Retro Diner: Comfort Food from the American Roadside

This is one of those books that's hard to ignore if you love nostalgic things. There's plenty of recipes, and a smattering of period photos and vintage ads. As for the recipes, I've tried one: Zippy's Hungarian Goulash (page 100). It has the chief ingredient as 3 lbs. of lean chuck or stew meat, cut into cubes. To prepare the meat properly, you have to coat it in flour and sear it in oil. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup flour, paprika, salt and pepper to coat the beef. I'll tip you off now...there's no WAY you're going to coat that much beef with just a 1/4 cup of flour. I had to add more, even though I only had about 2 and half pounds of beef. As another reviewer noted, there's also steps that just leave you hanging. With this recipe, step 9 says to warm up the sour cream in a separate small bowl, being careful to not let it 'boil'. But then, no further mention of the sour cream or what to do with it (other goulash recipes have this ingredient added to the meat mixture).Overall, this is a nice book. I don't regret my purchase. But I do wonder how carefully these recipes were researched before being printed. The book is laid out quite well, starting with breakfast dishes. And a few of the photos are truly stunning. I loved the one on page 102....three guys are shown at a table in a diner with the menu board in the background. Looks to be Depression area. A hot dog and a bowl of vegetable soup would have only set you back .15 cents! But the kicker was the one guy with his head down on the table, a tipped over salt shaker by his hat. Was he dead drunk or dead tired? We'll never know.I fully intend to try some of the other recipes, but for the time being I can only recommend this book mostly for its nostalgic appeal. I would love for the author, Linda Everett, who has put together an attractive and fun-to-read book, to chime in and provide more background on the recipes and if they were tested.

I love these recipes and you can spend a whole afternoon just looking at the pictures and thinking about a by gone era. I bought the book More Retro Diner also and it is just as great!

perfect trip back to the future. great stuff

This little book is a great 'blast from the past' for diner lovers. It has recipes in all categories, but the biggest hits are the desserts -- like the sky high banana cream pie.

Love this!

No problems

A very interesting book by Linda Everett about the history of roadside diners gone by, which includes pictures and recipes from these diners. I requested this book so much thru inter library loan, I finally ordered a copy thruAmazon because I've enjoyed it so much. If you're into cooking like I am this is a fun book to have..

Great book

１９５０年代の元気なアメリカを想像できます見てるだけで幸せな気持ちになりますもっと多くのレシピが乗ってればいいのにと思いました