Time for Chisai to buy new food books.
I need a treat. So what do I want. I've read Physiology of Taste, I've read Larousse Gastronomique, I've read The Art of Eating, I've read On Food and Cooking. I've even read the awesome Reay Tannahill's History of Food and Margaret Visser's Much Depends on Dinner and The Rituals of Dinner. What am I missing? I need something. I just picked up The Omnivore's Dilemma , but, I don't know, it hasn't grabbed me. Any ideas?
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13 Comments:
On my wish list... they've been around for a while, but I just haven't managed to get around to them yet...
Appetite for Life
The Man Who Ate Everything
Heat
Tender at the Bone
Plus a number of cookbooks, which I tend to read like novels...
LoCo at 1:41PM on 02/29/08
Do you want to cook? Try these:
Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert by Melissa Guerra
Bones by Jennifer McLagan
Cucina del Sole by Nancy Harmon Jenkins
These are all great reading as well as great recipes. Enjoy!
ride&cook at 2:08PM on 02/29/08
I bet you'll like Omnivore's Dilemma once you get into it. Skim if you have to until something grabs you.
My recommendation for something new: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
or
Anything by Calvin Trillin. I'm currently reading >Feeding a Yen.
jbeach at 2:25PM on 02/29/08
Anything by Ruth Reichl is definitely entertaining. Go for 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver. It's actually a great companion to the Omnivore's Dilemma. But stick with that one too! Its will pay of tremendously.
You may want to check out the New Yorker's Food and Drink book put out earlier this year, as well as The United States of Arugula.
lesliepariseau at 6:03PM on 02/29/08
Two of my favorite books to read over and over again (and that are also indispensable reference guides; those two things don't go hand-in-hand very often!) are Hints and Pinches by Eugene Walter and the Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst. I'm also knee-deep in American Food Writing: An Anthology, which is enjoyable on its own merits but also has been a great guide to new foodie books that I hadn't yet read. :)
sheeats at 8:08PM on 02/29/08
Oh, and I have to plug a local favorite: Are You Really Going To Eat That? by Robb Walsh. It's a great read, especially if you like reading things of the "adventurous eater" persuasion.
sheeats at 8:15PM on 02/29/08
For lighter reading (certainly lighter than Larousse!):
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Heat by Bill Buford
Eating My Words by Mimi Sheraton
Curlz at 8:43PM on 02/29/08
toast, and kitchen diaries by nigel slater
trail of crumbs by kim sunee
the world in my kitchen by colette rossant
home cooking, and more home cooking by laurie colwin
two for the road by jane and michael stern
between bites by james villas
a feast made for laughter by craig claiborne
the sharper your knife, the less you cry by kathleen finn
roast chicken and other stories by simon hopkinson
fair shares for all by john haney {haven't read this yet but i bet it's terrific}
any book at all by john thorne, but especially serious pig and mouth wide open
julie and julia by julie powell
my life in france by julia child
american pie by pascale ladrouelec
clementine in the kitchen by samuel chamberlain
cooking for mr latte by amanda hesser
the making of a chef and the soul of a chef by michael ruhlman
i second the suggestions for books by bourdain, reichl, trillin, buford, and sheraton, among others...
cybercita at 9:19PM on 02/29/08
You mentioned 'On Food and Cooking', but have you read 'The Curious Cook'?
There is also 'Unmentionable Cuisine' by Calvin W. Schwabe, and Jerry Hopkins & Michael Freeman's 'Strange Foods' (it was where I learned about balut), and although I've only looked through it briefly so far, 'In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food' by Stewart Lee Allen definitely looks interesting.
I would also recommend Dumas' 'Dictionary of Cuisine'; I have a very abridged translation from the 50s, but even that is a great read (his comments in the entries for 'Bear' and 'Coot' are brilliant).
mongoose at 9:44PM on 02/29/08
Anything by Michael Ruhlman
Heat by Bill Buford
The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson
sbelle at 10:55PM on 02/29/08
Anything at all by MFK Fisher.
tastas at 3:47AM on 03/01/08
Thanks for all your suggestions! I've read practically all of Fisher, Steingarten, Trillen and Bourdain. Interestingly (at least to me) is that while I love Bourdain in books, generally when I see him on television, especially as a guest judge on Top Chef, I want to smack him on the back of the head. I bought - Heat, the New Food Lover's Companion and Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swason. I love her website and have been reading it for a while, 101 Cookbooks so thought I should check it out. In the interest of full disclosure, I also bought (non-food related) Watchman, because while I am a middle-aged lady in my body, there lives in me a teenaged boy, occasionally screaming to get out. :-)
chisai at 9:29AM on 03/01/08
Chisai, you might also like:
Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
Escoffier: the King of Chefs by Kenneth James
The Art of Dining by Sara Paston-Williams (explores food history and kitchens in England's National Trust estates)
Tellicherry at 10:56AM on 03/02/08