"To remove the tail, grasp it with your hand, gently twist, and pull it off the body."
This instruction — Step 2 of 10 — for chowing down on lobster, and many others like it, are the basis of Austin food writer and blogger Ashley Blom's debut book, How to Eat a Lobster: And Other Edible Enigmas Explained (Quirk Books, 2017). With lovely illustrations from Lucy Engelman, the small book is an equal parts helpful and engaging manual to those foods and unspoken dining rules that still might give you pause, but you're way too cool to ask about.
Etiquette classes used to teach this stuff, then came the YouTube or Google search. But there's no need for either with How to Eat a Lobster. Everything from how to eat pomegranate and pig's feet to how to use chopsticks and open a coconut are showcased alongside easy-to-follow directions and drawings.
Some of this food editor's favorites:
How to Eat Noodles — which warns not to reenact the scene from Lady and the Tramp.
How to Use Bread as a Utensil.
How to Stay Vegetarian at a Barbecue.
How to Taste Something You Hate.
How to Eat a Lobster hits bookstore shelves April 4. If you've ever started mini-panicking after realizing you just left the grocery store with a whole fish or chicken that now needs to be cooked for dinner, you'll enjoy this.
