movement to how to shop astutely at small groceries, from tips on finding a great restaurant (answer: find a hole in the wall with low overhead and loyal customers) to why Mexican food tastes better in Mexico (answer: America’s ingre...more The author, a professor of economics, writes about everything food-related, from “how American food got bad” (answer: Prohibition, watered-down immigrant food, the modern mania for catering to kids’ tastes) to eating great barbecue, from the delusion of the locavore movement to how to shop astutely at small groceries, from tips on finding a great restaurant (answer: find a hole in the wall with low overhead and loyal customers) to why Mexican food tastes better in Mexico (answer: America’s ingredients are fresher and safer but perforce blander due to transport, regulations and freezing; Mexico’s cheeses are richer and unpasteurized so banned in the USA).

I enjoyed this book, some sections more than others. His long chapter on barbecue covered some very old ground gone over years ago by Calvin Trillin; his “finding great food anywhere” section is disappointingly vague (London is expensive if you’re not eating fish and chips; you can get good ingredients in Germany thanks to the EU). The chapter on Mexican food, with its discussion of Mexican traditions of dry aging (again, largely considered unsafe in the USA) and fresh though limited ingredients, was highly informative. And although I’m not sure his claim that Prohibition hit American dining so hard is still valid today, he makes a thought-provoking case about American blandness. Despite the title, much of this book might have been written by anyone who enjoys food and travels a lot. That’s too bad, because Cowen is most interesting when he uses economic arguments. For example, he makes a case for GMOs (which lower overall food prices); attacks the locavore movement by noting that food transport costs are very low and what would really help the planet would be eating less meat, not fewer French cheeses; suggests that eating sardines has ecological value because they are at the bottom of the food chain; and advocates the spread of modern agribusiness giants to combat starvation. I don’t agree with it all, but it’s always interesting to see things from a new angle. I would have liked to have read less of Cowen’s salivating over barbecue and more economic analysis of the politics of food. (less)

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Apr 16, 2012 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It is breezy, informative, and occasionally provocative. Roughly 70% of the book is devoted to stories about his food travels, discussion of different cuisines, and advice to the reader. Everyone should enjoy this material.

More controversial will be the handful of chapters dedicated to (partially) defending modern agribusiness and debunking some of the conventional wisdom that self-described foodies have collectively internalized about the virtues of locally-grown foo...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you want advice on how to find a good meal while globetrotting, this would be the book to read- for example, if you are in India, your best shot at getting a good meal is at a hotel. Go to Sicily for great food. Swiss food is good and expensive, except for the bland cream sauces. He also has advice for finding a good meal while you are in the States: "eat at a Thai restaurant attached to a motel". A Thai family probably owns the motel, and someone in the family is a good cook. They're not pay...more If you want advice on how to find a good meal while globetrotting, this would be the book to read- for example, if you are in India, your best shot at getting a good meal is at a hotel. Go to Sicily for great food. Swiss food is good and expensive, except for the bland cream sauces. He also has advice for finding a good meal while you are in the States: "eat at a Thai restaurant attached to a motel". A Thai family probably owns the motel, and someone in the family is a good cook. They're not paying extra rent for the space attached to the motel, so the meal will be reasonably priced. He dedicates a whole chapter to good BBQ and where to find it (Lockhart, Texas). It seems there are really two books here- a book of culinary travel advice, and commentary on the American agricultural and food transportation system, with some advice on how to address the growing obesity problem in the United States- the obesity problem, according to him, "has come about because imperfect self-control has met up with the modern food world, and some marketing and taste improvements get a lot of us to eat more than we ought to and to eat the wrong things". No mention of the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup in food items like yogurt and bread. He wonders "if a lot of American weight gain stem from people simply deciding that they are willing to weigh more, if they get to eat more of certain foods". I do think there is some truth to that statement for some people, but I think it oversimplifies a very complicated and sensitive issue.

The author is all over the political spectrum; he is supportive of American agribusiness and does not think highly of recent movies like "Super Size Me"; he endorses the use of GMO's; according to him, 94% of the soy crops and 88% of the corn crops in the United States are genetically modified, and that far from being "Frankenfoods", the "genetic engineering of corn, cotton, and soybeans has increased yields, removed pressure on the land, and reduced the necessity for agricultural chemicals and pesticides". He also advocates for a carbon tax on items with "some negative consequences for the environment"; possibly offsetting this tax with a lower corporate income tax. He cites a study, the "Weber and Matthews Carnegie Mellon study", that concluded that "shifting your eating away from red meat, one day a week, does more for the environment than eating all locally sourced food for all your meals". In some cases, in a desert environment like the American Southwest, it is actually better for the environment for people to eat food grown far away because of the water requirements for agriculture.

