Book Review: He Said Beer, She Said Wine

I recently received a review copy of He Said Beer, She Said Wine and was really excited to get into it. I love wine, and usually have a dozen or so bottles at any given time. I try to run the gamut, having everything from sweet Riesling and Dry Gewurtztraminer to robust Cabernet and Syrah. A lot of my friends, however, are into beer (and scotch, but that's another story). Usually the only beer I have in my house is the Corona I like, the Guiness my husband likes, and whatever said friends have left behind from their last visit. In fact, there's a bottle of Chimay in the fridge door, and a few other miscellaneous bottles that roll around in the produce drawers.
      (Don't fret, I have produce, I just don't keep most of it in the refrigerator!)

After the above confession, I wouldn't be too surprised if author who covered the beer-half of the book (Sam Calagione, who bears a passing resemblance to David Duchovny) were to come here and bash me over the head with a hefty bottle of XX Bitter Golden Ale. I was looking forward to a crash course in beer varieties without my head exploding like a Heinekin left in the hot sun.

So the first impression of this book is made by the gorgeous food photography. I could lick the pages. I sat down with the book after dinner a couple nights, and found my self hungry again. And thirsty: the beverages are photographed in well-lit glassware appropriate to the contents. Also, the design of the book in general is, for lack of a better word, cute, and I don't mean that disparagingly. The pages that talk about fish pairings are bordered with fishnet. The cheese pages are bordered with woodgrain, to invoke a cheeseboard. The page numbers are adorned with either beer bottlecaps or rings of wine-stain (which is a curious choice), or both bottlecaps and stains, to indicate whether the page discusses either or both. A final note on the design, which you might find petty, is that the body copy is in a fine-lined sans-serif font, (which means straight lines and curves, without embellishment, like this), instead of a serif font (that has little thingamajigs on the ends of each line, like this). To me, the sans-serif font makes it sort of difficult to read on paper. I'm not even 40 and I found myself squinting. I'll forgo critique of the myriad of font choices, because only a handful of people will feel the same pain.

Next, to the characters: Marnie and Sam each have impressive resumes, and each is extremely qualified to handle his/her section. Marnie is pictured in plain-yet-elegant dresses with a smart haircut (my hair will never lay that flat!). She looks like she'd have a great laugh. Sam is shown in untucked, spread-collar shirts and dockers, looking very much like the kind of guy who'd be as comfortable tending bar as bellying up to one. I mean this in a good way. The book is based, of course, on the He-Says-She-Says of which libation is more appropriate for a given food, and that feeling seasons each section.

On to the content! we start with a "primer" for each beverage. How they came to be, what they're made from, and the ingredients and techniques used to produce the individuality of each drink. Well done, and very appropriate for a newbie or a not-so-seasoned afficionado.

Then, they go food-by-food, picking out a couple items from each genre (for spicy foods, they choose chorizo, kung pao chicken, jambalaya...you get the idea) and pair those choices with wines and beers. Throughout, there are graphs and charts and tables and grids, and that gives the impression of a textbook. I think that many people appreciate an graphical approach than column after column of dry text. Even though they DO include that archaic tongue map. Twice. (sigh)

The part of the book that does the least for me is the "Which Drink Wins" section that follows each food category. Each author says a paragraph extolling the virtues of his or her preferred drink, while degrading that of the other. Here's one of the first examples. The following transcription is truncated, I grant you, but it sounds like a playground argument of "my dad can beat up your dad".
      Marnie: ...there's a reason we have 'wine and cheese' parties and not 'beer and cheese' parties.
      Sam: we DO have beer and cheese parties. What do you serve with pizza... Pizza is nothing more than a giant melted cheese sandwich.
      Marnie: We're talking about real cheese, not 'cheez' with a 'z'.
Also, esoteric as it may be, I will mention that I felt the layout of this feature is dizzying. Bold, all-caps, serif, sans-serif, script font, headline fonts...the typographer must have been drinking both beer AND wine when setting this one up. Again, I'm sure I'm in the minority of people who even notice.

The last part is The Great Debate At Home, which includes recipes and specific beverage selections, as well as detailed instructions as to how to do your own side-by-side evaluation.

Actually the REAL last part is the makeup -slash- confession by each author that maybe (wine/beer) is not the end-all be-all of beverages, and that perhaps a good (beer/wine) does have its place at the table.

So what's my final verdict? I feel it serves its pupose excellently... provided its purpose is to give someone a more-than-basic overview of how to match foods and wines. Take away the debate and the textbook aspect, and I'd be inclined to see this as a coffee-table book, something to be paged through casually while ogling the food porn and making you lust for a glass of something... anything... But with those essential parts, you get a fun, uncomplicated and very approachable book that will do its best to encourage you to be more adventurous with what you eat & drink.

