AMISH COOKBOOK

THE AMISH COOK

- Elizabeth Coblentz -

Food is so interesting to me. Not just eating food, but, reading about food. I think you can learn much more about a culture, a country, a people, all by the food they eat, how they prepare it, and rituals around how they eat it.
The Amish Cookbook gives much more than than recipes, it gives you a glimpse into the ways of the Amish. The recipes and ingredients seem to be a reflection of their lifestyle - simple and nourishing. Although this book is labelled a cookbook there is so much more inside. Each recipe is accompanied by an article, written by Elizabeth, usually about the recipe. Actually, the articles would usually take off on different tangents, such as when she would typically make the dish, a bit of history on it, her memories around the dish, maybe the last time she made it and who was at her house. She often throws in tidbits about her personal life too. News about a grandchild being born, how an early frost froze her garden, about how she helped out a neighbour can some peaches. All written very blunt, simple, right to the point, without any complaints. Actually a refreshing change from the wordy, figurative, language of novels. Makes you think about how much time and effort is taken up by the frills in our modern lifestyle.

In addition to these personal pieces, there are small notes about Amish life and the events we might associate with them. There are notes about barn raising, rumspringa, the 'rules' around using modern technology like phones and cars, even a bit about the 'Dutch English' language many speak.

The recipes. Most are simple with only a few ingredients. Some, however, sound pretty odd to me. Coffee Soup anyone? It is pretty much a bowl of coffee with bread in it. There are a couple I might photocopy, especially the bread ones. It's tough finding an easy, great tasting bread recipe.

I don't know a whole lot about the Amish, but, after reading this book I feel much more informed. Knowing what people eat, how they feel about food, and some intimate stories about their personal lives is much easier to read and leaves me feeling like I know more about these people than I would if I had read a bland textbook on the subject.

RATING : READ

WAITER RANT

WAITER RANT:

Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a cynical waiter

- Steve Dublanica -

I judged this book by its cover - it stood out! On a shelf at the library, surrounded by mundane food related books, it caught my eye. I noticed the quote on the cover from Anthony Bourdain. I thought, if this book is anything like Bourdain's books I'll love it.
It was no Kitchen Confidential, but, the Waiter Rant was ok. It gave me the basics of what I expected - a behind the scenes peek into the life of the wait staff. I learned a lot about what holidays are like to waiters, how not to make and break reservations, and what the minimum level of tipping is required before you are called a bad name. The rest of the book was a mix of stories, highlighting the terrible behavior some customers exhibit. The running theme was that some diners thought themselves superior to the lowly serving staff. The way it was written could have come across as whiny, which most reviewers have commented about, however, I did not view it that way. I saw it as a working mans rant about the world he was throw into. 
If you like memoirs on anything foodie, you'll love this. If you cannot stand books with characters who complain, then do not order this book.

RATING : READ

A COOK'S TOUR

A COOK'S TOUR

- Anthony Bourdain -

Bourdain pulled it off again! Another 'Must Read' book I'd recommend to anyone.
The concept is pretty basic - he travels the world in search of the perfect meal. From the refined tables of France to the dirty slums of some hideous sounding Asian country, he really does go everywhere. This is the book version of his TV show - No Reservations. Or, at least the first season. But, as any bookworm knows the book is always better than the movie.
Now, I liked No Reservations (the TV show), but, I really, really, really liked A Cook's Tour. Bourdain gives us the backstory, and the truth behind each episode he filmed. What you see on TV is not really how it happened, or at least how Bourdain felt it happened. He may be smiling to the camera, but, he was often homesick, filled with guilt, or wracked with depression.
This book is great because it is so honest. Bourdain is not a chipper chicken the entire time. If he doesn't like something he'll let you know. On the other hand, if he says the sheep testicles are one of the best things he's tasted - then they probably are.
I also liked that he revealed his true feelings about some of the places: That France did not live up to his childhood memories. That some Japanese delicacies almost made him vomit. That he sometimes felt like a stereotypical bumbling American that would never really be able to understand another culture.
He gave it a good try though. As a tour guide he was good. As a food guide he was excellent. His trip around the world was a true adventure. He didn't always stick to the beaten path. He has a good knack for describing things so well, in a somewhat crude way sometimes. It made for a fun read.

