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The Naughti Literati

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  1. ALSO a great idea. Whatever gets those words on that paper/screen. LOL ETA: One last thing! An AWESOME book about style and tone is The Sound on the Page: Great Writers Talk about Style and Voice in Writing by Ben Yagoda. If this is something you have been grappling with, this is a fun and informative way to think more on how to find yours.
  2. The most crucial part of a memoir is finding your tone and narrowing your focus so you definitely have to spend some more time thinking about that; I suggest you pick up many of the writing guides available on memoirs. It helps to write what speaks to you the most. Career memoirs are very hot these days too so now would be a good time to pitch it. One waiter's writings I like is ol' boy over at Waiterrant.net - he is funny as HELL and a very good writer, he also has a large following. That's not you is it? Hahahaha People always come up to me with all these great book ideas and never want to sit down and DO it...everyone wants to have written but not to write...you sound like you have a lot to say, so...handle your business. LOL Start with an outline. What are you going to present to your audience that is different from the other books already on the market? Your experience makes you an authority on the subject so that is the easy part. Organize your thoughts either by timeline or by subject and just start putting the ideas down. You have to start somewhere and as soon as you do, the clearer the picture in your head of where you want to go with it will be. From there you just fill in the details! I like that you say thoughtful when you describe what you want it to be - so your audience is probably more New Yorker and GQ than Maxim, your tone and angle intelligent, provocative and witty - you're making me think of Alan Richman's Fork It Over from a service perpsective...? Agents love shit like that. LOL
  3. OMG this threaaaaad!!!! I feel like fainting. I have lived in NY for 5 years now and the *first* thing I do when I visit the fam in Philly is get a hoagie. Even if it's Wawa. LOL I once even had a dream that I was driving around 23rd and 7th up here looking for a hoagie shop and woke up in a cold sweat! My friend has turned me onto The Hoagie Factory, now he can't come up here unless he has a big ole Italian, extra mayo, extra provolone, hot peppers, oregano, oil, and vinegar one from there for me. I told that mf that he should consider that his EZ Pass!!!!
  4. Today I'm headed out to go pick up The French Culinary Institute's Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine. It is such a beautiful book and I have been lusting after it for a few weeks now. It's basically a textbook for the students in the Total Immersion courses and has been adapted for home use. I started wanting it after I read The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry because of the author's time spent at Le Cordon Bleu and I've always been a little apprehensive about French cooking. I do have Chocolate & Zucchini, which I love but want more of a primer. At $75 it's definitely an item I could have put on my Christmas list but I can't wait any longer and I have a 30% off coupon from Borders that expires in two days. LOL ETA: here is the link to the book; I'm in bed on my Sidekick so I can't hyperlink. Worth clicking though! Anyone else seen or have this? http://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Techniqu...94416920&sr=1-1 ETA2: I'm getting Arabesque for my mother - she's a bellydancer and a fanatic for all things Middle Eastern!
  5. I picked up Secret Ingredients last night and am really enjoying it! While at the bookstore, I saw that Best Food Writing 2007 is out, I'll be getting that one next. This has been a great fall season for food writing and books of all kinds! I'm in heaven.
  6. Wow, I was about to start a thread about Secret Ingredients!! It does look like a fun book, I think I have to buy that next...like tomorrow. My immaturity got the best of me at the store today and I got Borat's new book instead. Secret Ingredients should definitely make up for the lack of your New Yorker food issue and then some! The Food Snob's Dictionary is funny, he's a great writer. The United States of Arugula is a new favorite of mine as well. And I love your screen name. LOL ETA: Here is the link to The World in a City that I was raving about last night!
  7. Hi Siouxsie! This is my favorite section. LOL I came in here to rave about The World in a City by Joseph Berger! He's a NYT reporter who traveled the many neighborhoods of NYC and has written a fascinating book about how they are changing, the many ethnic groups and places to visit and eat while you are in certain ones. It's SUCH a great book, I had to log on and share. In the past few weeks I've picked up Everybody Eats There: The World of Celebrity Restaurants, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, The Amateur Gourmet, and A Late Dinner (the food of Spain). Tomorrow I must get No Reservations!