I might even have to crack open that Chimay to enjoy with the roast beef I'll be having for dinner!

Book Review: Simmer Down (A Gourmet Girl Mystery)

I haven't been served any subpoenas, nor been contacted by anyone's lawyers, nor has anybody tested the ferocity of my two overprotective pitbulls, so mister preacher man is still at bay. ...and hey, who wants to ƒµ¢k with a chef, really? We have big knives, and we know how to skin things with excruciating precision. My sex-tech expert friend, Regina Lynn knows all about pervertibles, but just imagine what you could do, torture-wise, with a full battery of kitchen implements? Knives aside, there's the Crème Brûlée torch, trussing needles, rolling pins, and a whack on the noggin from a cast iron pan wouldn't do you no good...

And if you are a chef inclined to murder, there are plenty of places to hide the body! I mean, we actually have freezers that big.

Anyway, this is the second culinary murder mystery I've ever read. The first one, Death by Rhubarb written by Lou Jane Temple, I got from a resale shop for 50¢. The link goes to the amazon page, where there are both flattering and unflattering reviews. My review would be included in the latter, but it's not necesary for me to be harsh.

This was written by a mother-daughter team, Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant. I was also promised a copy of their first book, Steamed, but i haven't received it yet.

Let's just say my expectations for a culinary murder mystery were pretty low, after having had the rhubarb book as my introduction.

I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading Simmer Down In fact, my sights were set so low that i cracked the book in the middle, which i never do, to see if there was any substance in it before i invested a whole lot of time in it. The page I turned to let me see that this was put together by someone who knew a kitchen, so I gave it a shot, and started from the beginning. The female lead, Chloe, comes off as kind of a spoiled brat, whining about a lot of mundane stuff, and although she tries to improve, she goes about it so begrudgingly it is uncomfortable. Partly because it's very clear that Chloe is an incarnation of the daughter half of the team. (red hair, social work, etc.)

The food detail, though, and the cooking stuff: very good. If you've ever worked in a pro kitchen, the nuances of an expert's voice comes through in the writing. it actually made me a little 'homesick' for working in a cramped kitchen, filled with people wearing their whites, speaking lots of Spanish and nibbling on the bits and scraps of stuff that can't be served, like the remnants on a sheet pan when circular portions have been cut out if it.

ok, ok, sorry, got a little dreamy-eyed there; back to the review.

I don't think i'd get along with chloe, but i'd love to work with josh. The writing about his intensity in the kitchen really comes across. I kind of imagine him to act like the guy who won the first top chef. The tall dark and handsome one, kind of brooding and quiet, but very focused on his work.

So I'm giving it four stars, out of five. All the cooking and food-related stuff was spot-on. The relationships between the characters came off as kind of dodgy. Maybe an extra make-out scene or two would be nice, too.

and HEY, btw, don't read the amazon reviews by the pro reviewers. they practically tell the story in their review, and as you can imagine, it rather spoils a murder mystery!


Last thing I ate or drank: licorice jellybeans

Technorati Tags: Food and Drink in Los Angeles

Book Review: "Educating Peter" by Lettie Teague

The full title of this book is Educating Peter: How I Taught a Famous Movie Critic the Difference Between Cabernet and Merlot or How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert

I will cheat, just a teensy bit, by posting an excerpt from the amazon page:

Lettie Teague knows wine. She has been the wine editor at Food & Wine magazine for almost a decade. After many years of fielding these questions, Lettie was determined to debunk the myth that learning about wine is hard. She decided to find just one wine idiot and teach him a few fundamentals -- how to order off a restaurant wine list without fear, approach a wine merchant with confidence, and perhaps even score a few points off a wine snob.

If you're so inclined, you can also listen to the Splendid Table interview, which you can find here OK, now that you know the gist, I will offer my opinion, which is why Ms. Teague's people graciously sent me this book: to review it and post it on this blog.

I loved this book. I read it through voraciously, sometimes up to two hours at a sitting while I waited for the rest of the world (well, my world) to wake up. Big pot of hazelnut coffee, spa-type waffle robe, flip-flops, and this book, outside on my back patio. I felt as though I should have been taking notes. As I read it again, I plan to have a pen and paper handy. (and dammit, I have a no-renew-because-there's-a-waiting-list book checked out.)

The book is fun, although as a read a passage out loud to my friend, he said, "it sounds like someone ran it through a thesaurus and replaced all the normal words with longer words, so it sounds more impressive," which is kind of accurate, (I don't think the average reader should have to pull out a dictionary (or dictionary.com) to comprehend a book like this, but beyond that i thought it was a fun read.