There is a lot more interesting material in this book as well as some fascinating insights into global food systems. I gave this book 5 stars not because I agree with everything he says (I don't), but he provides a lot of material to mull over, including chapters on how American food got bad to begin with (Prohibition, World War II, the advent of television and TV dinners, the American propensity to cater to their children's taste buds when planning meals or considering restaurants (guilty on that one). (less)

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Nov 13, 2012 Stacie rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Libertarian foodies

Shelves: food-related-books, pissed-me-off, social-science

Where to start? This book definitely had some interesting points to make about the application of basic economic principles to the goal of finding a good place to eat, especially when you're in an unfamiliar area and don't have access to or don't want to rely on technology (online reviews, for instance)to guide you. The author also talks about how to consume food in a way that's better for the environment...
However, Cowen's ideas about environmentalism seem to be based more on his instincts than...more Where to start? This book definitely had some interesting points to make about the application of basic economic principles to the goal of finding a good place to eat, especially when you're in an unfamiliar area and don't have access to or don't want to rely on technology (online reviews, for instance)to guide you. The author also talks about how to consume food in a way that's better for the environment...
However, Cowen's ideas about environmentalism seem to be based more on his instincts than serious scientific study, and his economic approach to food has a distinctly overly rational approach that borders, at least for me personally, on the unethical. For instance, he says that plastic is better for the environment than anything else because compost piles release methane (a greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere...I'm not even sure how to critique that statement because it makes so little sense to me, considering what goes into the production of plastic and the fact that, although it is recyclable, most people don't recycle plastic, and when it does break down it has extremely damaging environmental consequences (see also, pacific garbage patch, whereas compost can keep so much waste out of landfills and can, in fact be almost immediately reused (or at least within a reasonable period of time) to contribute to the production of more food. Cowen also complains that good French restaurants (in France) are too expensive because France has these crazy ideas about paying their workers a fair wage and giving them benefits. He suggests finding places to eat where the labor costs are low because it'll be cheaper for the consumer. So, you know, wage slavery is totally fine as long as your burger costs less.
Another one of Cowen's complaints is that buying local is terrible for the environment since the fuel a small farmer uses to take products to market makes more of an environmental impact than a bunch of food shipped over from South America by boat...even if that were accurate, the fact that 1)the low cost of a lot of imported foods is also based on the blatant exploitation of workers from 2)countries that can no longer produce their own food because they are too busy growing food for more affluent Western consumers is already problematic enough that I would rather buy local from a farmer that either does the work him/herself or pays someone a fair wage and treats them ethically. Furthermore, I prefer to spend what little money I do have supporting my local economy, even if that farmer has to make multiple trips in his/her truck.
Finally, even if local food is not grown organically (something else I remember Cowen being critical of)it is generally grown more sustainably and is more likely to be a non-modified variety (depends on your farmers, of course). He does make the point that not everyone lives in a climate where it's possible to eat locally, but...I'm fairly certain indigenous people in climates we might find uncomfortable have been eating locally for centuries. His pitiful defense of GMO crops being helpful because now farmers don't have to use as much fertilizer and pesticide was particularly galling. Right, of course they don't have to use as much external pesticides because toxic chemicals are now part of the genetic make-up of what we're eating! Delicious!(less)

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Jul 14, 2012 K. Bird rated it 4 of 5 stars

What do you do if you're a foodie and an economist concerned with the planet's environment and fair social trade?

You write a book like this one.

This is not your average locavore ode to locally grown, organic produce. As a former coop worker, die-hard cloth shopping bag carrier, and organic produce eater, I was suprised (and a bit dismayed) by some of what I read here.

The hints about where to go to find reasonably priced, delicious food both in the United States (for ethnic food, strip malls!) an...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: food, 2012

Consider this book the highlights of a unique food blog, where an economist living in the suburb puts a great deal of thought into what he eats, where he eats it, and why. The best parts of this book read like smart New York Magazine pieces. For instance, Cowen only shops at an Asian grocery store for an entire month in one fascinating chapter; in another, he expertly runs through the various regions of the world with quick-fire eating advice that both informs and entices. For instance, he expla...more Consider this book the highlights of a unique food blog, where an economist living in the suburb puts a great deal of thought into what he eats, where he eats it, and why. The best parts of this book read like smart New York Magazine pieces. For instance, Cowen only shops at an Asian grocery store for an entire month in one fascinating chapter; in another, he expertly runs through the various regions of the world with quick-fire eating advice that both informs and entices. For instance, he explains why Sicily has the best restaurants in Italy: less tourism, higher standards, lower pretension. Think of him as a very amateur Anthony Bourdain, ready and willing for any adventure his stomach can handle.

