01 Dec, 2016

December Foodies Read

/ posted in: Reading

Welcome to Foodies Read!

Our winner of the drawing for November is Louise. I’ll email you to see what book you would like to receive.

For December we will be having multiple giveaways!

Everyone who links up a review this month will be entered in the drawing for a free book.

In addition, I will be counting up how many links people had for the whole year. The person with the most will get a $20 Amazon gift card and the second place person will get a $10 gift card. Thank you to everyone who participated in 2016. For those of you who wanted to read a set number of books, did you hit your target? I was aiming for 1 book a month but I read about 17 books. I just keep finding more and more food books that sound so amazing!

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Announcing Foodies Read 2017

Do you read books about food? There are books about food in so many different genres.

Cozy mysteries set in bakeries
Romance books set in tea shops
Nonfiction books about the history of ingredients
Cookbooks
Memoirs from chefs or waiters or people who just love to eat
…the list goes on and on. Need more ideas? Check out our Pinterest page!

Want to challenge yourself? Pick a level below.

Short-Order Cook: 1 to 3 books
Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books
Sous-Chef: 9 to 13 books
Chef de Cuisine: 14 to 18
Cordon-Bleu Chef: More than 19

Don’t like to plan? Choose the a la carte option and let us know when you read a book about food.

Each month I’ll have a new page for book reviews that you post. You can find the page for the month linked on the blog’s right sidebar. Posts will be pinned to Pinterest and publicized on Twitter to get the word out.

There are monthly giveaways. Every participant is entered in a drawing to win a food-themed book. I try to have options in several genres so you can pick one that you will love!

If you are making a page with the challenges that you are doing in 2017, feel free to grab the graphic.

You aren’t required to sign up to play along throughout the year. Join us whenever you read a food book.

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17 Oct, 2016

The Sweet Life in Paris

/ posted in: Reading The Sweet Life in Paris

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz
on May 5th 2009
Pages: 282
Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs
Published by Broadway Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Owned
Setting: France

“Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city in the 1980s. Finally, after a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood.
But he soon discovered it’s a different world en France.
From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men’s footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David’s story of how he came to fall in love with—and even understand—this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city.”

This is the book the husband would have written if he lived in France. He is the person who said halfway through our trip to France that it would be a wonderful country if there were no people in it. His favorite French vacation story is the time we watched an older French woman beat a disabled British tourist with an umbrella because he didn’t give his seat up to her. He learned that parapluie is umbrella from that incident.

We once had a black, female, French neighbor to whom the husband had to explain several times that while the people in our small town might in fact be both racist and sexist, what was getting her in trouble was being French. No, it wasn’t ok to park in the fire lane and then cut in line at WalMart because she was parked in the fire lane, for example.

David Lebovitz had this same frustration with French people when he moved to Paris. Why are they always cutting in line? Why won’t they help you in a store? Why does it take so long to accomplish everyday tasks?

This book is hysterically funny. He is a cookbook author whose new French apartment had a tiny kitchen and suspect plumbing.

Eventually he learned to adapt and thrive in his new city. He learned to cut in line with the best of them. He started dressing up to take out the garbage. That’s when he knew he was home.

There are lots of recipes in this book. I even made one. I know! I’m shocked too. I almost never make recipes in books. I made the fig and olive tapenade though and it was scrumptious. I even took a picture of it as proof but it looks like a glob of clumpy black stuff on some bread. Yummy food photography is not a skill I have.

foodiesreadsmall

23 Sep, 2016

In Memory of Bread

/ posted in: Reading In Memory of Bread

In Memory of Bread: A Memoir by Paul Graham
on June 7th 2016
Pages: 272
Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs
Published by Clarkson Potter
Format: Hardcover
Source: From author/publisher
Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)
Setting: New York

“When Paul Graham was suddenly diagnosed with a serious wheat allergy at the age of thirty-six, he was forced to say goodbye to traditional pasta, pizza, sandwiches, and more. Gone, too, were some of his favorite hobbies, including brewing beer with a buddy and gorging on his wife’s homemade breads. Struggling to understand why he and so many others had become allergic to wheat, barley, rye, oats, and other dietary staples, Graham researched the production of modern wheat and learned that not only has the grain been altered from ancestral varieties but it’s also commonly added to thousands of processed foods. In writing that is effortless and engaging, Paul explores why incidence of the disease is on the rise while also grappling with an identity crisis—given that all his favorite pastimes involved wheat in some form.”

This is an unflinchingly honest account of what it is like to give up one of the things that you enjoy most in life. Paul Graham loves to eat. He loved bread in all its forms. He loved beer. Suddenly he found out that those foods were behind a sudden illness that caused him to lose 25 pounds and end up hospitalized.

