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Three World Cuisines: Italian, Mexican, Chinese by Ken Albala
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American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads
Pascale Le Draoulec - 2002
But in today's treadmill, take-out world -- our fast-food nation -- does pie still have a place?As she traveled across the United States in an old Volvo named Betty, Pascale Le Draoulec discovered how merely mentioning homemade pie to strangers made faces soften, shoulders relax, and memories come wafting back. Rambling from town to town with Le Draoulec, you'll meet the famous, and sometimes infamous, pie makers who share their stories and recipes, and find out how a quest for pie can lead to something else entirely.
White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf
Aaron Bobrow-Strain - 2012
As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion “good food” reflect dreams of a better society—even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies. In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, “dirty” bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original “superfood” and even marketed as patriotic—while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America. The history of America’s one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation’s decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for “unhealthy” eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.
K-Food: Korean Home Cooking and Street Food
Da-Hae West - 2016
There are no better authors than Da-Hae and Gareth West to introduce this flavorsome cuisine - Da-Hae uses her Korean background to explain the details of traditional recipes, and Gareth shows how Korean and Western flavors can be fused together to create really delicious combinations. From a run-down on the basics of Korean cooking, including now readily available sauces, pastes and other ingredients, through chapters on kimchi and the etiquette of the famous Korean BBQ, to recipes for everything from the irresistible Bulgogi Burger and spicy, sticky spare ribs to Panjeon (seafood pancakes) and corn on the cob with kimchi butter, this book is packed with inventive, delicious recipes that will open your eyes to the delights of modern Korean food.
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
Jeffrey Alford - 2000
Here, along the world's tenth largest river, which rises in Tibet and joins the sea in Vietnam, traditions mingle and exquisite food prevails. Award-winning authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid followed the river south, as it flows through the mountain gorges of southern China, to Burma and into Laos and Thailand. For a while the right bank of the river is in Thailand, but then it becomes solely Lao on its way to Cambodia. Only after three thousand miles does it finally enter Vietnam and then the South China Sea.It was during their travels that Alford and Duguid—who ate traditional foods in villages and small towns and learned techniques and ingredients from cooks and market vendors—came to realize that the local cuisines, like those of the Mediterranean, share a distinctive culinary approach: Each cuisine balances, with grace and style, the regional flavor quartet of hot, sour, salty, and sweet. This book, aptly titled, is the result of their journeys.Like Alford and Duguid's two previous works, Flatbreads and Flavors ("a certifiable publishing event" —Vogue) and Seductions of Rice ("simply stunning"—The New York Times), this book is a glorious combination of travel and taste, presenting enticing recipes in "an odyssey rich in travel anecdote" (National Geographic Traveler).The book's more than 175 recipes for spicy salsas, welcoming soups, grilled meat salads, and exotic desserts are accompanied by evocative stories about places and people. The recipes and stories are gorgeously illustrated throughout with more than 150 full-color food and travel photographs.In each chapter, from Salsas to Street Foods, Noodles to Desserts, dishes from different cuisines within the region appear side by side: A hearty Lao chicken soup is next to a Vietnamese ginger-chicken soup; a Thai vegetable stir-fry comes after spicy stir-fried potatoes from southwest China.The book invites a flexible approach to cooking and eating, for dishes from different places can be happily served and eaten together: Thai Grilled Chicken with Hot and Sweet Dipping Sauce pairs beautifully with Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad and Lao sticky rice.North Americans have come to love Southeast Asian food for its bright, fresh flavors. But beyond the dishes themselves, one of the most attractive aspects of Southeast Asian food is the life that surrounds it. In Southeast Asia, people eat for joy. The palate is wildly eclectic, proudly unrestrained. In Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, at last this great culinary region is celebrated with all the passion, color, and life that it deserves.
The Science of Cooking: Every Question Answered to Perfect your Cooking
Stuart Farrimond - 2017
Find the answers to your cookery questions and get more out of recipes with intriguing chapters covering all major food types from meat, poultry and seafood, to grains, vegetables, and herbs.Why does chocolate taste so good? Is it OK to reheat cooked rice? How do I cook the perfect steak or make succulent fish every time? Perfect your cooking with practical instruction - and the science behind it.Discover a recipe book like no other from TV personality, food scientist and bestselling author, Dr Stuart Farrimond. Inside, you'll discover:- Dynamic, full-colour visuals make complex scientific concepts compelling and easy to understand- Engaging question-and-answer format makes the science relevant to everyday cooking- User-friendly book structure, with scientific concepts organised by food group and ingredient- Step-by-step techniques - which demonstrate and underpin key concepts - add core, practical cooking instruction- Bestseller The Science of Cooking has the answers to your everyday cooking questions, as well as myth busting information on everything from vegan diets to cholesterol A good recipe goes a long way, but if you can master the science behind it, you'll be one step ahead. The Science of Cooking shows you how by bringing food science out of the lab and into your kitchen. It gives you all the scientific information you need to take your home cooking to a whole new, more nutritious level! From making great risotto and soft ice cream to the process of steaming, this gastronomic cookbook includes step-by-step techniques to help you perfect your cooking. 3D graphics and engaging text make scientific concepts easy to grasp and infographics bring culinary facts and stats to life. It is the ultimate gift for any self-respecting foodie or cook!This series from DK is designed to help you perfect your cooking with practical instruction - and the science behind it. There are more books to discover! Explore the science behind the art of making incredible spice blends to help you release the flavour in your dishes with The Science of Spice.
