-
What’s cognitively dissonant about “An Economist Gets Lunch” is that Mr. Cowen combines this needling with his own brand of chowhound hipsterism. His book is also a long, Calvin Trillin-like ode to tamale stands and strip-mall joints and ethnic food, the more exotic the better.
These cuisines appeal to the economist in him because they’re cheap and innovative. His book is packed with sentences like “Bolivian, Laotian and North Korean are staples of my dining out” and “I know how ‘Husband and Wife Lung Slices’ taste (not bad).”
This combination of elements takes some getting used to. Reading Mr. Cowen — he is a professor of economics at George Mason University near Washington, the author of a best-selling e-book titled “The Great Stagnation,” and a food blogger — is like watching a middle-aged man in a blue blazer play Hacky Sack at a My Morning Jacket concert.
"Dwight Garner, “A Contrarian Chowhound Weighs In”, New York Times (now that’s what I call a simile)