Anyway, yeah, it's a keeper, and very well worth the price of admission, if you consider that you'll have learned several tricks to avoid bad wine that you'd otherwise pour down the sink. And it's also good to have a few good wine-drinking terms up your sleeve for tossing around at dinner!

My only comment would be that I'd have liked to see her talk about how to actually drink wine before the very last chapter. It sounds as though she let that poor Peter go around like a dolt until he got to the restaurants.


Last thing I ate or drank:

Technorati Tags: Food and Drink in Los Angeles

Ethnic Paris Cookbook - a book review. PLUS *contest* *prizes*

I recently received another book to review, and I'm happy to share the wealth with my blogs' readers, through a little contest.The woman who is doing the promotions for this cookbook has got to be one of the most savvy people in her industry. You can't spill your champagne without having it drip on something that's referring to The Ethnic Paris Cookbook Link goes to the SuperChef Blog, and Juliette's review, since hers is very thorough already (yeah, I know it's kinda cheating but I'm certain she won't mind the traffic)... but I'll add my comments here, too.

First of all, it's CUTE! As in "OMG ponies!!1!one!1!" cute. Totally belongs on a coffee table, not on a shelf in the kitchen. Maybe display it on your kitchen island in a decorative book stand. The graphics aren't glossy, food-porn photography, but you know what? YAY! Because you can plate and present and display and serve like you want to, without fretting over how much it doesn't look like the photo in the book.

Second, it's got lots of interesting text. Each section has a few pages of background and history about how this cuisine got into Paris anyway, with anecdotes about how the cuisines became intermingled.

This gives me the opportunity to tell you a little story, too. Once upon a time, when the ink was still wet on my diploma, I worked for a Japanese Import-Export company. The bosses (both Japanese of course) would surprise us on a rare special occasion by taking our little 3 person department (me, Jeff & Paola) to a restaurant. Of course there were grand sushi experiences, mostly focused on "let's see what things can get the American girls to eat." One of the places, however, was a French/Japanese fusion restaurant called Yoshi's Cafe. The Chef trained in France, so his cooking had a Japanese flair. I have always been a foodie...and I was quite excited to go there. It's one of those places that you want to go to, but at 21, you could never afford.

The bosses (Mr. Ouchi & Mr. Asaba: I'll never forget those two) spoke in Japanese to the chef and his staff, and then we we 'kids' ordered. Paola ordered a Vichisoisse as her first course; She whispered to me that it was kind of cold. She didn't know. Jeff ordered the Tuna Tartare...although I'm certain he only chose it because that was the most expensive thing on the menu. He was absolutely blown away that it was raw when it arrived. I can't remember what I chose, probably lamb or fish or duck or something that wasn't beef or chicken...but I do remember that I was thrilled with my choice, and devoured it while Jeff and Paola poked at theirs. I didn't know enough then to appreciate it as fully as I might now, but I've always "ordered well". It was my introduction to fusion cuisine, and luckily it was a very good one. I think most people are against 'fusion' because their first experience wasn't very good.

You'll totally want to curl up with a yummy drink and a pack of post-its. Read through the rich stories, and mark off all the things you want to make on the first go-around. It might be good to have the computer close by so you can shop for local places where you can find esoteric ingredients, like konbu, nuoc nam, or kaffir lime leaves, and for things you must mail-order, like Djansan and Argan Oil. Los Angeles readers, you can just ask me!

You can also find more about this book at the book's official website.

OK, now the contest:

Send me a list of food items (by e-mail, not in the comments!) where each letter of the alphabet is represented by one food item. One point for each letter. Entries must be received by 8:00pm PST on April 1st. Points will be tallied, and the winners will be notified that they've won!

Sounds easy, don't it? it would be, if I didn't kick it up a notch (giggle)

QUALIFIERS:
• 1. Is it food? It must be a solitary component of "food", that you can eat as-is, or cooked. That is to say, not a spice, like Vanilla; not a condiment, like Ketchup, not a 'dish' like Kung Pao Chicken, or a brand name like Zachary's Famous Barbecue Sauce... if there is such a thing.
  
• 2. Is it English? It must be in commonly understood in daily American English. It's gotta pass the Husband-of-a-Chef test* No cheating by using Haricots Verts or Phú Quoc. Couscous would be ok, so would Phyllo. Get it? If you aren't sure, there's no penalty (or bonus) if you add a backup word.
  
• 3. No specifications! Holstein cow, Waygu beef, Golden Carrots, Navel oranges... all will be disqualified.
  
• BONUS POINTS!!! You will earn 6 bonus points if your list is based on a theme. You can choose the theme: all orange-colored foods, all pastry ingredients, all vegan foods, all root vegetables... whatever you like.
  

