Indemnity Only, by Sara Paretsky

V. I. Warshawski runs around Chicago, picking up food here and there.

* Lunch at a "quasi-Greek" place: crab salad and glass of chablis

* Lunch at Barb's Bar-B-Q: Fresca and chef's salad. V.I. really wants a burger and fries but worries that if she eats stuff like that she will end up with arm flaps, like an older woman she saw that day.

* Dinner date at a fancy restaurant, after V.I. is beaten up and is carrying the bruises: Senegalese Soup and spinach salad. Bread and butter. Coffee. Large dish of ice cream. With Kahlua.
V.I.'s date has baked oysters and quail. And some kind of gooey torte.

* At Bagel Works deli: two corned beef sandwiches (jumbo corned beef on rye) and a Fresca

* At little coffee shop: cheese omelette, juice, coffee

* At Lotty's place: "a little boiled chicken"

* Dinner with reporter: white wine, mostaccioli, heavy with cheese
Reporter has spaghetti with meatballs

* Dinner with date: poached salmon, salad bar, wine, Ahab's spectacular ice-cream-and-cordial (at this point she is "sick of being virtuous")

V.I. steps on a scale, notes she is down two pounds and wonders, because of "all the starch" she's been eating. Starch, V.I.?? How about fat?? And might I add, very little fiber has shown up in these meals.

* Lunch alone at a steak house: small butt steak, undressed salad, tall gin fizz

* Breakfast alone in a coffee shop: Denver omelette, no potatoes, whole wheat toast, juice.