The Naughti Literati

RConnelly - I find some GREAT buys at used bookstores around the city, so it's not as expensive a habit as it seems. I feel naked without at least two books on me, doesn't matter where I am. I carry a book light too. LOL That's it - I'm getting Candy Freak and Best Food Writing 2007 this weekend. And I just saw that Steve's essay from that anthology, Death by Lobster Pad Thai, is in the collection (Not That You Asked) I already have! Please check the story collections out. They're so good that I'm going to read them again. I'm definitely sold on My Life in France too...I'll get that before the month is out. John Thorne's Mouth Wide Open is out now too, I remember someone talking about how great he was in the Top 10 thread. I've heard mixed reviews on Gael Greene's book Insatiable but it seems like it's a good read...have that in my growing food lit pile as well!

I cannot WAIT to read that! Steve Almond is my favorite writer right now. He can write anything! I have his latest book, a collection of essays called Not That You Asked, and his two short story collections; My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B. B. Chow. If you are into fiction, those two are must-reads. The man is _bananas_. Glad to see this thread jumpin again, I figured it would be after all of the holiday bounty was received. I got the ProChef 8th Ed for myself last year and too thought the same thing about the pictures and their order, but overall I really enjoy reading it along with The French Culinary Institute's Techniques of Classical Cuisine, which I bought after I read The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry. Right now I'm slowly making my way through Secret Ingredients and Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking, having fallen in love with her newest called Desserts by the Yard. Was at the bookstore the other day and read a few selections from Best Food Writing 2007 (including an Almond essay on killing lobster LOL) but ended up leaving it there cause I spotted the 2008 Pushcart Prize anthology and had to have it. Trying to limit the books I buy to about 50 a month. That, Candyfreak and My Life in France are next on my list though!

Pear butter??? YUM!!!!!!!!!!! If anyone has a tried and true recipe they'd like to share, please do so. I love pears, the only thing I drink these days is pear nectar!

CanadianBakin' (what a great name!!) - You were right...today I lured my boyfriend into Barnes & Noble by reminding him that The Bourne Ultimatum was out on DVD. He offered to get me The Secrets of Baking if I let him watch his new movie in peace. I'm extremely happy with these three for now though!! You'll love Desserts by the Yard, I hope you get it soon! Mukki - I think what got me were the Amazon reviews for The Secrets of Baking, I didn't see it the other night but had to go for a look. I love the way it's organized; for someone who doesn't do a lot of baking like myself, it makes it so much less daunting and easier to be creative! I'm really looking forward to reading this one as well and tinkering with recipes from both. I want to make almost EVERYTHING in this new book, but I'll start with something simple. That White Chocolate-Buttermilk and Strawberry Cake is just *calling* me though. I have a few more hours to decide, and boy are the choices stupefying!

That is beeyoooootiful!!! Today I'm going to bake a carrot cake cheesecake and I'm thinking about doing the Brrrr-ownies from this book and perhaps something else I'll let my mom, aunt and grandmother request. This thread is spectacular. It's what made me buy the book, I'm so glad many of my questions have already been answered too!

I've got SOME experience, but not nearly as much as some of you in this forum seem to have! I asked my boyfriend who is a chef if he baked at all, and he said, "I bake CHICKENS." He wants no part of it, and he hates sweets cause he ate too many of them as a child in India. And all those rasgollas and burfis, etc stuff are sweeeeeet, so I understand. Thanks for your help, I like the way you describe the fruits as just flavoring components, that makes it easier to have fun experimenting with my own twists. I can only imagine how exciting working that event was! Here are some of the recipes I thought were cool, and the pictures...sheesh!!!!!: Charlotte Russe (the cover photo) Zeppoli (Italian doughnuts) Rainbow Room Chocolate Souffle (funny story behind that one about having to get it from a different floor without having it fall before it reached the table) Coffee Stracciatela Ice Cream (I need an ice cream maker now, my mom would LOVE this!) Pain Perdu with Concord Grape Poached Pears Souffleed Creme Fraiche Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce (inspired by her trip to Austria) President Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies (created when she learned he couldn't eat chocolate) Chocolate Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Gelato Honey-glazed Spago Corn Bread Mango Pudding Doggy Treats (created for her dog and doggie guests of The Campton Hotel, says to serve with a big bowl of Fiji Water ) Forbidden Rice Pudding (saw that in Dorie's book - beautiful photo in this one!) Yuzu Lemon-lime Meringue Pie Pistachio Gelato with Deep, Dark, Decadent Doughnuts Lime-scented Floating Islands with Yuzu Curd Ice Cream ETA: I lied, now I want The Secrets of Baking too. LOL

