East Village Cookbook: Adventures, Anecdotes, and Tales of a Downtown New York Community Told Through Our Food

This bold, big-hearted community cookbook captures the character and history of New York City's East Village neighborhood.

Published to support a soup kitchen and food pantry across from Tompkins Square Park in the heart of the East Village, it features recipes and the occasional story from local cooks, famous residents, and beloved and renowned restaurants.

A very partial list of contributors includes:

• Veselka, Momofuku, Cafe Mogador, Superiority Burger, B & H Dairy, and Veniero’s,
• Susan Sarandon, Alan Cumming, legendary punk musician Richard Hell, and magician and mentalist Prakesh Puru

Recipes include:

• Nana's Apple Cake, a recipe she brought as a teenager from Belarus
• Pernil from Gena's Grill, "Proudly serving Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban cuisine to the East Village since the 1970s"
• Berbere Spice Eggs, with butter from Key Food
• Iced Coffee inspired by Porto Rico Importing on St. Mark's 

There's also an evocative tip of the hat to various vanished institutions like:

• CBGB/OMFUG, Fillmore East, and The Saint
• Life Cafe, Jeepney, Northern Spy, and William Barnacle Tavern

Bound in a plastic comb favored by community cookbooks published across the US for many decades, the book sports a funky, graphic-intensive design which includes vintage logos, maps, reprints of family recipe cards, and at least one recipe submitted by text message.

Assembled by Will Horowitz, who ran Duck's Eatery and Harry and Ida's Meat and Supply in the neighborhood, East Village Cookbook does an amazing job presenting the culinary heritage of one of the city's most diverse neighborhoods and thus of New York City itself.

Plastic comb binding with a vellum overcover. There are six different vellum overcovers; which one you receive will be determined at random because this is the East Village we're talking about here. Line art throughout—it's worth taking at look at the interior photos to appreciate how well Champions Design has captured the East Village vibe.

Sales of this book benefit Trinity Services and Food for the Homeless, which operates a soup kitchen and food pantry across from Tompkins Square Park in the heart of NYC's East Village neighborhood.  In addition, through Friday, February 14, Kitchen Arts & Letters will contribute an additional $10 for each copy we sell.