The basis for the movie starring Kathy Bates, Ambulance Girl is an inspiring story by a woman who found, somewhat late in life, that “in helping others I learned to help myself.”Jane Stern was a walking encyclopedia of panic attacks, depression, and hypochondria. Her marriage of more than thirty years was suffering, and she was virtually immobilized by fear and anxiety. As the daughter of parents who both died before she was thirty, Stern was terrified of ...

Tarot cards have been used to foretell the future for centuries. Once the domain of the esoteric and mystical, tarot today has many practical applications in the modern world. Jane Stern, a fourth generation tarot reader perhaps best known for Roadfood, has given the art of the tarot a very modern spin. Using the twenty-two major arcana cards (the “heart of the tarot”) as chapters, she has gleaned all she has learned over the years and presents Confessions of a Tarot Reader

What are the all-time best dishes America has to offer, the ones you must taste before they vanish, so delicious they deserve to be a Holy Grail for travelers? Where's the most vibrant Key lime pie in Florida? The most sensational chiles rellenos in New Mexico? The most succulent fried clams on the Eastern Seaboard? The most memorable whoopie pies, gumbos, tacos, cheese steaks, crab feasts? In 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late, "America's leading authorities on the culinary d...

First published in 1977, the original Roadfood became an instant classic. James Beard said, "This is a book that you should carry with you, no matter where you are going in these United States. It's a treasure house of information."Now this indispensable guide is back, in an even bigger and better edition, covering 500 of the country's best local eateries from Maine to California. With more than 250 completely new listings and thorough updates of old favorites, the new

Recipes and photos from the beloved restaurant: "Perhaps America's foremost experts on regional food." — San Diego MagazineSouthern California Cooking from The Cottage captures the romance, the relaxation, and the good life of one of Southern California's most beloved restaurants. Included are the recipes that have made The Cottage a favorite for decades with breakfast items such as muffins, coffee cakes, Greek, Italian, and seafood omelets, Belgian waffles...

Mixing elegance with an island attitude, Louie's Backyard is an award-winning Key West, Florida restaurant famous for its fine food and relaxed oceanfront ambience, and what marks the food at Louie's backyard is innovation.Chef Doug Shook likes to create new variations daily. "Inventing is the joy of cooking," he says, which means the recipes in The Louie's Backyard Cookbook are the best of many recipes Shook has created over the years. They are for people...

Part diner, part family-style restaurant, the Famous Dutch Kitchen Restaurant in Frackville, Pennsylvania, north of Lancaster County, serves up some of the best food in this popular tourist area visited by more than five million people each year. Feast on turkey pot pie, ham and cabbage casserole, and delicious vegetables. The cornbread is moist, flavorful, and nearly as sweet as cake. And top it all off with shoofly pie or the Famous Dutch Kitchen's signature Atomic Banana Split.P...

A Roadfood™ CookbookThe colorful history of El Charro Café and the 150 recipes for vibrant, exciting Mexican food make this book as unique and entertaining as the 80-year-old restaurant itself. It is rumored that in the 1940s, founder Monica Flin would sit on the El Charro patio, sipping martinis from teacups and playing cards with John Wayne, who was in Tucson to film westerns. Today the restaurant is run by Carlotta Flores and her husband, Ray. The El Charro Café...

No restaurant defines Yankee cooking as well as Boston's Durgin-Park. In anatmosphere of clattering dishes, conversation, and sharp-tongued waitresses, itserves its time-hallowed specialties: roast beef that may be the best anywhere,incredible quantities of Boston baked beans, New England boiled dinners,chowder, apple pie, apple pan dowdy, and hot cornbread.Few restaurants can claim a tradition as long and entrenched as Durgin-Park. Founded in 1827, it has had only four owners. Che...

Chicken and Dumplings, Fried Green Tomatoes, Cornbread, Collard Greens, and Sugared Pecans!By any measure, the Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, Georgia is as southern as you can get. Proprietor Billie Van Dyke says that no one is allowed to leave hungry, and certainly no one should after feasting on a variety of Southern salads, meats, vegetables, breads and desserts and, of course, sweet tea, the "Champagne of the South," and lemonade. Housed in a gloriously restored southern man...

For foodies, wordsmiths, and anyone who loves to eat, an illustrated guide to authentic American fare, from the beloved Roadfood teamIn linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. In The Lexicon of Real American Food, renowned foodies Jane and Michael Stern record the lingo of American food as it is spoken—and enjoyed—across the nation. With their signature wit and exuberance, they define how Amer...

Recipes from the Vermont inn that has delighted diners for over two hundred years: "Perhaps America's foremost experts on regional food." — San Diego MagazineThe Dorset Inn, an extraordinarily romantic special-occasion restaurant, is a destination for those who go through southern Vermont to ski and sightsee. People honeymoon here, have anniversary meals here, and come to the Dorset Inn to get away from it all. It's a place rich with historical association ...