But Is It Worth $12.50?

Yesterday at Central Market I noticed a food magazine I had not encountered before - but maybe you've seen it. They call themselves AoE for short so I'll use that here too, I can only type so much before the boss comes around and wonders what I'm doing. According to the information page, AoE has been published since 1986 on a quarterly basis, a one year subscription drops the price from $12.50 to $12.00 (or it drops to $10.666666 for a three year commitment of $128). They also have a website, http://www.artofeating.com/, on which they quote "Erudite" from the NY Times, but I did not find it enlightening in the least.

The interior print is black and white as are photos and sketches, all on a heavy paper stock which totaled 48 pages. The writers, well they use the word "I" even more than you'll find in this very blog, and the publisher (Edward Behr) wrote a 12 page report on his personal selection of 9 "mostly French and Italian cookbooks" called Throwing The Rest Out. Hell, Edward, I'd need a couple of semi-trucks to take my collection away. But thanks for showing me a couple more that I need.

Articles? Well take your choice, from "Medlar: The Rotten Fruit", yum, to "Brown Sugar From Okinawa", to a restaurant review of Da Maria, located in Fano, Italy (in the Marche region of Italy - I had to get a map, did they assume I knew?) who's tag-line was "Come if you're prepared to make do with what we've got". From letters to the editor, previous articles have included the merits of Andouillette and Blue Star vs. Lancanche ranges. A common factor in the articles - the length, I lost interest in the subjects after more than 12 paragraphs of detail.

So a word for improvement, because I did like the cover art enough to make this initial purchase, it was just a disappointment inside. Take the advertising money you shun, it will help you hire a good editor, maybe Bethany?