Archives for the 'Books' Category
Cooking the Books
I
t is with great restraint that I have managed to not put a cookbook on my Christmas list. (Indeed it is with great restraint that I have managed to put one and only one BOOK on my Christmas list, but that is another story.)
I own a lot of cookbooks. Some days I’m not sure why I own so many. I hardly ever cook from most of them. Some I don’t even I like. When I moved I took all the cookbooks I use all the time, with a few totemic exceptions, and virtuously put them in the attic. I took the books I hardly ever use and put them on the shelf. This would, I virtuously told myself, force me to explore all of these other cookbooks. I would delve into their wonders and learn to appreciate their instruction and world view.
The result was of course that at 9 in the evening or 6 in the morning I could be found rooting through the attic in a headlamp looking for the cookbook that has that recipe that I love and cursing my stupidity….and now my shelf once again overflows with cookbooks
At least I’m not alone.
Standing the Heat
TIME Magazine (not Time but TIME!) has a review of five new books, fictional and non-, about life in a restaurant’s back office. Writer Lev Grossman frames his roundup in “the post-Bourdainian era:”
It was invisible then. Now we recognize it right away: this is Anthony Bourdain’s world. … He changed our whole cultural idea of what a kitchen is. Pre-Bourdain, it was a warm, cozy, maternal place. Now it’s a profane, brutal, masculine crucible, where human frailty is rendered away like so much tasty bacon fat.
A fun read even if you have no intention of picking up the books discussed.
DC Council’s Jim Graham Wants No One to Have a Piece of the Pie
DC councilman Jim Graham is one of the DC area’s most horrific left-wing moralists. Since it would be difficult to hide my contempt for him, I won’t.
I detest Jim Graham. He is a restaurant hater. He was instrumental in passing DC’s smoking ban, and since then has opposed such evils as the sale of single beers. Yet voters in his ward continue to elect Graham.
I have a feeling that might now change. Graham’s latest anti-restaurant play is so outrageous and so out of touch with reality that Graham’s supporters will have to see the light. Right?
Why is Graham’s latest ban attempt so unconscionable? I’ll tell you why. Jim Graham wants to ban the sale of pizza slices. Says their sale spurs violence.
This could mean the end of the jumbo slice–which along with the half smoke is one of DC’s few culinary contributions to the world. But this is just the continuation of a pattern the council–especially Graham–has been evincing for several years. As former DCist editor Ryan Avent wrote of Graham and the council in 2007:
In the past year as well, Council members, and particularly Ward 1 representative Jim Graham, have acted swiftly to close down District businesses connected with crimes, even when it appears that there was little the business could have done to stop the criminal act. Increasingly, it seems that the Council’s first inclination when faced with a problem is to restrict choice.
DCist has more on the proposed pizza slice ban here, and Graham’s anti-business grandstanding here.
Tell Graham how you feel about his proposal either by email (jim@grahamwone.com) or phone (202.724.8181). Tell him Crispy sent you.
Bacon Comics
The man who drew this comic has a book coming out. You should probably buy it.
This Week in Bacon
Following in Paris Hilton’s footsteps, Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef, now stars in her own Carl’s Jr. commercial. The commercial — a 24-second ad — promotes the Western Bacon Cheeseburger. Watch as pieces of mayonnaise and bacon bits strategically fall on random parts of her body, so that she can entice the viewers by subsequently licking them away, or as she puts it, getting rid of the “evidence.” NY Daily News reports that this commercial isn’t the only place Padma promotes the burger:
But the sultry star isn’t just indulging for the camera. In her own cookbook “Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet,” she credits the grab and go burger joint for awakening her from her vegetarian slumber as a teenager.
“The sublimely pleasurable taste of bacon … was further enhanced by its mingling with the barbeque sauce, greedily licked off as it dripped down my teenage fingers,” she wrote.
And I thought Padma and I had nothing in common . . . never underestimate the power of bacon to provide common ground between strangers.
Food and Books–These are a few of my favorite things
I’ve been on a blogging hiatus for a couple of months because December was occupied by cooking–the morning hour that I typically devote to blogging/internet wandering was consumed by cookie and bread baking–and January was devoted to moving.
It was in the process of laying my hands on everything I own that, even though I have purged them from time to time, I realized I own a lot of cookbooks. There were few I was willing to purge, but I virtuously boxed the majority of them for storage, keeping back only essential volumes.
This moderation though is I fear a matter of perspective. When I moved into my new digs, the oldest daughter of the family unpacked and shelved my books for me.
“You have a lot of cookbooks!” she said in awed and somewhat intimidated tones.
“Rather,” I conceded and then added, “There are another two or so boxes in the attic. And two boxes of magazines.”
She stared at me blankly. You could see that she was not quite sure what to do with this information about my character. Being a sensible child though, she decided to focus on her enlightened self interest and started to read The Cake Bible and suggest what cake I should make for her upcoming birthday.
I own a lot of cookbooks, but not as many as I would like. True, I think the cookbook industry is a tad out of control. (I am informed for example that Sweden produces a cookbook a day for a nation of not quite 9 million people. Go figure.) But then that’s why we have the market to sort these things out. Also true, I could get rid of 90 percent of my books and still have more recipes than I could ever use, and yes the Internet is a great resource that I use all the time. But for me there’s still nothing like a book.
