Received my first issue of Simple Cooking. I have to say that for an 8-page newsletter, $5 per issue is expensive. On the other hand, this thing is chock full—with a 10-point font—of epicuriocities. Looking at the recipes, it feels like the Cook’s Illustrated with a twist: while Cook’s shows how to make classic recipes taste classic (just as you’d expect them to taste), Simple Cooking’s recipes tend to be either new discoveries of the “eureka!” variety, or based on rumors/hypotheses that played out well. For the back story on “Fried Eggs with Bananas, Fresh Chiles, and Onions in Coconut Oil,” Thorne writes, “… Christine Mackie’s remark in Life and Food in the Caribbean that ‘frying eggs in coconut oil is the finest way you can cook a fresh egg,’ got me to seek out some virgin coconut oil and try it.” And so we follow him on his adventure toward the included recipe.

So how’s the food? Well, so far I’ve only got one data point, but it’s a very tasty data point. This issue is all about breakfast, so I tried it out this morning. I had all the ingredients for “Fried Eggs in Olive Oil with Capers” at hand… on toast, it was a great breakfast, definitely simple, and something I’d never have dreamed up on my own. That’s all I’m looking for. Tomorrow: “Lancaster Farmhouse Baked Oatmeal.”