Homage to Travel, Food and Wine Writer Jim Harrison

Travel, Food and Wine Writer
Jim Harrison: Travel, Food and Wine Writer

Travel, food and wine writing can come in all forms. One of my favorite writers in this genre is the late, great Jim Harrison, a larger than life travel, food and wine writer, who will be sorely missed. Among other works, I’ve especially enjoyed his collection of stories, The Raw and the Cooked. Here’s the opening of his story, “Eat or Die.” “It is a few degrees above zero and I’m far out on the ice of Bay de Noc near Escanaba in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, beyond the last of the fish shanties. It doesn’t matter how far it is but how long it takes to get there–an hour out, and an hour back to my hotel, the House of Ludington. Unfortunately, I’ve been caught in a whiteout, a sudden snow squall out of the northwest, and I can’t see anything but my hands and cross-country skis, a short, broad type called Bushwhackers which allow you to avoid the banality of trails.” I won’t tell you what happens but as in many of his stories, there is a fine meal at the end. For more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/arts/jim-harrison-free-spirited-writer-dies-at-78.html?_r=0