The middling parts of the book read as half Yelp review, half Wikipedia article. Unless you are desperately interested in the various Thai restaurants of northern Virginia, or the most basic history of barbecue imaginable, you will find yourself a bit bored. And the worst section of the book, about GMO's and their supposedly unearned bad reputation, sounds like a position paper written for a lobbyist. Cowen fails to adequately to argue either side of the case, instead building up sad straw men, like one blogger who boycotted Monsanto for a month and then reverted, as proof that the companies are mostly doing good. He wants to make the argument that GMO's are ultimately a huge plus for society because they keep so many more people fed, but he fails to discuss both the crushing practices of their producers nor the possible technological alternatives. If you're reading this book, skip that chapter and instead find a book that focuses on those issues. You won't learn anything here.

Overall, the book is sprinkled with enough good advice and fascinating tidbits to make it a worthwhile read for an American foodie. There are things we're doing right and things you're doing wrong, and Cowen should be congratulated for playing devil's advocate on so many issues that we take for granted. Ultimately, you will come away with a more nuanced understanding of local food. There are many communities where you should cook something grown locally, but most likely, as a suburban or urban America, you don't live in one. Instead, think about how you can better use the best food resources you do have, and consider stepping way outside the box to find the best food your area has to offer. You never know - it could be the guy cooking tamales in the back of a gas station!

(less)

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Jun 07, 2012 Austin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love Tyler Cowen and his interests, but he's a brilliant thinker and only a mediocre writer. He's perfectly suited to blogging given what a prolific reader he is and how varied his interests are, but he's less suited to book-length pieces. This book really needed a more aggressive editor. The writing is distractingly informal. Granted, the topic is fun and not meant to be serious. Cowen expounds on one of his major interests - food. He uses principles of economics - rational decision makers an...more

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May 30, 2012 AdultNonFiction Teton County Library rated it 3 of 5 stars

TCL call #: 394.12 COWEN T

Jess's rating - 3 stars
The author, an economist and foodie, covers a variety of topics including how he chose to spend one month only shopping for groceries at a Chinese/Asian supermarket called Great Wall in Fairfax, Virginia. He also includes discussions of the regional influences and history of barbeque, why Mexican food is much better in its home country, choosing the best Chinese restaurants, the necessity for another agricultural revolution in the poorest of count...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Ravi Shankar rated it 2 of 5 stars

Undercooked, under-researched, and overly anecdotal. The chapters in the book do not follow a logical sequence - makes for very uneven reading.

There are parts of the book where Cowen makes some nearly accurate observations (example: Pakistani restaurants in the US serve better food than do Indian restaurants) but fails provide a compelling insight to the reader as to why it is so. I am particularly surprised that for being a self-confessed well traveled foodie, it never occurred to him to compar...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

A very quick read and fairly light on content (most of the good stuff was already in articles written about the book), but the author's background as an economist and conservative made his take on things different in interesting ways from most foodie books. I don't buy his arguments downplaying the importance of local foods (much less his defense of agri-business), but his approaches to different cuisines were thought-provoking, and he makes excellent points about the negative effects of Prohibi...more

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May 09, 2012 Chris Callaway rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading Tyler Cowen always makes me feel smarter and stupider at the same time. Smarter, because I always learn interesting things from reading his work (especially marginalrevolution.com). Stupider, because I'm pretty sure he's already forgotten more about one topic than I'll ever know about anything. This book continues that tendency. It offers fascinating insight into the economics of food. I especially liked the chapter comparing Mexican food in Mexico to Mexican food in the U.S. He also off...more

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May 06, 2012 Tom rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book should be titled, "Tyler Cowen comments on just about everything." Now, there is some good foodie advice between the bouts of smug self-satisfaction, but really, I don't know who this guy is or why he is giving food advice. His focus is much more on international food culture than on American, which is not really helpful. He starts off with a strong economics-based thesis, but after a chapter or two he veers off wildly to recount his food travel escapades. I would have liked for him to...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Birgit rated it 2 of 5 stars

What the cover of the book already implies is certainly not all that economist and food blogger Tyler Cowen broaches in An Economist Gets Lunch. Of course grabbing himself lunch is part of it, but he also discusses his adventures in shopping at supermarkets and how to perfect your barbecue skills, as well as more serious topics such as hunger and effects of genetically modified ingredients.
As extensive as the varied themes in the book are, I must admit that it turned out to be a mix that made me...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Steve Carroll rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best books about food i've ever read. It's full of lots of practical advice about how to improve your experience when eating out. The section about finding a good ethnic restaurant (and how to identify bad ones) and how to order when you get there. We've already started applying them and had a lot of success getting better meals in restaurants we already know about and finding hidden gems in strip malls around the area.

