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The Ten Most Recent Comments By janelerner

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

I am a huge Jim Harrison fan, and I love his collection of food-related essays called The Raw and the Cooked. Harrison is the literary gourmand for hunters, scroungers, philosophers, down and dirty cooks, intrepid travelers, unabashed partyers and anyone who is prone to excessive eating and drinking. If you want a better idea of the charming insanity of Mr. Harrison, the Times did a great feature on him a few months ago that also has a video - it shows him cooking grouse or something, while sucking on a cigarette and talking about his gout. He's the character of characters, with the appetite of a thousand kings.

From Serious Eats

Win Two Passes to the Big Apple Barbecue Party

For the childhood memories only, and not necessarily for the quality of the food, I am going with Carson's ribs in Chicago. Sentimentality wins this one for me, mostly because i just haven't found a bbq place in NYC that thrills me enough.

Responses to Comments by janelerner

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

John Lanchester's THE DEBT TO PLEASURE - part cookbook, part novel, part eccentric philosophical treatise, reminiscent of perhaps the greatest of all books on food, Jean-Anthelme Brillat Savarin's The Physiology of Taste. (Thanks Amazon)

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life by Michael Lee West - she's a great fiction writer and wrote this food memoir that focuses on Southern cooking. Really funny too.

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

As I posted above, my top books are Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires, Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, and Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef.

I forgot to explain why.....

I like Garlic and Sapphires because it is every food-junkies fantasy to be a restaurant reviewer. What could possibly be better? Reichl provides great insight and access into a world most of us only dream of.

I like Kitchen Confidential because of Bourdain's unique "voice." He uncovers the behind-the-scene stuff as well as his personal demons. It is one of the first non-cookbook food books I read.

Ruhlman paints a nice picture of what it is like to attend the CIA. I found the book very engaging and would read it for hours at a time.

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

My top books are Reichel's Garlic and Sapphires, Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, and Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef.

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

I've read Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking approximately 154,453 times apiece. Some of the recipes are pretty good, but it's the wit, depth, and immediacy of her writing that get me every time. I've enjoyed most of the books mentioned here, especially Tender at the Bone and Mr. Latte. Colette Rossant's three memoirs of growing up in Paris and Egypt were quite engaging.

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

Ohh-- there are so many. The Steingarten, Trillin, and Reichl books are all amazing, but I wouldn't say my favorite ( although I never want their books to end). I'm also glad someone else mentioned the Thornes. Their book "Pot on the Fire" was my first food related book that I read and I am looking forward to reading it again. I really enjoyed the Julia Child and Paul Prud'Homme "My Life in France". As someone else mentioned, not so much about food, but a beautifully written story about/ by such a beloved woman. I am currently enjoying both "the United States of Arugula" by David Kamp, and "How I Learned to Cook" edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan. Both are really interesting in their own ways. I started both "Heat" and "the Perfectionist" in the past year, and really need to get back to them soon.

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food Book of All Time and Why?

"Serious Pig" by John Thorne and Matt Lewis Thorne. It has much intelligent, literary writing and recipes and if for no other reason is worth having for the essay on the (possible) history of chili.

From Serious Eats

Win Two Passes to the Big Apple Barbecue Party

Blue Ribbon in Arlington, MA if I'm anywhere north of Tennessee. Otherwise, I just can't pick.

But I LOVED both Kreuz Market and the Salt Lick. Mmmmm

From Serious Eats

Win Two Passes to the Big Apple Barbecue Party

National: Kreuz Market, Lockhart, TX
NY State: Big W's, Pawling, NY
NYC: RUB (Daisy May's loses only b/c of their irritating TV ads)

From Serious Eats

Win Two Passes to the Big Apple Barbecue Party

Big W's Roadside BBQ in Pawling, NY