Through the Kitchen Window

A few more sensual, Like Water For Chocolatey food-and-sex encounters and some of us will barf. But rejoice — only one such episode in Through the Kitchen Window edited by Arlene Voski Avakian, involving eggplant, spoils this otherwise yummy anthology of female culinary writing, which had the good taste to order up a whole range of experiences: a welfare recipient's menu, Maya Angelou's story of a redemptive meatpie business, a detailed contemplation of borscht. The conundrum throughout: Though guys usually wear the four-star chef's hats, day-to-day home cooking (repetitive, inglorious, sentimental only in retrospect) still seems like women's work. What's up with that? This pleasingly diverse sampler may not have answers, but it does have recipes. Read it and eat. A