I picked this up last night, it is SUCH a beautiful book. Having bought Dorie's book on Wednesday night, I thought about it and had to double back for this one and I don't think I'll need another baking book ever again in life! If you haven't seen this book, you must go and check it out at once! It's a fun narrative of her life in pastry beginning with her childhood in Brooklyn and her stints at great restaurants along her journey to where she is today (Spago). Each recipe has a little anecdote and it really reads like a memoir with fabulous recipes and a picture for almost every one. The pictures will take your breath away! They range from simple things like lemon ices reminiscent of the ones she had as a child in Brooklyn, to her version of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies (mmm....) to some of the decadent dessets she made for the Oscars. My question though, is substituting bananas. I don't really like them, and definitely not in my desserts (at least I'm not alone, having read that "Foods You're Supposed to Like" thread. LOL For instance, there's a Banana Chocolate Chip Souffle Mountain recipe that looks amazing; would I be able to substitute white chocolate chips and strawberries instead? Same question for the banana brulee. I hope one of you experts already has or will get this book so I can see some of your creations! I will post mine hopefully next week. In the meantime, I am content to keep reading that Dorie Greenspan thread!

Oh my GOD! I picked this up last night and came in this thread to rave about it myself. On Wednesday night I chose Dorie Greenspan's book over this one because it had more recipes and I'd wanted it for so long, but I couldn't stop thinking about how outstanding Desserts by the Yard was and so I HAD to go back for it. I too love the amusing back stories behind many of the recipes and the way they are arranged by the time periods in her life at all these great restaurants! I pretty much read it cover to cover and can't wait to get to my grandmother's house on Monday. Between this and the 37-page thread on Dorie's book with Dorie herself chiming in, I'm in heaven. I was about to start a thread myself!

I just laughed so loud that I woke up my boyfriend and he is HEATED. Ditto, though I recall reading something by MFK Fisher in which she prepared a heart for her father! And pork bung...OMFG! Was it round and about the size of a quarter?

My favorite way to eat brussel sprouts: Halve the sprouts, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast in one layer in a baking dish in a 450 degree oven, stirring every 10 minutes until caramelized and almost tender (25-35 minutes.) Turn oven down to 350 and pour 1/2 inch of heavy cream over and bake 15-20 minutes, until cream reduces and browns. Spinkle top w/ fresh grated Parmesan cheese mixed with fresh bread crumbs and bake until top is golden (5-10 more minutes.) Yum! Sometimes I mix thick slices of Vidalia onion and cauliflower florets in with the sprouts. The caramelized veggies, cream and cheese flavors are fantastic. ← Wow, thank you so much. That sounds like EXACTLY what I want. And I forgot all about my Culinary Artistry book, which lists the following items that go well with brussel sprouts (many of which have been posted, including the ingredients in your recipe)! Almonds Anchovies Apples Bacon Bread crumbs Butter Carrots Cheese (e.g., Parmesan, Swiss, Taleggio) Chestnuts Cream Duck fat Eggs, hard-boiled Garlic Grapefruit Ham Hollandaise sauce Lemon Mushrooms Mustard Nutmeg Onions Pancetta Parsley Pepper, black Peppers, sweet Pignoli Rosemary Salt Thyme Veal gravy Vinegar Walnuts Methods: bake, boil, braise, parboil, saute, steam I *love* this book! I was reminded to flip through it again when I raved about their most recent, What to Drink With What You Eat, in the Food Literature forum.

LOL Alright, I'm just gonna go with Union Square because you can walk almost anywhere from there! Especially where the great spots in the East and West Village are. Plus Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are right there for groceries, not to mention the greenmarket and Food Emporium. AND The Strand.

I read Heat when it was first published and the Love Letters stick out in my mind, probably because it's much tamer than some of the other offerings - I don't blame your boyfriend one bit. LOL Looking forward to your review!

I say East Village/Union Square area and then midtown too! I put midtown second because it lacks the overall flavor that the EV has as a neighborhood. And I'm TELLIN y'all, check out that book The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the New New York! It is awesome and the Lower East Side also gets its props in a chapter as well as far as Manhattan goes. Mayur, Mario Batali was at Brick Lane with his fam on Saturday night! When my boyfriend (the chef) called me and told me that he met him and talked to him for a minute, I think I was more excited than he was. Off to the Babbo thread, it is high time to make a reservation.

