FRESH FOOD

How to select, store, and simply prepare fresh foods: fruits and vegetables, meats and fish, poultry and dairy products. Rosenthal packs her basic information in clear wrappers with little fat showing, listing peak months for specific produce, suggesting cold water for egg-yolk stains, offering tips for tired lettuce (cream soup) and that new kid on the block, spaghetti squash. And she makes room for marginal tidbits--Peter Rabbit favored parsley as an antidote. But ultimately this omnivorous guide is too ambitious, relegating natural cheeses to a skimpy paragraph with no substance, welcoming the decline in chicken prices without acknowledging the concomitant loss in taste. For novice shoppers, an elementary source but watch for soft spots.