  8. I used to be curious about the place but it was rather expensive compared to the other places so I'd eat at Taj Mahal - til they started the lunch buffet. I became a regular then! One day I went in there with a cookbook (Mangoes & Curry Leaves) and asked to speak to the chef about certain spices and to my surprise out comes this fly-ass young dude. Been with him ever since. Two years and 20 pounds and a million terrific food writing books later, I haven't any regrets. LOL! After reading all the great things about Devi on here, I can't WAIT to go. The cookbook is *gorgeous* and the first thing I thought when I saw it was that we had to go on his next day off. I'm going back to B&N to grab a signed copy if there are any left! Then we'll hit Chola. There's another HUGE place in midtown in the lower 50's on the east side that has an extensive buffet that is quite good but I can't think of the name, I'll find it! I know it's a short walk from Harper Collins which is on 53rd... EDITED TO ADD: Hi Mayur, thanks! I'll be sure to tell him tonight. I just looked on the Devi website and it says they will be opening late October. http://www.suvir.com/devi/devi.html So if it's not open this upcoming Tuesday, perhaps we'll do Chola first instead. Sounds great.
  9. My boyfriend is the head chef at Brick Lane so I can totally co-sign on the food being delicious. And spicy. He has mentioned that many Brits come there, there's even even a curry club of some sort that was there recently! LOL Raji, he is from Chennai too! If you were to go during lunch (they have a great buffet), he sometimes makes South Indian dishes for the buffet and has turned me on to a lot of them...I love bisibele bath, idlis, dosas and sambar, vada (the little doughnut-shaped ones?), and almost everything he makes at home too except for that yogurt rice. When we go out to eat, we like Saravaanas too. I want to check Devi out, I saw the new cookbook, American Masala, on Tuesday and Chef Saran was at B&N Chelsea last night signing copies but I didn't make it out. A friend of ours is at Tamarind, another at Chola and we plan to make it up there as well!
  10. Speaking of John Thorne, I see that he has a new book coming out next month called Mouth Wide Open! I'm on my Sidekick so I can't hyperlink, but the info should be on Amazon (I'm looking at a catalog).
  11. I've read some great reviews on The Last Chinese Chef and forgot to put that on my list! Another one that looks promising and could be added to the one above may be The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry - it's about a woman moving to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu - sorta like a French The Making of a Chef. I'm definitely getting that tonight. I have an advance copy of Beyond Nose to Tail, which should be out this month if it isn't already. I got it in June and flipped through it, saw some recipes for Roast Half Pig's Head and Chicken and Ox Tongue Pie, then put it down cause I don't really get down like that. LOL Picking it up again I see there's a lot more other things I COULD make, like the salads, breads and desserts!
  12. Got an advance copy of this the other day, I LOVE it! Of course, the essay writing is beautiful and the glossary is super-informative as well; taking the simplest definitions and giving them thorough explanations that show the care and consideration put into them. For example - Clean: Perhaps one of the most important adjectives for food and kitches and also one of the most important verbs as well. Clean flavors are always to be pursued, flavors that most purely represent the food being cooked; clean also denotes a harmony of flavor pairings. Stocks are said to be clean when they are relatively clear and fresh. Sauces are said to be clean when they have been properly cooked and strained and used, and not muddy, old, gluey, or off, as they can become if not cared for. Cleaning is among the most important activities in the kitchen. A common refrain among chefs is "always be cleaning". Keep your food clean, your stovetop clean, your work surfaces clean. The unusual and fascinating dynamics of cooking are such that cluttered or dirty surfaces work their correlative clutter into the food. Clean is also a state of mind and a description of a cook's abilities, as in the phrase "working clean" - which means a cook not only looks clean and is keeping his or her work surfaces clean and organized, but is also working efficiently, is in control, no wasted moves. ************************** I'm definitely getting a few copies for friends when it hits the shelves too!
  13. How about John Lanchester's A Debt to Pleasure? I wouldn't displace any books here given the context of this thread, but I think it provides an answer to your question. ← Nice, I'll add that to my shopping list this weekend! Thanks!
  14. Did anyone go to see her at Borders Columbus Circle on Tuesday night? I was going to, but there was NFW that I was gonna miss Junot Diaz at the Cervantes Insitute in midtown once I heard about that. I do hope to catch her elsewhere sometime, was hoping she'd at least be at the New Yorker Festival! If I see anymore upcoming events, I'll post.
  15. Speaking of David Kamp, The United States of Arugula would be a fun, informative read to add to that list. I've picked up The Perfectionist many times, will have to check it out again! @ Mayhaw Man - I've seen Salt and Cod, Cod was on a display table at B&N just the other day. It made me think about one of my favorite places, A Salt & Battery in the Village. There used to be one in the East Village around the corner from my house and I was on a first name basis with those folks for a while. They shirts that said "In Cod We Trust" for sale. LOL Isn't he also the author of Choice Cuts, which seems to be a collection of his writings similar to The Nasty Bits? Next time I'm at the bookstore I'll look at those again too. As far as food in fiction, that's a good question! Like Water for Chocolate would be an obvious answer, though I'm drawing a blank on other titles. Suggestions?