RATING : READ

COLD ANTLER FARM

COLD ANTLER FARM

&

ONE WOMAN FARM

 

- Jenna Woginrich - 

Both of these Jenna Woginrich books are so well written they are hard to accurately describe. The writing and choice of words are a mixed bag. At points they are poetic and overly romanticize farm life, yet, at the same time hint at the drudgery and hardships that come along with this homesteading lifestyle. The bright side constantly prevails, which makes these books seem uplifting and inspiring. This is a woman living her dream life - of course she is going to make it sound like candy and roses. I like that. I like that you can almost feel the passion she has for her farm, her animals, her new lifestyle, no matter what obstacles get in the way.
She sounds happy, which is nice to read.
She sounds proud, which is nice to read.
She wants everyone to feel the same way she does - which is really nice to read.

Now, I'm not a big animal lover, but, Jenna is. She raves about her livestock, tells stories about their behaviours and how they have changed her life...something I am typically not that interested in. Yet, the way she writes about the animals is exactly how I write about my children. They are brag tales. They are short snippets of how life has changed when you add another being to your life, a being that is solely dependant on you. She talks over and over about how she puts her livestock above her, which is exactly how I feel about my children. What an epiphany for me. I'm still not interested in owning a goat, or a sheep, or even a chicken, but, I think my mind is a bit more open to those that do.

To sum these books up; uplifting, positive, relateable, readable, interesting...great!

RATING : READ

Jenna blogs at http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.ca/

THE NASTY BITS

THE NASTY BITS

- Anthony Bourdain - 

Bits. That is what this book is made of - Bits. Not entrails or chicken toes. Not those kind of bits. Just bits of writing. A short account of eating a seal. A page or two on where Chefs and other kitchen staff drink after hours. A few paragraphs about other books by cooks. A rather short travel log about cooking on a cruise ship. Just bits like that.

I did not find this collection much different than Kitchen Confidential or Medium Raw. Yes, Kitchen Confidential had a storyline, but, it was mostly made up of bits like this. No argument that the stories were longer and much deeper, but, in the end they were seperate stories thrown together in one book to give you a glimpse into the world of cooking. Nasty Bits is similar, it is just missing a destination.
Overall, it had that same cuss filled opinionated writing about food and food culture that I was expecting from Bourdain...and secretly craving. I'm still looking for a author who can outdo Anthony in this little niche of the literary scene. The niche I'm referring to is the attitude filled, overly profane, insult ridden, darkly humorous, yet easily readable food and/or food related (including Cookbooks) books. As of yet, I have not found anyone that can best him. But, if you know of someone please instant message me asap.

A lot of reviewers of this book seem to get a really worked up over the structure. I read complaint after complaint about how this book is hard to get into because it's choppy, disjointed...blah blah. Hello?! It implies right on the front that this book is made up of scraps, bits, etc. The preface has Bourdain explaining that he has assembled a collection of articles he wrote for magazines, bits (again with the bits) that did not make it into his other books, and a small work of fiction. Did these reviewers just forget to read the preface. First rule in book reading - Read the Preface! Skip the table of contents, but, don't ever skip the Preface.

My only complain, the same one I had with Medium Raw, is Bourdain's preoccupation with insulting the 'celebrity chef'. Come on, the Bobby Flay or Jaime Oliver bashing gets really old after a dozen go-rounds.

RATING: READ*

*First read the Preface!

