Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals
Author: Douglas Bauer
Food isn’t just a gustatory pleasure; it is the stuff of life. At its best and most memorable, a meal becomes a story—and a story becomes a feast. In this collection of essays by some of the country’s finest writers, food is the central player in memories both exquisite and excruciating. Steve Almond recounts the gleeful daylong preparation of a transcendent lobster pad thai dish. Sue Miller reveals that after a lifetime of practical cooking, she is finally fed by a man who presents food as an offering, made just for her. Aimee Bender ponders her lifelong envy of what everyone else is having for lunch. Richard Russo relates the celebratory day he and his wife spent eating their way through haute Manhattan—and departing utterly famished.
Expertly compiled and edited by Douglas Bauer—including pieces by Amy Bloom, Peter Mayle, Jane and Michael Stern, Ann Packer, and Andre Dubus III—this unforgettable collection presents food as education, test, reward, bait, magnet, and, most of all, gift. Gathered here are meals that sate our most complex palate, the appreciation of life.
Publishers Weekly
Though Bauer's introduction invokes M.F.K. Fisher in the early 1970s he escorted her for a magazine story on New Orleans restaurants this collection of 20 essays concentrates more on nostalgia than on the actual pleasures of the table. From such writers as Amy Bloom, Claire Messud, Andre Dubus III, Richard Russo and Peter Mayle, Bauer gathers pieces about meals that were "unforgettable by occasion" if not savoriness. Sue Miller's contemplative opener touches on the stupendous appetite of her teenage son, memories of her mother's dreadful cooking and the first meal her husband made for her. The reliable Jane and Michael Stern, here writing separately, provide the most humorous essays. In "Stir Gently and Serve," Jane details the first and only Thanksgiving she hosted, after which even the bulldog wouldn't eat the leftovers. Michael recalls a "night of a thousand embarrassments" in "My Dinner with Andy Warhol's Friends," when the Sterns took a Swiss art dealer to a fish house in Hoboken, N.J. Steve Almond's gem of a title story serves as one of the more appetizing tales, a funny, wonderfully descriptive account of a sensational homemade pad thai involving fresh Maine lobster. "Words are inadequate," Almond writes, but the reader will be salivating. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Most people have a good story about the best meal they've ever eaten or about one that went awry. Many can recount their experiences in laughter-or tears. Here, freelance writer and editor Bauer (Prime Times: Writers on Their Favorite TV Shows) has collected hilarious and touching anecdotes by 20 writers who delight in revealing their frustrations, obsessions, and, occasionally, epiphanies involving food. In "The Longest Hour," Margot Livesey recalls days of being a child vegetarian growing up in Scotland, a choice based on taste, not ethics. "A Feast of Preparations" finds writer David Lehman's wife, Stacey, aspiring to create the perfect meal for poet John Ashbery and is kind enough to include her recipe for Nougat Glac with Raspberry Sauce at the end of the essay. Another standout piece, Lan Samantha Chang's "Yes," shares a tale of empowerment via her grandmother's switch to Buddhism and, subsequently, vegetarianism. Clever title, delicious book. Recommended for medium and large collections.-Steven G. Fullwood, Schomburg Ctr. Lib., New York Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters
Author: Davia Nelson
Inspired by the popular, award winning radio series on NPR's Morning Edition, Hidden Kitchens explores the world of secret, unexpected, below-the-radar community cooking across America: a midnight cab yard kitchen on the streets of San Francisco, a secret civil rights kitchen tucked away in a house in Montgomery, freighter food from the galleys of the Great Lakes, the most unexpected hidden kitchen of the homeless—the George Foreman grill. The Kitchen Sisters travel the nation in search of unsung kitchen heros, legendary meals, and cooking rituals in this wild, poignant chronicle of American life through food.
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