And thanks to the Internet, from time to time I am going to inflict some of them on you.
Crispy Podcast Episode 8
In this episode of our delicious podcast, we talk about not eating. Specifically, we talk to Sam MacDonald, author of the new book, The Urban Hermit: A Memoir, in which he explains how he lost 160 pounds in about a year eating only 800 calories a day. The interesting thing is that Sam never meant to lose weight. He had gotten himself in a financial mess, owed a lot of money, and so he massively cut back on food and beer. Weight loss was an unintended side-benefit of his crazy scheme.
Also on the show is Ray Lehmann, a journalist who does intend to lose weight, but instead might find himself in a financial mess himself. He recently made a $60,000 bet to lose 60 pounds in 9 months. Talk about motivation: If he doesn’t make it, he’ll find himself in the poorhouse. You can track Ray’s progress on his blog or on YouTube.
We hope you enjoy this episode and that you’ll tell us what you think. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show for free. You can grab the RSS feed or click here to subscribe in iTunes. That way you’ll get it every “week.”
Amazon Cookbook Sales as Financial Barometer
As the dismal economic climate forces Americans to eat on the cheap, Reuters points to a shift in Amazon.com consumer purchases–toward cookbooks that contain less expensive ingredients. Sort of.
“There’s also been some talk in the industry about how more people will be eating at home now to save money,” said Amazon spokeswoman Tammy Hovey. “There has been some increased interest in upcoming big fall new releases from (Food Network’s) Ina Garten and Martha Stewart, whose new books are about getting back to basics.”
Topping the Amazon “Movers and Shakers” list on Monday was “The 99 Cent Only Stores Cookbook: Gourmet Recipes at Discount Prices,” by Christiane Jory, which jumped to 162 from 187,383 in the sales rankings.
“This is an excellent book for the current economic times,” wrote Prabash B. Coswatte, from Pasadena, California, in a review of the book on Amazon. “It shows all of us how we can stretch the dollar or our 99 cents.”
Or our 98 cents. See, I can write book reviews, too.
I’m not sure one Amazon reviewer’s comments, a giant sales jump of a book that appeared on yesterday’s Rachel Ray Show and has been hyped by the New Depression-obsessed media for months as an economic barometer, or interest in a Martha Stewart book really tell me anything about a trend.
But the Reuters writer’s point–that people want to eat cheaper–is well taken, even if not well made.
The Ethnic Dining Guide to Tyler Cowen
DCist has a very good interview with the multitalented Tyler Cowen, who has been blogging about the best of the DC area’s ethnic dining for several years. A snippet:
Why focus on ethnic food rather than traditional fine dining? Were you always an adventurous eater?
All food is ethnic food, in my view, fine dining too. I try to cover as much fine dining as I can. But two things limit me. First, I am not wealthy. Second, I don’t think this is a very good area for fine dining. I’d rather save up my money for periodic trips to Europe and other places. Right now Washington doesn’t have a single truly first-rate restaurant in the fine dining sense.
When I was a kid I wouldn’t eat much more than hamburger, fish and chips, and veal parmigiana. I still love those dishes, at least if they are done properly.
You’ve traveled to 65 different countries. When faced with a cuisine you’ve never tried before, what are your strategies for selecting a restaurant and making the most out of an unfamiliar menu?
I think it is over 70 countries by now. I try to go local. I look for proximity to fresh ingredients. I look for downscale food in a competitive environment, in places where the proprietor is close at hand. When it comes to the menu, I ask or I copy other people. I don’t choose what to me sounds like it will taste best. That’s a mistake usually.
While the rest of us just eat and blog, Cowen is not just a dining expert but also a peerless econ blogger, author, regular NYT columnist (here’s a great one on the free market response to rising food prices), and economics prof & scholar at George Mason University.
Crispy Podcast Episode 6
In this episode of our surprisingly weekly podcast, we chat with Scott Gold, the author of the recently published book, The Shameless Carnivore: A Manifesto for Meat Lovers. Aside from exploring everything meat-related—from the practicalities to the spiritual aspects—Scott engaged in a month of meat, in which he ate 31 kinds of meat in as many days. This interview took place during this year’s Duckathlon and was recorded on a street in New York City, so pardon the audio. It’s worth putting up with it, though.
We hope you enjoy this episode and that you’ll tell us what you think. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show for free. You can grab the RSS feed or click here to subscribe in iTunes. That way you’ll get it every “week.”
Highway Wrecks Spill Spoilt Dog Food, Gatorade (With Bonus Gatorade Coverage!)
In possibly the most noteworthy highway food spillage since a trucker lost his load of spoiled dog food on Route 222 in Maxatawny, Pa. last month, a trucker this morning wrecked and spilled a shipment of Gatorade all over U.S. 27 outside Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Today’s wreck is, in turn, likely the most resoundingly negative Gatorade spillage since the Gatorade shower that may have led to the death of then-Long Beach State football coach George Allen in 1990.
(Photo via Gatorade-book author Darren Rovell’s “unauthorized” Gatorade blog.)