MEDIUM RAW

MEDIUM RAW

- Anthony Bourdain -

If you want a book that is written well, by a full-of-himself jackass, with some heavy New York city crass...well, this is your book. The writing style is wonderful. You can't argue that Bourdain has a way with words (and uses the four letter ones more than most) and can pull you into a story, even if the contents is worlds away. But, when the content is just Tony griping about 'sell out' celebrity chefs and cream of the crop food critics it makes for less than appetizing reading.

In my mind the book was split into three parts. The first dozen or two dozen pages were great. A quick story about eating an Ortolan Bunting (read the wikipedia link, it's very interesting). It's a 'meal' where you shove an entire bird in your mouth and eat it all except the feet, which is kind of used like a handle to put the bird in. You cover your head with a napkin, b/c I'm sure it is disgusting to watch. Anthony writes in graphic detail about the tastes and the textures and the brains. His attitude is bang on Bourdain - I'm part of this elite club of 'chefs' who eat endangered birds in the most disgusting way possible and I think I'm so cool about it. The kind of content that makes your blood boil, but, keeps your eyes glued to the page to see what other egotistical things Tony is going to say.

He then opens up a bit and loses his elitist attitude. He talks about his struggles with drugs and the breakdown of his marriage. It is raw writing, not medium raw (if you'll forgive the pun). I actually felt a bit of compassion for the guy and was drawn in. Then you flip a page and boom the attitude hits you.

The second part of the book, the next two hundred or so pages (about 95% of the book) were pretty raw too. But, this kind of writing was not baring your soul raw, it was ripping someone's arm off raw...with a lot of swearing in the process. Bourdain bashes countless people, with extreme overuse of profanity - just to prove he is a bad boy I suppose? He fries up The Food Network. He burns celebrity chefs. He cuts up chefs I've never heard of, but, probably would know if I were in the food business. He broils up a pan full of food critics. He even hacks a piece off of the meat slaughtering industry. Two hundred pages of his rantings. He is mad at the world for some unknown reason and his misplaced anger leads to the bulk of this book. Sum it up, the content is bland...but, the prose is excellent. If you get past the lack of a story or any sense of purpose (and that 'I'm a badboy' attitude) the actual writing is wonderful. Bourdain makes great analogies, and his descriptions of places and food is hard to beat.

The last dozen pages or so are also wonderful. Again, Anthony drops the attitude and the anger and just shares a couple of memories. I love his stories of strange things that happen in the kitchen or even stranger people that work them - that is what made Kitchen Confidential so great to read. This 'sequel' was another book I've thrown on the sequels-that-sucked bookshelf.

RATING: DO NOT READ*

*Actually, just read the first few pages and the last few pages.

I think this link will give you at least an attempt at understanding Bourdain's attitude LINK

Kitchen Confidential

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

- Anthony Bourdain -

Wow, is this book saucy! By that, I don't mean the one description of a great sounding chicken wing sauce, I mean the vulgar language, insults, rants, profanity, sexuality, blood, gore, drugs, dead pigs, rotten fish...you get the idea. Nobody under the age of say, 21, should be reading this, IMO.

Bordain uses his words like a chef uses his knife, to cut through all the bullsh** glamorized ideas that the food network cooking shows have given us (his insults on Emril & Rachel Ray are frequent and slightly funny). The world of the cook is not fun, easy, and thirty minutes...it's 18 hours, smelly, hot, sweaty, and well, working class! The book takes us into the culinary underbelly (as described by the cover of the book), and it kind of a frightening journey to tell you the truth.

In the preface, Bourdain states he only wrote this book for those in the industry, and truthfully thought nobody other than a handful of unemployed chefs/cooks with time to waste would read it...apparently it turned into a best seller? I can vouch for that; I would even buy it! Me, the guy who got mad over 70 cents worth of overdue library fines...it is that good.

This quasi-autobiography starts with a young Anthony travelling through France. He was a bratty kid, only eating hamburgers and french fries, shunning anything French. He was always a rebellious kid, which is what starts his food journey. It begins when the fam takes a day trip on an oyster fishing boat. Fresh oysters were offered up by the pirate like captain and nobody wanted to eat them (too weird, too slimy, etc). Anthony finally steps up and eats one, being the rebel of course. He loved it. From that point on he pushed the limits on all food, eating the strangest frenchest things on the menu.

