Not so long ago, when I was in my mid-thirties and employed in Manhattan, I had an after-work ritual. Two or three nights a week, before boarding a train at Grand Central to my house in the exurbs, I’d stop at Jimmy’s Corner, a boxing bar, for a martini and a beer. The bartender, Mike, had studied with the novelist John Gardner and had good stories on tap. Next, I’d sneak into Grand Central Oyster Bar for a dozen briny Cotuits or Malapeques. When I got home, my wife was invariably working on recipes for her first cookbook, which was about steak. I was eating large.
Gin, beer, oysters, steak: These are a few of my favorite things, the four horsemen of the four essential food groups— spicy, crispy, salty,…