  16. BIG co-sign on Ruhlman. I have to check out The Outlaw Cook, thanks! I have all on the list except The Tummy Trilogy and The Physiology of Taste.
  17. Bruni tore Gramercy Park's Wakiya out the FRAME today!!! My goodness. I gotta go read some more of your Turning the Tables: Asian dining thread, Fat Guy!
  18. Marcus Samuelsson (Aquavit) has a GORGEOUS cookbook called The Soul of a New Cuisine that I bought last night. It's African cooking and I'm really looking forward to experimenting with it as the weather cools down and food gets heartier! I saw a scaled-down version of this in Starbucks along with some treats he created for them and it reminded me to pick this up. The photography is breathtaking, and actually, so is he. LOL
  19. That's a good question and I think it really all depends on your personality. I'm an extrovert and don't mind being chatted up as long as the person knows their boundaries and that when I am ready to enjoy my solitude, they respect that. Otherwise, it's a good way to make new acquaintances/friends! When I was in Paris, this guy followed me out of the bistro and kept speaking French, even though I told him that I didn't understand a word he was saying! So finally, I pointed to myself and said, "MEEEEE - Bonsoir?!" and pointed in one direction, then pointed at him and said, "YOUUUUUU - AU REVOIR!!!" and pointed in the other. LMFAO! He got the hint and carried his derierre on up the street though!
  20. I ask for a table. There's more room for my various reading materials, crosswords, side dishes, salad dressings...you get the idea. When I've sat at the bar inevitably some guy tried to pick me up. I save us both the trouble and get a table every time now. eta- shpelling correktshun ← HA! Soooo true. There's not much space at the bar and if it's busy then chances are you may be jostled around a bit, then have a bunch of noise on top of that. I WILL toss back a drink or two if I need to wait for a table though!
  21. I keep mentioning this book I got the other night (posted in Food Literature section) cause it is sooooo good - The Gourmet Shops of New York! It would be easy to put one together a fun one from there, if someone wants to do that as the gorgeous fall weather approaches then I am totally game, I'd love to meet some of you! Otherwise, I haven't done any tours aside from wandering around in Soho and Little Italy from time to time. I take my boyfriend to Harlem for soul food (Spoonbread on 137th and Lenox is my fave), and he takes me to Jackson Heights and Journal Square. But he's a chef anyway so I eat Indian food all the time. I want to see more of the city in general cause I've been such a homebody lately, and the outer boroughs, especially Brooklyn and The Bronx. In the Time Out New York Kitchen Report 2007 issue, the chefs surveyed mentioned Jackson Heights being the best enclave of ethnic food, followed by Arthur Ave in The Bronx. I can't wait for The New Yorker Festival either!!!
  22. I am a solo act...I feel exactly the same way! Love my boyfriend, friends, and fam but I enjoy my own quiet company best. LOL There's a new book I saw recently called Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant, and it's a compilation of essays, recipes for one, and other goodies about the art of dining alone. I flipped through it, maybe that is the book I'll take with me next time I need a table for one!
  23. I met Laurent Tourondel back in June during the Book Expo at Javits, he has a cookbook coming out in October called BLT. I got an advance copy (paperback B&W, book will be published in full-color hardcover), and it's very nice! He was doing a cooking demo and made green pea risotto with duck pancetta. It was really nice but he was hard to understand at times. LOL I want to check out his new market, I've been to the spot on 57th though. Lately I've been stuck on Bobby Van's, probably because they have the huge filet topped with jumbo lump crab (my fave) the size of a enormous crabcake, topped with Hollandaise sauce. I'm feeling all tingly just THINKING about it! The one on 50th St is nice and not noisy at all, depending on when you go. I think I walk past Strip House on my way to The Strand? I'll check that out somtime!
  24. Great thread! A lot of the shops mentioned are in that Gourmet Shops of New York book that I posted in the Food Literature section...I'm definitely checking out the places I see co-signed on here! The first place I'm heading is to Chinatown. I normally am only there long enough to hop on that bus to Philly, but I am going to get there early and wander around since I will be heading to see the fam on Friday! Thanks!
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