Read This Now: The Awl's "Writer Food From A To Z"

It's worth keeping tabs on the New York-based website The Awl for many reasons, not least being its occasional cooking posts (my all-time favorite: “How to Cook a Fucking Steak”). Yesterday Jane Hu wrote an utterly lovely piece called “Writer Food From A to Z,” which isn't quite as irreverent as the steak piece, but is nonetheless pretty fun reading.

In it, Hu — who also contributes to the Los Angeles Review of Books — considers the favorite foods of some noteworthy writers. Alphabetically, if you didn't get that part. And because this is The Awl, not only is A for apples and B for booze — but D is for Dexedrine and E is for éclair fillings. Just our kind of list.

Hu provides some lovely bits of information, too. Did you know, for example, that “Years ago Neil Simon mentioned a habit of rewarding himself for completing a difficult scene with a bag of Fritos”? How about that Nora Ephron was bonkers for Krispy Kremes? Or that Honoré de Balzac and Molière both went on milk-only diets? Or that Anton Chekhov loved oysters so much that, after he died, the freight car transporting his coffin was emblazoned with the word “oysters?” Oh, and my personal favorite: “As a young adult, Victor Hugo would eat half an ox in one sitting — and then fast for three days.” Finally, an explanation for Les Misérables.

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