We eat, first of all, because we have to, but we also do it for fun, for security, and for love. This book is at least as much about those excitements as it is about food. It could hardly be otherwise, for food- manna from heaven, loaves and fishes, bread and wine -has long been the central public mystery of Western culture. Sex, its only rival, used to be private. To write about food, then, is to write about the way we live together.

Funny, brilliant, untidy, full of the juices life, Vladimir Estragon's "Waiting for Dessert" columns have enchanted readers in The Village Voice for several years now. These pieces, here expanded and refined, bring together the very best of his meditations about food, families, and modern life, from the nostalgic echoes of the club sandwich to toddlers and boogers; from the semantics of the banana to the Mafia and mozzarella; and from Thanksgiving dinner and the epistemological differences between soups and stews to the difficulties of weaning teenagers from a diet of Fritos and marshmallow cremes.

Recipes are incidental to the text.

Vladimir Estragon received his early instruction in philosophy from the Jesuits, and in food, from his mother. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, the Woman Warrior; their toddler daughter, the Youngest Member; and his teenage sons, the Potato King and the Mad Baker.