EAT #7
Zine, Dan Varenka & Jazz Robinson, 20 pgs, EAT: The Zine About Food,breakfastallthetime.blogspot.com, $5
Recognizable at a distance as a school-style composition notebook, Varenka and Robinson do a good job in presenting the latest edition of their zine EAT as a “What I did on my summer vacation”-style journal entry. The joint effort of a Rochester teacher and a Chicago cheesemonger, this entry in the EAT zine series is an unassuming project that falls somewhere between class project and personal food blog. It features short reviews of the foreign licorice sold in an Adirondack general store, the four strange flavours of potato chip made available by Lays in 2015, and a mostly-disappointing bagel shop in Hampton, New Hampshire, among other topics. EAT #7 has a casual sense of humour and its creators are aware that its audience might not be actual card-carrying foodies. (On one page, the citation reads: ‘From teausa.com’s ‘Tea fact sheet 2014.’ I’m sure it’s all accurate.”) EAT
#7 is just as much about the everyday existences of its creators as it is about their encounters with perfectly ordinary food. It should be read as such, and readers will have the most fun if they don’t take it seriously. (Joel W. Vaughan)