He also covers in detail regional bbq across the US and Me...more

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May 21, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

More like 3.5. Tyler Cowen is a libertarian economist,a nd long-time blogger, and one of the smartest people on the interwebs. So this is a sort of a side project. It's a bit scattershot, but basically the book: (1) gives tips for finding innovative cheap food (applying some economic principles); (2) provides some history of food in the US; and (3) gives his own tips for eating in various countries.

Foodies will enjoy - others won't. One interesting part was his explanation for why American got b...more

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May 30, 2012 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an enjoyable and engaging non-fiction read. I was surprised at how casual it was, too (I guess I thought "written by an economist" meant it was required to have at least some equations and graphs? but it didn't at all).

The key points are pretty well covered in the article he wrote for the Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a...) so the book is more if you would enjoy snippets of stories about his travels as an American looking for good food. I think my background as first-ge...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Lee Tyner rated it 1 of 5 stars

Not so great. I bought this based on Freakonomics' Blog endorsement. I seriously doubt they read the whole thing. It was horribly redundant. The author's local Asian store sells fresh greens. I get it after the eighth time and 7th page still droning about it. Same thing for the Mexican food chapter, BBQ, and frankly, the whole darn book. Likewise, we don't need the street locations of restaurants you enjoyed in NYC. This 304 page book would be a great 50 page book. Ps. Expect topic changes with...more

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Feb 04, 2013 David R. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book really only ended up reminding me why I don't prefer the company of "foodies" (at meal time at least). Cowen lives the high life and attempts to give an economic rule-based gloss to his culinary pleasures. But the consequent diatribe is off-putting. What do you think of a guy who thinks it is an environmental crime to compost food scraps but has no problem riding an ancient, polluting taxi two hours in Bolivia just to buy lunch? Or one who sneers at American produce and raves about Mex...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Another interesting, albeit slower, read. If you, like me, enjoy reading and discussing food-related issues (everything from finding a good ethnic restaurant to musing over the seeming tension between locavores and big agribusiness to celebrating BBQ to wondering why the American food scene is the way it is...), then you will no doubt find this book interesting. As a former English teacher, I think this book might be easier to listen to; he may write well for an economist but the paucity of punc...more

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May 28, 2012 Anusha Bala rated it 2 of 5 stars

If i had only read the first half of this book, I would have likely given it 4 stars . However, as I kept reading I became increasingly aware that Cowen's factoids and quippy pronouncements were mostly opinions based on (often flawed) anecdotal evidence rather than thorough research. The first few chapters were interesting and provided some fun tips for ethnic dining in the US (I'm not sure it would hold up to evidentiary scrutiny but I agree that the best ethnic restaurants are often attached t...more

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May 09, 2013 Aim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: food

so i'm starting chapter 8. my thoughts so far:

i found chapter 2 interesting (on how american food got so bad). chapter 5 on bbq and 6 on asian restaurants/food were very interesting to me (in chapter 6, he gives tips on how to recognize good vietnamese, thai, indian, korean and chinese food, whice i find could be useful, though he only mentions sushi when talking about japanese food).

in chapter 7, i start to realize he doesn't really seem to understand some basic things about food distribution....more

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May 02, 2013 Jordie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, food, economics

Incredibly insightful at times Cowen did an excellent if spotty job of applying economic principles to how one might find deals on food based both on the quality and type of food. He does explains why trendy restaurants are often overvalued and unhip restaurants in suburbs, or mall food courts are often undervalued. He also points out that there are micromarkets for types of food. Vancouver for instance with a tiny amount of Central East Asian cuisine probably doesn't have great quality Central...more

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About Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen (born January 21, 1962) occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. He currently writes the "Economic Scene" column for the New York Times and writes for such magazines as The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly.

Cowen's primary research interest is...more

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“Once you're using sides and sauces you're on the right track and you're also following the general principles about how to eat well in the United States.” — 3 people liked it

“Food is a product of supply and demand, so try to figure out where the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative, and the demanders are informed.” — 2 people liked it

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