The honesty of the writing can certain come across as whiny, especially for those of us who have had restrictive diets by choice or necessity for long enough to have moved past the first stages of grief. He laments what it means now to travel without being able to eat anything and everything on a menu. Eventually he learns to move past that and see that there is life after allergies.

“But the most sensitive have also come to know something that “normal” eaters do not often have occasion to consider: to have anyone make food for you is an implicit extension of trust. The more serious the consequences, the greater the confidence one puts in the cook.”

Yes! I can be a nervous wreck when we go to new restaurants. Honestly, I only implicitly trust food that I make myself for the husband because of his allergy. The author laments people disrupting the orderliness of buffets so he can’t be sure anything is safe for him. I can relate totally.

He discusses the privilege that he has as a fairly well off person with the skills and time to cook from scratch in order to accommodate his new diet. He wonders how people how have to survive on prepared food do it. The answer seems to be – not well according to the research. He points out the irony that the foods that were once considered only good enough for poor people are now the rare grains and ingredients that cost more than wheat.

I’d recommend this book for any food lover or person interested in knowing what it is like to live with food allergies.

foodiesreadsmall

Book received in exchange for review from BloggingforBooks.com

17 Aug, 2016

Truffle Boy

/ posted in: Reading Truffle Boy

Truffle Boy: My Unexpected Journey Through the Exotic Food Underground by Ian Purkayastha, Kevin West
on February 7th 2017
Pages: 304
Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs
Published by Hachette Books
Format: ARC
Source: From author/publisher
Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)
Setting: New York

“Ian Purkayastha is New York City’s leading truffle importer and boasts a devoted clientele of top chefs nationwide, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Sean Brock, and David Bouley. But before he was purveying the world’s most expensive fungus to the country’s most esteemed chefs, Ian was just a food-obsessed teenager in rural Arkansas–a misfit with a peculiar fascination for rare and exotic ingredients.
The son of an Indian immigrant father and a Texan mother, Ian learned to forage for wild mushrooms from an uncle in the Ozark hills. Thus began a single-track fixation that led him to learn about the prized but elusive truffle, the king of all fungi. His first taste of truffle at age 15 sparked his improbable yet remarkable adventure through the strange–and often corrupt–business of the exotic food trade.”

This book starts with the admission that it is weird for a 23 year old to be writing a memoir. It’s good to get that out there early because it is a bit presumptious but you’d be forgiven for forgetting that he’s only 23 while reading this.

While still in high school, Ian Purkayastha started an exotic foods club to make meals with strange ingredients for people in his Arkansas school and raise money for charity. He used his vacation time to travel to trade shows and meet up with people in the exotic food community. He set up his own business importing truffles from Italy for chefs in his area. This led to a job after high school graduation importing truffles in New York. This is where he started to see the problems in the industry. As he spends the next few years starting his own business, he travels around the world sourcing ingredients and meeting the people who hunt for mushrooms in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Did you know:

A lot of “Italian” truffles come from eastern Europe
Truffle oil usually doesn’t have truffles in it
U.S. chefs prize the appearance of truffles so much that the vast majority of harvested truffles aren’t sent to the U.S. market because they aren’t the “correct” shape
There are attempts being made to raise truffles in specially planted orchards but it will take decades to see if it works

This book tries to dispel some of the snobbery around high end foods. It shows the work involved in finding and harvesting. It also points out how markets are kept artificially tight and how some countries become known as the best source of ingredients for reasons that may not be true.

This ARC of Truffle Boy is one of the prizes up for grabs this month for people who link up with Foodies Read. If you like reading books featuring food, link up your reviews with us!

4flower

03 Aug, 2016

Locally Laid – Why is a Vegan Reviewing a Chicken Book?

/ posted in: Reading Locally Laid – Why is a Vegan Reviewing a Chicken Book?

Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-changing Egg Farm - from Scratch by Lucie B. Amundsen
on March 1st 2016
Pages: 336
Genres: Nonfiction
Published by Avery
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Setting: Minnesota

“When Lucie Amundsen had a rare night out with her husband, she never imagined what he’d tell her over dinner—that his dream was to quit his office job (with benefits!) and start a commercial-scale pasture-raised egg farm. His entire agricultural experience consisted of raising five backyard hens, none of whom had yet laid a single egg.”

I laughed when Lucie Amundsen wrote about finding out that one of her first social media followers was a vegan. After all, here I am, a vegan wannabe reading and reviewing her book. To understand why people like me would be interested you have to understand that farm animal welfare is a huge issue. A lot people become vegan because of it.