[* My husband will be roped in to help me judge. He's become foodie enough to know what couscous and phyllo is, but not so 'damaged' that he knows what haloumi or manioc is...so those wouldn't count.]

So there you go. On one hand, it's a bit more work than /F makes you do, but on the other, WAY less competition. If there's five valid entries, then all five entries get a book. Winners' lists and point totals will be posted on this blog.

Good luck!

"Pesach for the Rest of Us" - a book review

I was raised Catholic. And further, I'm not Jewish. In fact, I consider myself a "devout atheist". So what business do I have reviewing a book called "Pesach for the Rest of Us" by Marge Piercy?

Well, it was sent to me with the hope that I might review it, and I can be very objective, at the very least!Pesach is a holiday filled with rituals where every action and thought has a purpose. Upon reading the book, it was surprising to me how many of these were about food... What you can & can't eat, how you should eat it, and what you should do with the food and wine during the ceremony. Each portion of the ritual has a distinct and specific reason why it's included in the ritual.

It's not mysterious as to why that would be... Everyone eats, everyone enjoys good food, and it's something that everyone can experience and relate to. (of course, one should never use the word 'everyone' but I'm making a point.)

If I were into rituals, if I found something moving about poems and singing and symbolic consumption of foodstuffs (and of course, if I were Jewish) Pesach would be THE event of the year. In fact, according to Piercy, many Jews who don't go to temple or practice their religion during the rest of the year find a reason to participate in a Pesach event.

I consider myself pretty well read; I am familiar with the belief systems of many religions. Christmas trees and Easter bunnies, the symbols of THE most Catholic of events, are actually pagan carryovers. The sexy fertility rituals of Lupercalia were replaced with the chaste love-notes of St. Valentine's day. In studying about Kashrus, for the benefit of my clients who keep kosher, I've become rather familiar with many of the Jewish rules about food and holidays.

OK, enough religion, let's talk about the food.

For Pesach, there's a ritualistic consumption of food and wine, each item having a symbolism: parsley, which is dipped in salt water, lettuce, horseradish, roasted eggs, oranges, and of course, matzoh. If you don't already know what the symbols represent, there's probably no need to go into it here. (get the book!) each section includes some history, poetry and the author's personal anecdotes. It was a very interesting read.

Yeah, I actually read the books I'm invited to review (gasp) which is why it takes a couple weeks for me to post these blog entries. Not to mention that this one, with a subject mattern of a specific Jewish holiday full of symbolism, I had to keep referring to wikipedia to figure out what stuff meant. It was enlightening, though it took the better part of an afternoon. I didn't work this hard on book reports in school! But I digress...

There are LOTS of recipes, for matzoh ball soup, matzoh brei, tzimmes, kugels ...and a few recipes for from-scratch gefilte fish, which the author swears even she wouldn't make again. I think that something that may be especially useful is that she includes several ways to 'use up' the extra leftover matzoh.
Cute flash cartoon. Try this link if the youtube wouldn't play.
Also included are several recipes for this curious fruit-and-nut compote called Charoset, which seems kind of like a coarsely-chopped trail mix, with apples sweet wine and cinnamon. Sometimes ginger, coconut, orange zest, whatever tastes good to you. You're not supposed to say you like Charoset It's intended to symbolize mortar... The ‘Israelites’ (were) fleeing an oppressive situation in Egypt. In Egypt they were slaves, building pyramids with mortar and bricks. Piercy doesn't explain the mortar analogy, (so I gotta say thanks Debra for the info included in the above italics) but acknowledges that it's more of a justification of getting something sweet on the seder plate, to contrast against the other bitter/bland stuff. Anyway, it does sound delicious.

I've been given several books to review, but I only post reviews about the ones for which I have positive things to say. There's enough negativity in the world already, I don't need to add to it. Reviewing this book made me think a lot about who I am and what I believe...and what I don't.

So that's the opinion of one person. I always want to be open-minded, but I still classify myself as an atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinker, rationalist, naturalist, skeptic, hedonist and perhaps even a Bright... but the jury's still out over whether I'd join a group that would have me for a member. <rimshot!>

Can I still make Charoset, then? Rather, do I allow my self to make it, knowing it symbolically represents the opression of others? Will it still taste sweet, or (perhaps as intended) bittersweet, such as when tears fall into the batter for the wedding cake in Like Water for Chocolate?

As a hedonist, I'd rather make the Quail in Rose Sauce that stirs passion in everyone who eats it. Like I said, I don't need to add to the negativity.

That's pretty deep thinking for a food blog!

Last thing I ate or drank: a chicken cacciatore sandwich, followed by cup after cup of Lemon-Ginger Tea over the 3+ hours it took me to research and type up this review.

Technorati Tags: Food and Drink in Los Angeles