If I’m a bit of a broken record on the subject, you’ll forgive me when you hear my sprightly, seasoned, and ridiculously well-informed colleague (Seattle Met and Portland Monthly are sister publications) read from her new book, The Mighty Gastropolis: Portland: A Journey Through the Center of America's New Food Revolution  (with Teri Gelber and Gideon Bosker, Chronicle Books, $24.95).

Fact is, I’d like it even if I didn’t like her so much. As I wrote when it hit the stands last month, Mighty Gastropolis “peels back the delectable underbelly of Portland’s irreverent scene, in recipes from and voraciously readable profiles of the chefs and foragers, the coffee roasters and portable oven porters, the meat slayers and food cart rebels and culinary bohemians whose ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude created a scene unlike anything else in America.”

And how did that come to happen? Well that’s what you’re going to Book Larder to hear, silly. This Friday, January 18, 6:30 to 8pm, free.