Practically Useless Information: Food & Drink
By Norman Kolpas
(Rutledge Hill Press, 2005)

Reviewed by Nancy Huang

Did you know that June 8 is National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day? Or what a “shingle with a shimmy and a shake” is? Or how to make a Cincinnati “five-way”? It’s all here in Practically Useless Information: Food & Drink, a trivia book by food writer and cookbook author Norman Kolpas. Kolpas, who wrote the book for people who “go for the sidebars first,” has filled this small hardback with the kinds of random culinary and potable material you would find in cookbook or magazine sidebars. Facts range from wacky, such as how to slice a banana without removing the peel, to practical, like the cooking temperature of various meats.

For food lovers and trivia buffs, this book makes for an interesting addition to a cookbook shelf. Although many will never use the information in the book (except for maybe a Trivial Pursuit game), the random facts are interesting enough to keep you preoccupied for a while. “The contents are entirely arbitrary, dictated solely by the kind of oddball stuff that fascinates me and is likely to draw my attention... It’s the sort of useless information that so many people really can’t live without,” Kolpas said of his book. He has also written another book for the “Practically Useless Information” series called Weddings, which features quirky facts about marriage customs and ceremonies.

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