Gourmet is pleased to present another excerpt from Obsessed with the Best, Ella Quittner’s wonderful new cookbook, in a special newsletter available to our Epicurean-level subscribers and above. (Interested in more bonus content like this? Upgrade your subscription, whydontcha?) We ran her recipe for Triple-Secret Meatballs last week, but couldn’t resist an opportunity to highlight more of Ella’s lovely writing. This essay left at least one worker-owner more than a little verklempt, and hope that you enjoy it as much as we did. 

The Best Dad

By ​​Ella Quittner

A special excerpt of Ella Quittner’s wonderful new book, for our higher-tiered subscribers.

The best pasta in the world can be found by the side of a surface road in a Japanese suburb called Kai, which is about ninety minutes by bullet train from Tokyo, and then four minutes by local train. As an American tourist, you’re unlikely to have ever heard of Kai unless (1) you are such a devoted fan of Super Smash Bros. that you happen to know that photographs of the town’s skyline served as temporary backdrops for the game when it was unfinished and called Dragon King: The Fighting Game; or (2) you are my unsuspecting travel companion and you let me design the whole itinerary.