Years later, on a summer break from college, he reluctantly takes a dishwashing job. It was that, or be evicted by his roommates. The restaurant he worked for was filled with crooked, drugged up, crude talking guys. Terrible sounding to me, but, paradise for Anthony.

It is incredible the outrageous stuff that went on in that kitchen was considered ok, even normal. There were lots of drugs, inter-employee 'relationships' (in the dry goods room!), bad food handling, gambling, stealing, just arrogant crass behaviour! And, the competitive atmosphere within the restaurant and with other restaurants down the street was mind boggling. The psychological assaults the cooks played on one other left me surprised that there were not any knife wielding incidents. The scary part - I think Bourdain toned down the stories. Your typical story teller enhances tales (ie makes stuff up). I think Anthony left much of the worst of it out. So, even as shocking as some of these stories are, I think there are worse ones left out.

The book is divided up like a fine meal. There is the autobiographical story of Anthony's career which makes up the entree - the real meat of the story. I say meat because any chef regards vegetarians as the bane of their existence, or at least Anthony does. There is also a side dish of stories about eccentric people Tony has worked with or worked for. This includes many junkies, megalomaniacs, and even the mafia. There are also small tidbits, appetizers and desserts, intermixed in the book. Mostly they are about how a restaurant actually works. You might get the impression these parts would have a textbook feel? Really, how interesting is it to describe what a porter does or how to order stock. But, instead of dry terminology and definitions Anthony gives us some tasteless examples of the criminal behaviour that he expects from porters (such as stealing food and booze). Some of the most effective parts of the book are these small dishes, effective in that they make you want to vomit. Like, why not to eat seafood on Monday. Or, why Sunday brunch should be called something like, 'stuff that should be going out in the trash but let's make a seafood fritatta out of it to save money'.

What I found this book did was bring me right into the noisy, hot, cuss filled kitchen and realize how much I've taken for granted being that diner who comes in for a relaxing meal on a Saturday night. But, other than make me feel guilty, Bourdain also does a great job of making the book relevant to anyone working in a cruddy job. Just like other jobs most of the time is spent in the drudgery of repetition ('the same dish 150 times a day' can easily be compared to 'the same data input into the computer 150 times a day'). Also the camaraderie of being on the same team, taking on the ever present enemy, be it the customer or the boss! The high point of this industry seems to be the personal satisfaction that comes with making a great dish (or 150 of them in a night). Anthony repeats many times that he often left work feeling satisfied deep down.

I do have to warn you, other than the three thousand foul words found in the book, that this is one of those books you are going to be quoting (hence, annoying others) for years to come. Most likely anytime you go out to eat you'll want to share some of your new found knowledge on the workings of the kitchen. Or, at least what NOT to order! Oh, and you'll probably never let anyone send anything back again, unless you like eating spit...or completely ruining the rest of the night for a few lowly cooks.

Overall, this was a book I didn't want to put down. It was a book I wished would go on forever. One of the best books I've read in years! I found the stories and writing just...entertaining on many different levels. The actual words Bourdain uses are all over the place, for eg. where is the last time you saw 'underbelly' used in a sentence? It's funny, which I like. It is also full of 'stuff' (words, phrases, life experiences) that I have never run across or for that matter ever hope to. This out of the ordinary 'stuff' is fascinating. Anthony's personal story, from lazy ass druggie to master chef, is so full of ups and downs you really never know what is going to happen next. So, get crakin'...readin'

RATING: READ

P.S. What made me first pick up this book was Anthony's shameless promotion of it on his great travel/food show No Reservations. Funny though, the jokes on Anthony - he promoted his book, which I got free from the library, from his show, which I also got free from the library...oh boy, I'm quite the cheapskate!