Cookbook author/New York Times columnist Mark Bittman is at Powell's tonight, touring with his latest, The Food Matters Cookbook, which expands on the recipes included in last year's Food Matters. The focus here is on plant- and grain-based meals, using meat as a complement to your main course, rather than the centerpiece. The point is to encourage a reduction in overall meat consumption—he doesn't so much care where or how you get your meat as long as you're eating less of it. (I interviewed Bittman for my review of Food Matters; at that time, he told me, "If you want to get one-third of your calories from alcohol and two-thirds from Brussels sprouts, that's still probably better than most people." So that's what I do now.)

I've only had a chance to try a few recipes from The Food Matters Cookbook; a savory tomato crisp was a great—albeit soggy—way to use up a weird crop of half-ripe tomatoes from the garden, while my roommate made a batch of Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder that was quite good. If you've already got How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, I'm not sure the new book is entirely necessary—my copy of Vegetarian is on loan, so I wasn't able to compare directly, but I'm thinking Food Matters might be more explicitly oriented toward eating healthily, but having both of them feels a tad redundant. (Having both of them plus How to Cook Everything feels extremely redundant, but they do look nice on my bookshelf.)

At any rate, I'm sure this'll be a fun reading—I've never seen him read before, but based on our interview he's a blunt, funny speaker. Maybe he'll even shit talk some more vegan restaurants.

Bittman is reading tonight at the downtown Powell's, 7:30 pm. If you can't make it tonight, Jack Bishop from America's Test Kitchen is reading at the Cedar Hills Powell's tomorrow at 7 pm; two weeks from today, On Food and Cooking author Harold McGee is at the downtown store. Your foodie dance card is filling up!