OffBeat designer/food writer Elsa Hahne received an excellent write-up from Judy Walker in The Times-Picayune today for her new book, You Are Where You Eat: Stories and Recipes from the Neighborhoods of New Orleans:

The beauty of the book is that it takes you inside 33 kitchens, into the hearts and homes of the cooks, as you hear their voices. It’s a significant work in so many ways.

Marietta Esther Schleh Herr talks about how her mother made spaetzle by hand and prided herself on how long the noodles were.

Yo Chin talks about his grandfather, who came here from China around 1909 and had a dried shrimp business in Grand Isle. He walked and danced on the dried shrimp to separate the shells and heads.

Thomas Dugan Westfeldt II, a coffee importer who lives in the Garden District, gives his favorite recipes for “Mother-in-Law Meatballs,” the Ojen cocktail and cafe brulot.

Mayola Ann Brumfield of the B.W. Cooper neighborhood talks about her love of cooking and how she once gave a supper when she needed $300 to buy her daughter’s school ring. She made fried chicken, baked macaroni, lettuce and tomato salad, green peas, bread, cake, fish, potato salad and yakameat (yakamein). She prayed that she would make $300, and made almost a thousand dollars because the whole neighborhood came.

Hahne will sign copies of You Are Where You Eat Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Garden District Book Shop.