What are your food-related reads these days?

[srhcb]

Diana Abu-Jaber's "The Language of Baklava"

The recipes are simple, as are many family recipes that last through time and movement. I like that sense of feel in a recipe.

I found some of the recipes from this book on Mellisa Block's review for NPR's All Things Considered.

I loved the imaginative recipe titles, such as "Subsistence Tabbouleh - for when everything is falling apart", and "Poetic Baklava - for when you need to serenade someone".

But my favorite recipe was, for personal reasons, the model of simplicity and appropriate name:

Comforting Grilled Velveeta Sandwiches

· 2 tablespoons butter

· 4 slices Wonder bread (or other soft white bread)

· 2 thick slabs of Velveeta (this doesn't work as nicely with cheddar, trust me)

Melt the butter in frying pan. Place the cheese sandwiches in the hot butter. Cover and fry until golden on one side, then turn and fry on the other side. The cheese should be oozing and hot. Cut the sandwiches on the diagonal.

Serves 2.

SB (can't imagine cutting this recipe in half to serve 1? )

[Carrot Top]

SB (can't imagine cutting this recipe in half to serve 1? )

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Nope. You would just have to settle down and eat it all if you were one.

You would like this book, SB. Particularly one part in the chapter "Raising an Arab Father in America" where the story is told of a day at an uncle's farm where a baby lamb appears in the barn to the delight of the children and to be the center of the story that follows.

This was the way it was supposed to happen: Four of the brothers would hold the lamb still, and with one powerful, swift stroke, Crazy-Uncle Frankie would cut its throat.

P.S. I'm not inferring that you are bloodthirsty just that you would like the story as it plays out.

Edited August 15, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[srhcb]

My Sister sent me Jim Harrison's The Raw & the Cooked, which I can't beieve I hadn't read yet!

She and I have a tradition of leaving "markers" in books we send each other.  I use little Post-It flags and she folds the corner down on pages to mark passages of interest.  We don't specify exactly which part of the page we mean to note, leaving that up to each other's detective powers.

SB (Sent his Sister, in exchange, Jung Chang's The Wild Swans, which she's considering using as her fall Book Club selection.)

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I really didn't care for this book.

Too much gratuitous politics I guess.

I've nothing in particular against politics, but I'm glad that neither The New Republic nor National Review print gratuitous recipes.

Why would a food writer do this?

SB (now gratuitous sex, on the other hand ....

[Carrot Top]

Too much gratuitous politics I guess.

I've nothing in particular against politics, but I'm glad that neither The New Republic nor National Review print gratuitous recipes.

Why would a food writer do this?

SB (now gratuitous sex, on the other hand .... 

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A food writer would do this thinking that other things in the world are more important than what he or she writes about as a main subject.

Politics is so often considered a weighty subject, and a way to make the world work right.

Food is so often relegated to be thought of as a lightweight subject, not a way to make the world work right. It only obtains an aura of weightiness for the generic reader when it is linked to business (big bucks) (haute cuisine and celebrity chefs) or economics (food supply and agribusiness).

Personally I don't understand this. Food has brought more people to the table together than politics ever did in any long-lasting way. Likely brought more people to bed together too.

[srhcb]

Too much gratuitous politics I guess.

I've nothing in particular against politics, but I'm glad that neither The New Republic nor National Review print gratuitous recipes.

Why would a food writer do this?

SB (now gratuitous sex, on the other hand .... 

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A food writer would do this thinking that other things in the world are more important than what he or she writes about as a main subject.

Politics is so often considered a weighty subject, and a way to make the world work right.

Food is so often relegated to be thought of as a lightweight subject, not a way to make the world work right. It only obtains an aura of weightiness for the generic reader when it is linked to business (big bucks) (haute cuisine and celebrity chefs) or economics (food supply and agribusiness).

I suspect you're right.

Not that there can't be some good food/political analogies, but the injection of political thetoric, especially partisan, usually comes across as a self conscious attempt at urbanity.

Personally I don't understand this. Food has brought more people to the table together than politics ever did in any long-lasting way.

Once again, I agree. I've been involved in many political campaigns, from City Council to US Senate, and honestly can't recall any memorable meals or food related stories from the whole lot.

(Food) Likely brought more people to bed together (than politics) too. 

While politics is said to make strange bedfellows, food just makes messy ones!

[racheld]

Rumpole Rests His Case, with lots of breaks for lunch at Pommeroy's for S&K pie, apple tart, and Chateau Thames Embankment in the glass.

There's one memorable dinner party with some tres retro acquaintances, whose shawl-swathed lamps and cavernous dining room were enhanced by sitar music and the odors of what seemed to be "ecclesiastical incense, smouldering carpets and simmering lentils."

