In the 1970s, Calvin Trillin informed America that its most glorious food was not to be found at the pretentious restaurants he referred to generically as La Maison de la Casa House, Continental Cuisine. With three hilarious books over the next two decades—American Fried; Alice, Let’s Eat; and Third Helpings—he established himself as, in Craig Claiborne’s phrase, “the Walt Whitman of American eats.” Trillin’s three comic masterpieces are now available in what Trillin calls The Tummy Trilogy.

"For those of us who devoured Trillin's food stories like the author himself gulping down a plate of dirty rice, the appearance of this omnibus volume couldn't be more welcome....[T]he book offers a chance to reacquaint ourselves not only with the mouth-watering local foodstuffs Trillin lusts after...but also with the eccentric cast of characters who accompany him on his crusades." Bill Ott, Booklist

"Trillin is our funniest food writer. He writes with charm, freedom, and a rare respect for language." Seymour Britchkey, New York

"As Proust took the simple madeleine and with genius made it a glory of a book, so Trillin takes the hamburger, takes the chili dog, takes the pizza, and does as much, or more." Henry Mitchell, The Washington Post Book World

"Trillin is to food writing what Chaplin was to film acting." Business Week

"Marvelously funny and horrifyingly mouth-watering." Rolling Stone

In the 1970s, Calvin Trillin informed us that the most glorious food in an American city was not to be found at the pretentious rooftop restaurant he called La Maison de la Casa House, Continental Cuisine. With three hilarious books, he established himself as "our funniest food writer" and, in Craig Claiborne's phrase, "the Walt Whitman of American eats". Now the three books have been combined in what Trillin calls The Tummy Trilogy.

Foreword ix
American Fried (1974)
1. The Traveling Man's Burden 3
2. Hometown Boy 10
3. The Ordeal of Fats Goldberg 23
4. The Dance of the Restaurant Trotters 33
5. A Sunday Morning Tale 44
6. Table Morals 53
7. Buckeye Gourmet 60
8. Harry Garrison 65
9. Idea Man 72
10. Marital Bliss 84
11. Eating Festively 92
12. Eating Sensibly 104
Alice, Let's Eat (1978)
1. Alice 117
2. Off the Beach 125
3. Stalking the Barbecued Mutton 131
4. To Market, to Market 145
5. Fly Frills to Miami 154
6. Mao and Me 162
7. Confessions of a Crab Eater 170
8. Dinner with Friends 181
9. British Boiled 187
10. A Softball, a Lump 199
11. Goldberg as Artifact 210
12. Air Freight 220
13. The Sound of Eating 228
14. Weekends for Two 235
15. Alice's Treat 247
Third Helpings (1983)
1. Spaghetti Carbonara Day 259
2. An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing 268
3. Divining the Mysteries of the East 276
4. Confessions of a Stand-up Sausage Eater 286
5. An Attempt to Compile the Definitive History of Didee's Restaurant 294
6. Ordering in Japanese 304
7. A Real Nice Clambake 312
8. Tasting 321
9. Fried-Chicken War 329
10. A Few Beers with Suds and Dregs 337
11. The Italian West Indies 345
12. Noble Experiment 353
13. A Stag Oyster Eat Below the Canal 362
14. Hong Kong Dream 370
15. Just Try It 379