Book review: Three food books you don't have to bother with
eat pray love by Elisabeth Gilbert
This is an interesting book, and the only reason it is in this category is that I don't think it is for everyone. It is a autobiography, telling the true story of a woman who leaves an unhappy marriage and lives 4 months in Italy to eat and promote decadence, 4 months in India to learn how to get closer to God at a Hindu center called Ashram, and then 4 months in Bali to find herself with a native healer. She also finds love again in Bali. The writing is excellent, a real delight, and she is especially good at writing about humorous situations as well as her own anxiety and impatience. I loved that. However, it is kind of a strange book, because the only person that feels real in the book is herself, none of the other characters. They are more like shadows. But her descriptions of eating pasta, pizza, and gelato in Italy wants me to go there NOW. So if you don't mind some God praying stuff, read it, otherwise read only part one and then go on to another book.
The year of eating dangerously by Tom Parker Bowles
This is the book I only read to chapter 2, then gave up on. If you think the author's last name is familiar, it is because 1) he is a famous British food writer, and 2) he is the son of Camilla Parker Bowles, now married to Prince Charles of the British royal family. No, Charles is not in the book, but his mom is, mentioned as someone that can cook, hates spicy food, and like good ingredients. The author writes a lot, far too much. It is like he thinks every little word and thought is of interest, but there really isn't any depth to anything. The first chapter is about baby eels, but he ends the chapter without eating one molecule from the eel, and the second chapter is about chilis in New Mexico, but you don't really learn anything about chili or find out what he thinks about them. It is just one long diatribe about being to a Fiery Food Festival eating too hot sauces, seeing people puke and say the f-word (lots of that in the book), and then just want to go home. Boring. Superficial. I gave up. If I writer can't even excite me about hot chilies and Santa Fe, the book is lost. I really tried to like it, but I couldn't.
Remembrance of things Paris, sixty years of writing from Gourmet, edited by Ruth Reichl
If you have been to Paris sometime in the 20s to 50s, maybe this book is fun for you. I wasn't even born then. The best essay in the whole book is the one by Ruth Reichl, about trying on a black dress! It is outstanding, but the rest is about as boring as Marcel Proust. But I read nearly all of it while I was stuck on an airplane. If you want to read about French food there are a lot better books. Too much is snotty, snobbish, and only the insiders would know what you mean. More Ruth Reichl, less old dusty stuff.
On a scale from one to 100, this book is a 5 and Comfort me with Apples by Ruth Reichl is a 99.
7 comments:
There's no need for the british to go to the end of the world to eat dangerously, they have Creutzfeldt-Jakob beef at home. ;)
Besides, I thought the indian influence on the british cuisine would have made them more used to spicy food. Isn't rice and curry almost as common as fish and chips nowadays?
And "Eat, pray..." sounds very dangerous too. :)
Hurry hurry hurry, I eat my rice and curry....
The real "englishmen" don´t change, they still eat their Yorkshire-pudding...
I think the worst food I ever had was in England, with marginals, 2:nd is possibly the norwegian food, which, sometimes tastes nothing. I had good food in Norway too, but they still count low on my best food list.
The best food....has to be USA, (thanks PP & LS) and Sweden. The icelandic ovencooked lambsteak is high on my list too. It´s best with fjallalamb, lambs who has been in the mountains over the summer and has eaten herbs all along. But icelandic sheep skull is not a good thing, I prefer food that doesn´t look at me!
The first time in my life I had Indian food was in London, the early 90s, and I had tandoori chicken. I loved it! But most pub food in England I can live without, it is just so greasy. Good fish and chips is great. I wonder if Olle has any comments on this?
You seem to be enjoying food books...you really should try M.F.K. Fisher. COnsider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, An Alphabet for Gourmets are all great! Some available where you live too!
I love MFK Fisher! Need to read what I have read yet by her. I never thought I would like reading about food, but I really have a new appreciation for it. Not just the tastes, but also the customs and ethics surrounding it, as well as the science and origins. Reading about it has made me so much more interested in what we eat, everywhere in the world.
I meant to say I need to read more by MFK Fisher...
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