The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine
Steven Rinella - 2006
Describes one man's efforts to live on the land while attempting to re-create the recipes from Escoffier's 1903 magnum opus 'Le Guide Culinaire' and search for the frequently esoteric ingredients called for in the various dishes.
A Mediterranean Feast: The Story Of The Birth Of The Celebrated Cuisines Of The Mediterranean, From The Merchants Of Venice To The Barbary Corsairs, With More Than 500 Recipes
Clifford A. Wright - 1999
Author Clifford A. Wright weaves together historical and culinary strands from Moorish Spain to North Africa, from coastal France to the Balearic Islands, from Sicily and the kingdoms of Italy to Greece, the Balkan coast, Turkey, and the Near East.The evolution of these cuisines is not simply the story of farming, herding, and fishing; rather, the story encompasses wars and plagues, political intrigue and pirates, the Silk Road and the discovery of the New World, the rise of capitalism and the birth of city-states, the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, and the obsession with spices. The ebb and flow of empires, the movement of populations from country to city, and religion have all played a determining role in making each of these cuisines unique.In A Mediterranean Feast, Wright also shows how the cuisines of the Mediterranean have been indelibly stamped with the uncompromising geography and climate of the area and a past marked by both unrelenting poverty and outrageous wealth. The book's more than five hundred contemporary recipes (which have been adapted for today's kitchen) are the end point of centuries of evolution and show the full range of culinary ingenuity and indulgence, from the peasant kitchen to the merchant pantry. They also illustrate the migration of local culinary predilections, tastes for food and methods of preparation carried from home to new lands and back by conquerors, seafarers, soldiers, merchants, and religious pilgrims.A Mediterranean Feast includes fourteen original maps of the contemporary and historical Mediterranean, a guide to the Mediterranean pantry, food products resources, a complete bibliography, and a recipe and general index, in addition to a pronunciation key. An astonishing accomplishment of culinary and historical research and detective work in eight languages, A Mediterranean Feast is required--and intriguing--reading for any cook, armchair or otherwise.
Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance: The Turbulent Life and Fine Times of the Man Who Changed the Way We Eat
Thomas McNamee - 2012
From his first day on the job as the New York Times food critic, Craig Claiborne excited readers by introducing them to food worlds unknown, from initiating them in the standards of the finest French cuisine and the tantalizing joys of the then mostly unknown foods of India, China, Mexico, Spain, to extolling the pleasures of “exotic” ingredients like arugula, and praising “newfangled” tools like the Cuisinart, which once he’d given his stamp of approval became wildly popular. A good review of a restaurant guaranteed a full house for weeks, while a bad review might close a kitchen down. Based on unprecedented access to Claiborne’s personal papers and interviews with a host of food world royalty, including Jacques Pepin, Gael Greene, and Alice Waters, Tom McNamee offers a lively and vivid account of Claiborne’s extraordinary adventure in food, from his own awakening in the bistros of Paris, to his legendary wine-soaked dinner parties, to his travels to colorful locals from Morocco to Saigon, and the infamous $4,000 dinner he shared in Paris with French chef Pierre Franey that made front-page news. More than an engrossing biography, this is the story of the country’s transition from enchantment with frozen TV dinners to a new consciousness of truly good cooking.
The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese
Kathe Lison - 2013
And there’s much to love: hundreds of gloriously pungent varieties—crumbly, creamy, buttery, even shot through with bottle-green mold. So many varieties, in fact, that the aspiring gourmand may wonder: How does one make sense of it all?In The Whole Fromage, Kathe Lison sets out to learn what makes French cheese so remarkable—why France is the “Cheese Mother Ship,” in the words of one American expert. Her journey takes her to cheese caves tucked within the craggy volcanic rock of Auvergne, to a centuries-old monastery in the French Alps, and to the farmlands that keep cheesemaking traditions alive. She meets the dairy scientists, shepherds, and affineurs who make up the world of modern French cheese, and whose lifestyles and philosophies are as varied and flavorful as the delicacies they produce. Most delicious of all, she meets the cheeses themselves—from spruce-wrapped Mont d’Or, so gooey it’s best eaten with a spoon; to luminous Beaufort, redolent of Alpine grasses and wildflowers, a single round of which can weigh as much as a Saint Bernard; to Camembert, invented in Normandy but beloved and imitated across the world.With writing as piquant and rich as a well-aged Roquefort, as charming as a tender springtime chèvre, and yet as unsentimental as a stinky Maroilles, The Whole Fromage is a tasty exploration of one of the great culinary treasures of France.
Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life
Emily Kaiser Thelin - 2017
The gripping narrative traces the arc of Wolfert's career, from her Brooklyn childhood to her adventures in the farthest corners of the Mediterranean: from nights spent with Beat Generation icons like Allen Ginsberg, to working with the great James Beard; from living in Morocco at a time when it really was like a fourteenth century culture, to bringing international food to America's kitchens through magazines and cookbooks.Anecdotes and adventuresome stories come from Paula's extensive personal archive, interviews with Paula herself, and dozens of interviews with food writers and chefs whom she influenced and influenced her-including Alice Waters,Thomas Keller, Diana Kennedy, André Daguin, and Jacques Pepin. Wolfert's recipes are like no other: each is a new discovery, yielding incredible flavors, using unusual techniques and ingredients, often with an incredible backstory. And the recipes are organized into menus inspired by Wolfert's life and travels--such as James Beard's Easy Entertaining menu; a Moroccan Party; and a Slow and Easy Feast.Unforgettable also addresses Wolfert's acknowledgement of the challenges of living with Alzheimer's, a disease that often means she cannot remember the things she did yesterday, but can still recall in detail what she has cooked over the years. Not accepting defeat easily, Wolfert created a new brain-centric diet, emphasizing healthy meats and fresh vegetables, and her recipes are included here. Unforgettable is a delight for those who know and love Paula Wolfert's recipes, but will be a delicious discovery for those who love food, but have not yet heard of this influential cookbook writer and culinary legend.
The True History of Chocolate
Sophie D. Coe - 1996
This history reaches far back to the earliest civilisation in the Americas, and it was the Olmecs not the Aztecs who can be rightly named as the inventors of chocolate. Told with flair and wit, this history of cacoa looks at its ancient Mexican roots, questioning how it became the food of the gods, its ritual significance, and how it was used as a currency in trade among the Olmec. Piecing together a range of archaeological, documentary and pictorial evidence, Sophie and Michael Coe discuss the Theobrama cacoa tree, the chemical properties of cacao and its early domestication and use. The story of chocolate continues under the Aztecs and their first encounters with the Europeans. The authors trace the transformation and renaming of cacao as it made its way to the chocoholics of Europe - the white-skinned perfumed, bewigged, overdressed royalty and nobility'. Finally, Coe and Coe discuss its years of competititon with tea and coffee as the preferred hot beverage, its links with the Church, and its surrender to the industrialisation of the 19th century which withdrew the mystique of this luscious mouth-watering treat and turned it into an everyday, mass-produced, highly calorific product.
Tyler's Ultimate: Dinner at My Place
Tyler Florence - 2008
He shares the dishes he likes to prepare for his family and friends when he's off the clock. - The table of contents is organized by occasion, such as his son's first birthday party, a romantic meal for two, Christmas dinner for the whole Florence family, and a simple meal for a rainy Sunday afternoon.- Tyler's menus and recipes feature twists on comfort food classics and showcase his secret family recipes as well as his personal favorites.- Menus and personal photos from Tyler's home-cooked meals and dinner parties.- Beautiful food and lifestyle photos.
Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World
Tristan Donovan - 2013
Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World charts soda’s remarkable, world-changing journey from awe-inspiring natural mystery to ubiquitous presence in all our lives. Along the way you’ll meet the patent medicine peddlers who spawned some of the world’s biggest brands with their all-healing concoctions, as well as the grandees of science and medicine mesmerized by the magic of bubbling water. You’ll discover how fizzy pop cashed in on Prohibition, helped presidents reach the White House, and became public health enemy number one. You’ll learn how Pepsi put the fizz in Apple’s marketing, how Coca-Cola joined the space race, and how soda’s sticky sweet allure defined and built nations. And you’ll find out how an alleged soda-loving snail rewrote the law books.Fizz tells the extraordinary tale of how a seemingly simple everyday refreshment zinged and pinged over our taste buds and, in doing so, changed the world around us.
Sister Pie: The Recipes and Stories of a Big-Hearted Bakery in Detroit [A Baking Book]
Lisa Ludwinski - 2018
The granddaughter of two Detroit natives, Ludwinski spends her days singing, dancing, and serving up a brand of pie love that has charmed critics and drawn the curious from far and wide. No one leaves without a slice--those who don't have money in their pockets can simply cash in a prepaid slice from the "pie it forward" clothesline strung across the window. With 75 of her most-loved recipes for sweet and savory pies--such as Toasted Marshmallow-Butterscotch Pie and Sour Cherry-Bourbon Pie--and other bakeshop favorites, the Sister Pie cookbook pays homage to Motor City ingenuity and all-American spirit. Illustrated throughout with 75 drool-worthy photos and Ludwinski's charming line illustrations, and infused with her plucky, punny style, bakers and bakery lovers won't be able to resist this book.
Home Comforts
James Martin - 2014
The very British love of spicy foods is properly indulged with recipes from all over the world, including Indian deep-fried soft-shell crab with a delicious home-made lime pickle. There is also the true comfort food — such as Chicken and wild mushroom frying pan pie — and old favourites such as chicken Kiev.