Five Friday Reads 3.24.2017

Icelandic Grocery Store
  1. "The Weird Things People Leave in Books" from Publisher's Weekly. You've probably left a ticket stub in a library book, but food? These librarians have found everything from shrimp to raw bacon in their books.
  2. "'London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen's death" from The Guardian. Queen Elizabeth II's death won't just be a national tragedy, but signal an end to an era of British supremacy.
  3. "A Guide to the Texture You Didn't Know Had a Name" from Lucky Peach. QQ is that dense, chewy texture that's similar to mochi or gnocchi. Finally, I have a word to describe my favorite texture.
  4. "From Chop Suey to Haute Cuisine: A Case Study in American 'Ethnic Food'" from LA Review of Books. Oliver Wang's review of From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express explores the history of Chinese food in the US and questions what it means to serve ethnic cuisine in the first place.
  5. "Printing the Ancient Way Keeps Buddhist Texts Alive in Tibet" from The New York Times. An inside glimpse at this traditional printing press in Tibet that is preserving not only Buddhist texts, but a forgotten art form.