Back in town late last night. I had a great trip. Not as much resting and relaxing as I needed – but that’s OK.
If you’ve never been to a Jewish wedding – in addition to the ceremony itself – what you’re looking at is a good 4 days of eating. I’ll see if any of my pictures turned out and post more later.
About half an hour before I had to get to the airport for my return flights, I came down with a nasty cold. So this is it for tonight – I am going to take some NyQuil and sleep.
I was hoping to post a few things this weekend – but there just wasn’t enough time to get everything done before I leave tomorrow.
If I get a chance I’ll put up some pictures of my weekend baking tomorrow morning – if not, have a great week!
I must admit – even knowing that Tony Bourdain contributed to this book, I didn’t start reading it expecting too much. In fact – after reading the first few stories I wasn’t getting into it and wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue reading it.
The book features a great lineup of writers. Ferran Adria, Mario Batali, Heston Blumenthal, Bourdain, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Gabrielle Hamilton, Fergus Henderson, Eric Ripart, Marcus Samuelsson and Norman Van Aken are just a small sampling of the talented chef contributors. The problem is that even though they are all (presumably) great chefs, not all of them are stellar writers.
I’ve been in the food business most of my life – and I have great stories I can tell about kitchen catastrophes – so I would assume these kitchen luminaries would them too. And many of them do. But several of the writers are stretching in their attempts – it’s as though, miraculously, nothing really bad has ever happened in their kitchens, but they had to come up with something for the book. And some of the attempts fall flat.
On the other hand, some of the stories are great. At first, I thought that Tony Bourdain was an anomaly – he’s a storyteller with a gift. He tells the tale of a New Year’s Eve shift that anybody in the hospitality business would fear. And of course he tells it in his usual brash, honest way.
Not everybody has the writing talent that AB does. But as I continued to read, I found several gems within the red and orange cover. Gabrielle Hamilton retells a touching story of a hopeful, blind line-cook. As AB himself points out in his last book – this woman has talent. Though he may say that because she comes across as a female version of him. I hope to read more from her in the future.
Michelle Bernstein’s story is one of turning a mistake into success. Michael Lomonaco recounts his near heart-break – a most exciting evening for him that came close to not happening. Sara Moulton – TV host, Gourmet magazine chef – but first and foremost, little sister – tells about how one mistake can never be forgotten when a sibling is there as a witness.
These were some of the stories that stuck with me as I read through the book – and I’m glad I didn’t put it down at the beginning. By the end, I felt like the good stuff far out-weighed the bad (bad is too harsh a word – let’s just call it the not-so-great).
Once I got through the first few stories, the book turned into an easy-to-read, enjoyable adventure. Do I think everybody will enjoy it? Parts of it yes. To enjoy all of it, I think it helps to have put in some time in the food biz. I say give it a shot – if one story doesn’t float your boat, just move on to the next.
Since I last posted about interesting search engine terms, I’ve been keeping an eye on what sort of things people were searching for that got them to my blog. Some of them are surprising, some are funny and some are just .. well, strange! So I decided that every month or so I’d let y’all know what sort of stuff you’re searching for.
Tomato growing is on the minds of the masses. There seems to be a lots of garden problems this summer, and people have been searching for terms like: my (roma) tomatoes are rotting on the bottom; roma tomato problem 2006; rotten tomatoes in my garden; something is happening to my tomatoes; are sprouuting tomatoes good to eat (I have no idea what a sprouting tomato is – where does it sprout??). If only I had some answers to our questions.
Yiddish is still cool apparently. I’ve been told it’s a dying language – yet people are still interested in it and have looked for: Yiddish word for fat; Yiddish food words (but you didn’t add any! come back and add some to the list!); Yiddish food (what exactly is yiddish food?); Yiddish wooden spoon (?); Yiddish for little things – and that’s just the tip of the Yiddish searchin Iceburg!
Tony Bourdain – yep, people are still searching for him. But why is there so much AB hate?? (ie: searching for ‘I hate Anthony Bourdain’) I fully admit that I like, hell I even admire him – so there will be no hating here.
Muddlers – ok. Really, only one person searched for this – specifically, the search term was ‘find a muddler locally’. I’m not sure if you did – or if you’re even local to me. If you are in Winnipeg, I bought a muddler at D.A. Neils this summer. Great store.
Phrases I liked – even if they only appeared once. ‘Book Fairy’ – he’s not real.. sorry. ‘Mojito chick drink?’ – I promise you – guys can drink them too. Seriously.
Last but not least Pineapple Sage. I think there is a definite need in this world for the Pineapple Sage Cookbook. None of us seem to know what to do with it! Anybody who would like to post a recipe, we’d love to see one. Thanks!
To all of you who have searched for something and ended up here – thanks. I’m not sure you got your answers here, but feel free to visit any time.
I’m just saying, a vacation would be good about now.
Today was a good day for doing nothing. I had to work for a few hours this morning. Work has been a never-ending marathon for the last few months. So rather than running around doing the errands I should have done when I was done at work, I came home, did a few loads of laundry and relaxed with a book and some popcorn.
The book: Don’t try this at home . I’m about 2/3’s through. So far some of it’s been great, some less than great. I’ll post my thoughts about it when I’m done.
The popcorn: None of that microwave stuff. There was a time (university) when I went through boxes of microwave popcorn. Now I prefer to use a pot on the stove-top (it helps that I now have a stove). A handful of corn, a splash of oil – and once it’s popped just enough salt. Good stuff.
Vine ripened, sun warmed and ready to eat. No rot on the bottom, no blemishes – perfect tomato.
What people are saying…