I never thought my first Encyclopedia Brown entry would be in the cooking category, but when I saw this in the library, I couldn’t resist. I loved Encyclopedia Brown mysteries when I was growing up, even if I never was clever enough to figure out the solutions without help.
When I cracked the cover and started reading about Idaville’s finest detective and the first quarter was dropped into Encyclopedia’s gasoline can indicating the start of a case, I was hit with a powerful wave of nostalgia. But reading this from an adult’s perspective was pretty revelatory. In some cases, clues are left out of the stories, which feels sort of cheap. It’s really hard to solve the mysteries on your own because they rely on things that happen outside of the pages of the books. Additionally, because this is a “cook and case book” there are far fewer cases than you would normally expect to find in an Encyclopedia Brown book. The chapters alternate between cases and recipes which seems a little weird and confusing when you first start to read.
So about those recipes…
Evidently, this was written in the dark ages when international foods were unfamiliar, but starting to be all the rage. So you’ll find recipes for Mexican, Chinese and Italian food along with handy tips such as how to make your own plum sauce (which I suppose was not available in stores back then – although they do tell you to buy frozen egg rolls, so I’m wonder what food manufacturer fell down on the job there), that corn chips are sometimes called tortilla chips, and that if you have olive oil, you can use that instead of salad oil in your italian cooking. It’s a blurry line between old-fashioned ignorance and possible cultural insensitivity.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – “unwashed ape,” “darn it,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Sally is able to punch out town bully Bugs Meany. I’d forgotten how tough Sally was. GO SALLY! (Um, except that I don’t condone violence). Encyclopedia is threatened by a bully. Terrible of me, but as a spoiler I shall have to reveal that a missing goose was in fact killed, and eaten.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – Well, as there are mysteries to be solved, questionable things must happen, including scams and thefts.
HAD to look up year. 1982. Yeah, no bottled plum sauce then, and Italian meant Ragu. I have to say I’ve never seen this, but wonder what compelled Mr. Sobol to have a go at a cook book. Such a nice man, and such a fun writer. He is missed.