"Seely’s naked contempt for Jager-bombs and the people who drink them is as refreshing as a frosty schooner of Vitamin R." Dive into the Sloop and you might catch a glimpse of a crew member from "Deadliest Catch." Photograph by Cary Melton Mike Seely, managing editor of the Seattle Weekly, writes like Ernest Hemingway in his new book, Seattle’s Best Dive Bars. He’s Papa for the PBR crowd, exploring the gritty, working class watering holes that are the antithesis of the geeky chic image the city has embraced. He doesn’t candy coat his close-to-the-ground reports on these off-the-radar spots. For instance, he says The Waterwheel Lounge looks like the kind of place “where you might get your head bludgeoned on...
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From left: Sophie Dudemaine, Sirio Maccioni, Gwenaelle Ducasse, and Alain Ducasse. Photograph by Sara Jaye Weiss On Monday night, Serious Eats attended the launch party for Sophie Dudemaine's latest cookbook, Ducasse Made Simple. Dudemaine could best be described as the French equivalent of Rachael Ray. Bubbly and beloved, she is a French television personality and the unusually prolific author of 17 cookbooks. With each cookbook, she attempts to render the complicated into 45-minute recipes for fledgling home cooks. When asked why, of all French chefs, she chose to write an Alain Ducasse cookbook, she replied, "I listen to my viewers. I give them what they want." Asked what the 100 recipes chosen from Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine had...
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I loved the thread about Shopsin's, and the interesting thing is that every commenter is right on some level. I have known Kenny Shopsin for 25 years, and he is profane, unreasonable, more than occasionally rude, charming, funny, and totally ridiculous—sometimes all simultaneously. He's also a really good cook who can make me laugh, even while insulting me. Does that make me a masochist? I don't think so. So based on all the above, I was thrilled when we received an advance copy of Kenny's cookbook-memoir-philosophical tome, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin. I knew it would be like Kenny, endlessly fascinating, sometimes infuriating, and totally engaging. Kenny Shopsin: Love Him or Can't Stand Him When it...
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Editor's note: Our friend and Serious Eater Cathy dropped by recently with praise for Fergus Henderson's new book, Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook. Henderson's book is our featured Cook the Book entry this week, but first we'll give you Cathy's take before we begin the usual giveaway contest and recipes. There are two kinds of carnivores: those who think meat means steak, and those who consider almost every bit of the animal edible. Count me in the latter camp. Tongues, brains, lungs, balls, eyeballs, liver, spleen—I never met a part I didn't like. OK, the eyeball was a little disconcerting, but I'm glad I tried it. For omnivores like me, the publication of Beyond...
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Nina Lalli reviews The Sushi Economy, one of the books mentioned in the Vanity Fair piece, in this week's Village Voice: Issenberg argues that the worldwide sushi system is a positive example of globalization. As he describes it, tuna in particular moves from the hands of fishermen to any number of middlemen by a code of trust. Despite the fact that a fish bears no label or brand, and its appraisal is entirely subjective, Issenberg says "few participants ever feel as though they get ripped off." Yet he also acknowledges the ugly side of global sushi. Most revolting is an aside about a New Jersey broker whose reaction to September 11 was "Sons of bitches! I had tuna on...
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