Yeah, great review, I have been wanting this since I first saw it but that evening I got Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink instead. I'll pick this up this weekend!

Ha! Glad to be of help. Your dad is going to be thrilled.

I just wanted to give the heads up about Kathleen Flinn signing copies of this book tonight at 7, at Borders Columbus Circle. This is SUCH a good book, I read it two months ago and have been recommending it since. If you are in the area, I definitely say come out and enjoy the event! The book is about a woman who is "downsized" from her corporate job in Seattle and decides to move to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu. I wrote a gushing review of it on Amazon so you can find out more there, and the author blogs on there as well! She says that tonight a sampling of French cheeses will be offered. LOL I'm on my mobile device so I can't hyperlink, but here is the cover and the link to the book! http://www.amazon.com/Sharper-Your-Knife-L...u/dp/0670018228 I'm counting down the hours.

It's so good because of the way it is organized and the beautiful photographs, along with the advice of all the top chefs and sommoliers, not to mention the track record of the authors themselves! The book is 350 pages, and the first section after a few essays on wines, etc is the foods and then the wines that go well with them. Another section is the list of wines and the foods that go well with them, a reverse lookup of sorts! And it's not just wine that the authors discuss and pair - every beverage from champagne to regular water is included, every food from lobster to Twinkies is included. There IS no other book that can touch this one. The book is all-color and SO organized. There are HUNDREDS of tips, essays, interviews and even a smattering of recipes from chefs and sommoliers sprinkled throughout (just like in Becoming a Chef and Culinary Artistry) and in the back of the book there are even several tasting menus with wine parings taken from the top restaurants! The Amazon link I provided will show you that those that have taken the time to review it also agree...I need to copy and paste this one on there! LOL What you need to do is go *straight* to the bookstore, look at it and see for yourself, right away. Even what I just wrote doesn't do it justice. You will NEED it in your life. Aight?!

OMG This book, What to Drink with What You Eat, is INCREDIBLE!!! You should take a look at it and see...not only is it for wine, it's for everything and I love it. The authors also wrote Culinary Artistry, which has been a favorite for years now. That's the first book that came to mind!

A vegan subsitute...hmmm...you could put salted down tofu in a mold, see if Williams & Sonoma has a nut mold...might not be much of a vas deferens! I can't get Chef from South Park's song out of my head now!

So what you're saying is that spam is a reasonable substitute for pig's testicles? Hmmm, that would put an interesting twist on a Hawaiian specialty, musubi! ← LOL That's probably what Spam IS!!! I just remember it being really salty. And my stepfather convulsing with laughter as I ate...then I promptly stopped. This thread is probably why I had a nightmare that there was a tiny potbellied pig running around my house and I had to catch it and get it outta there! What a daring meal, I'm curious to see how they turned out too! Are pig testicles and sheep testicles both called mountain oysters? I shudder to think of all the poor, unsuspecting folks who had "fries" too. LOL

Okay?!?! I got tricked into eating some once when I was a teenager. You're better off with a can of Spam and it's much easier to prepare. LOL

This thread is making me craaave some brussel sprouts! They have been my favorite ever since I was a little girl. Great pics on the first page. I recently saw a recipe for brussel sprouts with cheese but I can't remember what kind of cheese or where I saw the recipe. Any suggestions?

I am TOO through, I completely forgot about it...but tomorrow night at Borders Columbus Circle there will be a talk/signing with several chefs and the edtior of My Last Supper! I posted about it in that thread in the food lit forum...

Wow, I'd love to know that too. Reading that section of The Soul of a Chef was one of the most exciting parts of that book...it was culinary suspense/thriller! Anybody who makes it through that and passes is a BEAST.

Try this (encountered first at Busboy's house, since adopted at my home): slice black radishes thinly on a rickety mandoline, then pile them on a slice of thickly buttered baguette and sprinkle with crunchy salt. Makes a super-easy hors d'oeuvre. It took me a while to warm up to truffles, but now I love them. My daughter tasted truffles for the first time recently. She took a bite, her eyes lit up, and she said "Wow, this tastes just like dirt!" Not the reaction I was expecting. ← I can't stop laughing at this. How old was she at the time. HILARIOUS!!!! What a great thread. Nduran is killin me ovah heah! LMAO! The two things I can think of off the top of my head are squid and octopus. If I see that anywhere near where I'm eating I am likely to faint! I just can't get with no tentacles and suction cups. Hayyle naw. And offal...is awful. I do experiment with other things I used to have aversions to to see if my palate has matured though...