Largo FL, July 7, 2011, PR Newswire/-- SHORT ORDERS: Food Stories and Travels is fiction and non-fiction about food in our lives. Savor these quirky, sometimes thought-provoking, slices-of-life. Haggis embarrassment Subway refreshments -- Brazil yesterday Coconut lifeline -- Everglades dining -- Chocolate that couldnt melt -- Nude on a sushi platter -- Hippie ending -- Where cookbooks get written -- Iron Chef farce -- Doggy-bag indexing Brewsky in Greece -- French army potato salad -- Jasons parents tinis -- Big Easy hangover Picnic spoiler -- Elevator passion Blackmail beauty Dinner table baggage artists -- Corn smut and white marble -- Imitating Indian -- Wedding pig-out -- Bush doctors secrets sixty-three in all! A selection from Martindales story titled, You Plan the Best Picnics: They met in Barnes & Nobles Starbucks. Each had an expensive book to browse and never buy. However, the sky was threatening, the Friday afternoon free and the shortbread tasty. His name was Tucker, and he spotted the lovely girl first. He stared at her which he knew would make her look toward him, and she did. Instantly their eyes bounced off each other and back to their unimportant pages. Tucker did it again. After their eyes met for the second time, he made sign language, his own. He pointed to himself, then he pointed to her table, raised his brows and waited to see if she performed some form of headshake meaning yes. She did better than that. She pulled out her empty chair and pointed to it, a bit of a smile on her face. Some of us eat to live; others live to eat. Soon we realize how important food is to all peoples, rich or poor, how celebratory, how labor-intense, how meager for some and extremely regional. Food matters all around us due to its history, evolution, sheer fun, traveling ways, versatility, acquisition, recipe adaptation, preparation and marketing through simple evolution. Martys writing is captivating. It has just enough humor, yet there's an undeniable flavor of real-world education with her anecdotes. There's maturity and substance to it, however youthful the stories are. J. Lipinski, Massachusetts About the author: With a background in social/cultural anthropology, broadcast media, hotels and travel writing, Martindale delves into food from its fun as well as serious sides. For over 30 years, she has contributed to several food encyclopedias, Storied Dishes, Culinary Biographies, travel, food, and trade magazines and newspapers. Martindale founded Food Site of the Day, now Foodsite Magazine, in 2001, weekly site picks, articles, special archives, reviews, frequent blogging and menu sampling. Though a native New Englander, she now lives on the west coast of Florida after spending many years in New Mexico and Mississippis Gulf Coast.