She Who Must Be Obeyed is not a shabby cook, either, and provides her Old Darling with a sound Brit breakfast of rashers, eggs, mushrooms, beans and tomatoes, with six crisp slices in the silver rack.

Dear Horace.

[MarkIsCooking]

I realize that jaws will drop when I write this, but I'm a TV person. Never been a big reader except for circumstantial research. Having said this, I became addicted to and fully read 2 books in the last month; which was a first in my life experience.

They are:

How to Pick a Peach

a fascinating walk through our food supply, including lots of information about the most popular fruits and vegetables, how to choose them, how to prepare them and why our food is engineered for look not flavor.

Real Food

a story of a woman raised on a farm and her evolution through vegetarianism to veganism to her last stop at believing in 'real' or 'traditional' food (no industrialized, processed and otherwise 'modern' food). She has hundreds of citations to various books and research articles which lead her to believe that the whole approach of watching saturated fat and minimizing your LDL is not the best approach.

If you're into slow food, local food and generally want to be more focused on what you eat and why - pick these books up!

=Mark=

[docsconz]

I recently read The $64 Tomato by William Alexander, a book about a man and his family's obsession with their garden and growing their own produce. It reminded me of why I appreciate Farmers Markets so much! It was very well written and quite enjoyable.

[Carrot Top]

Just finished Nora Ephron's recent release "I feel bad about my neck". The entire book is excellent, raucously funny in parts but two parts really pleased me.

The first is that after reading Nora talking about her neck, I realize that I do not feel as bad about my neck as she does about hers. This is quite liberating and empowering. The glamour just resounded around me in a bright flash of light when I realized this. Granted, time will undoubtedly alter this opinion I hold now, but whatever. That is then and this is now.

The second is the chapter titled "Serial Monogamy: A Memoir". This is her story of the relationships she has had with foodwriters and foodbooks of the day: The Gourmet Cookbook of 1962; The Flavor of France by Naricissa and Narcisse and Samuel Chamberlain; Julia Child's tomes; Craig Claiborn; Michael Fields ; Lee Bailey. The relationships are both real and fantasy combined. The ongoing dialog is about cooking their recipes and talking to them in her head and in real life.

For a long time, I hoped that Craig and I would meet and become friends. I gave a lot of thought to this eventuality, most of it concerning what I would cook if he came to my house for dinner. I was confused about whether to serve him something from one of his cookbooks or something from someone else's cookbook.

I ought to serve him something that was "my" recipe, but I didn't have any recipes [ . . .] But I desperately wanted him to come over. I'd read somewhere that peole were afraid to invite him to dinner. I wasn't; I just didn't know the man. I must confess that my fantasy included the hope that after he came to dinner, he would write an article about me and of course include my recipes; but as I said, I didn't have any. 

[malarkey]

Home Cooking, by Laurie Colwin

great book!

[Milagai]

Hi Naughty Literati:

thanks for yr book recommendations.

I love Chitrita Banerjee's writings too.

Cheers

Milagai

Edited August 20, 2007 by Milagai (log)

[caseyell]

[

I just ordered A RETURN TO COOKING, Ripert and Ruhlman. Anybody familiar with it?

A wonderful book: inspiring and beautiful. Bad news: it's been remaindered. Good news: lots of reasonably-priced copies at places like www.abebooks.com

[cyen]

A friend of mine gave me The New Best Recipe from America's Test Kitchen so I'm reading that and testing a few recipes right now. I've been curious to learn how certain techniques work and this is a great book for me.

I'm also trying to read some books from this history of food class that I took years ago in college. I hated that class because of the professor, but I'm glad it didn't kill my interest in food and history. At least I got a pretty decent reading list from it. Haha.

[Carrot Top]

I'm also trying to read some books from this history of food class that I took years ago in college.  I hated that class because of the professor, but I'm glad it didn't kill my interest in food and history.  At least I got a pretty decent reading list from it.  Haha.

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Yes, I know what you mean. I love children's literature but once took a class where the focus of the professor was to ensure that we knew that "Puss in Boots" was actually a Marxist tale hidden within a children's story. I practically had a conniption in that class as she blathered on.

If you like food history books you might like "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill. She starts at the very beginning (pre 10,000 BC) and just keeps on truckin'. Chock-full of really fascinating stuff and told with occassional wonderful bursts of wry humor.

[The Naughti Literati]

Hi Naughty Literati:

thanks for yr book recommendations.

I love Chitrita Banerjee's writings too.

Cheers

Milagai

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Hey!!! I love her too...I have all of her books, and you reminded me to start reading The Vine of Desire, which I just plucked from my shelf and am doing now (read Sister of My Heart a while ago). I love her poetry also, and even have a college textbook that she edited that is called Multitude: Cross-Cultural Readings for Writers. It is a terrific collection.

I just started a thread gushing over the new book I got last night... *swoon* In the meantime I am dipping in all the others I have, especially the American Food Writing anthology!

[scubadoo97]

I am finishing The Soul Of The Chef by Ruhlman and have started Heat. I really like Ruhlman's style of writing. I feel real passion there.

[et alors]

I am halfway through Reach of a Chef, and was very affected by his write up of Grant Achatz. Ruhlman's uneasy coming to terms with molecular gastronomy reminded me of Bourdain in Decoding Ferran Adria. Worth a read, as are his first two books. Sadly, wikipedia informed me Grant has cancer of the mouth; I can't imagine a worse fate for a chef.

Before that, I read George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, mostly because Bourdain called it the original Kitchen Confidential, which is definitly is. Awesome book.

I also read the Ramsey autobiography which was like any TV celebrity autobiography train wreck, mom is a saint dad is the devil but way way too little about the kitchen. Sigh. His cookbooks read better, I think.

If you are reading something, please say if you like it or not... I'm hungry for more good food writing!

[caseyell]

"pane e salute: food and love in Italy and Vermont" by deirdre heekin and caleb barber

part memoir, part cookbook -- all beautifully written

[Terrasanct]

I just picked up a book today that looks like it will be fascinating. It's called Paris in a Basket; Markets: The Food and the People. It has information about all of the outdoor markets in Paris in the different areas, with history and lots of photos, including a diagram of French beef cuts, and photos of cheeses and fish. I'm looking forward to reading it.

http://www.amazon.com/Paris-Basket-Markets...89051617&sr=8-1

[LoveToEatATL]

I read that recently, too.  Good book.

I'm currently reading Heat by Bill Buford, which seems appropriate since it's been around or over 100 most of the past two weeks.  I'm also looking at/have piled up to read next:  FoodBook by James Trager, Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, and Baking with Julia.  I have Baking from my Home to Yours, also by Dorie Greenspan, on order.  After I read the thread here about it, I had to get it.

And I have to finish reading Harry Potter before someone gives away the ending, too.  Not much food in the latest book, unfortunately.

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I'm almost finished with Heat, which I have greedily gobbled up - what a fun read!

Next up I believe I will read the book by Marco Pierre White, who is featured so prominently in Heat.

And when I receive it, I always read my Cook's Illustrated -cover to cover.

[Carrot Top]

I finished the Pat Conroy Cookbook last night.

I'd never heard of Pat Conroy before, or thought I hadn't, but of course he is the author of many books including "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides".

This book is filled with good recipes. Some from people nobody's ever heard of, some from people whose names are familiar to those who follow the world of food.

But better than that, these recipes sit cuddled between the pages of stories. And what stories. If you took the word "storyteller" in all its most glorious majesty then crowned it with the voice of the American South - where romance, tall tales, and furies of huge proportion sit and simmer in the heat of the summer days just waiting each their turns to be told, you'd find the name and photo of Pat Conroy right there in the dictionary next to it. He says of his life as a writer that he "looks for portents" in daily life, the invisible things that hold truths larger-than-life. He finds them, too.

I read a lot of books and it's not often a book makes me both laugh out loud and have to stem tears from rolling down my face, and more than once of each of these things.

Who would have thought the small unobtrusive Pat Conroy Cookbook would do such a thing?

But it did.

It also has the best damn little vignette of an Emeril tale that I've ever had the pleasure to read.

[rconnelly]

The recent "New Yorker" food issue. Some pretty good stuff.

[wattacetti]

I am trying to read "Magasin Général" by Régis Loisel and Jean-Louis Tripp (Casterman Books, ISBN 2-203-37013-0). But I'm not succeeding because the phone keeps ringing.

Have Morimoto on order as well as one of the el Bulli volumes.

[Peter Green]

I was putting together a load of children's books to donate, and I came across this.....

Stuffed mushrooms, chocolate cake, and strawberry souffles..... plus the usual goings on of the family and retainers.

There's a whole world of political and historical discussion that revolves currently around these palatial pachyderms, but I'll leave that aside for now. It was just nice to see an old friend.

[Carrot Top]

Ah, Peter. What a wonderful thing to see. Babar makes me smile. I would like to have him in my kitchen.

The recent "New Yorker" food issue. Some pretty good stuff.

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Which are your favorite pieces so far? I started reading it but have not read everything in it yet.