Animal Welfare on Chicken Farms

On conventional farms chickens are kept in battery cages where they don’t have enough room to stretch their wings. Because of this, a lot of people like to buy eggs that are labeled as cage-free. However, just because they aren’t in cages doesn’t mean the chickens are living a happy life. A lot of farms keep thousands of birds in large barns crammed together on the floor. They aren’t in cages but they may not have much more room either. They may have access to a concrete outside area.

Pasture-raised birds spend part of the day outside on grass. This is the type of farm that Locally Laid is. And no matter how nice of a life the chickens have there comes a time when they are no longer laying. Chickens don’t get a pension plan.

The Amundsens had no farm experience prior to starting a chicken farm so things that I saw as glaring problems they went blissfully into. For example, there was no water in their rented barn. They would be getting water from a garden hose and transporting it to the barn. In winter. In northern Minnesota. Oh, honey, no. I’ve had to do that for a few horses for a few days when there have been barn plumbing issues and it sucks. I can’t even imagine trying to water 1800 chickens that way. They soon realized that this was a major issue.

Another issue was that Lucie was not on board with this venture. The stress on their marriage is covered honestly. Is it fair to ask one spouse to (repeatedly) give up her life and goals for the other spouse’s strange dreams?

The book gets into lots of other hot button food production issues like encouraging local agriculture, the role of mid sized farms, and the difficulties of getting organic certification. Their successes and failures are told with candor and humor. If you have read a lot about food issues or watched any of the documentaries on this then this isn’t going to be anything new to you but it is interesting to see how it plays out on one farm.

The husband is reading this book too. He came running out to me one day and was mock crying with his head on my shoulder. “I just read chapter five!” I couldn’t remember anything sob worthy. “The birds came. Myron’s an asshole!” Oh, yes, Myron. There is a big difference in caring for an individual bird and caring for a large flock where deaths are seen as the cost of doing business. Myron was their supplier of the first flock and he wasn’t as into chicken welfare as they were.

The husband proudly showed me the pasture-raised eggs that he bought at the store too. See, even vegans reading the book and passing it on can help make a difference.

4flower

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01 Aug, 2016

August Foodies Read

/ posted in: Reading

Welcome to August’s Foodies Read

We had 21 entries in July! The winner of the drawing for her choice of books is Amy from Read a Latte. She’ll be able to chose from Death, Taxes, and a Chocolate Cannoli, Hometown Appetites, and My French Family Table.

All of the entries in August will be in a drawing for your choice of:

Sweet Sugar, Sultry Spice: Exotic Flavors to Wake Up Your Baking by Malika Ameen

“A diverse and accessible collection of spice-enhanced recipes that will transform your baking and awaken your senses–from a classically trained pastry chef. Welcome to a world of exotic spices and flavorings from the warm embrace of clove and ginger to the fiery touch of peppercorns and chiles, from the sensual kiss of cardamom and rose to the surprising sensations of sumac and za’atar.

With encouraging language, invaluable tips, and a passionate approach to flavor, Malika Ameen seeks to push spices beyond the realm of savory to the world of sweet where they can add everything from a delicate whisper to a surprising punch to cakes and tarts, cookies and bars, ice creams and sorbets, barks and brittles, and more.”

Truffle Boy: My Unexpected Journey Through the Exotic Food Underground by Ian Purkayastha

“Ian Purkayastha is New York City’s leading truffle importer and boasts a devoted clientele of top chefs nationwide, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Sean Brock, and David Bouley. But before he was purveying the world’s most expensive fungus to the country’s most esteemed chefs, Ian was just a food-obsessed teenager in rural Arkansas–a misfit with a peculiar fascination for rare and exotic ingredients.

The son of an Indian immigrant father and a Texan mother, Ian learned to forage for wild mushrooms from an uncle in the Ozark hills. Thus began a single-track fixation that led him to learn about the prized but elusive truffle, the king of all fungi. His first taste of truffle at age 15 sparked his improbable yet remarkable adventure through the strange–and often corrupt–business of the exotic food trade.”

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21 Jul, 2016

The Hindi-Bindi Club

/ posted in: Reading

The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan
on May 1st 2007
Pages: 431
Genres: Fiction
Published by Bantam
Format: Paperback
Source: Library

For decades they have remained close, sharing treasured recipes, honored customs, and the challenges of women shaped by ancient ways yet living modern lives. They are the Hindi-Bindi Club, a nickname given by their American daughters to the mothers who left India to start anew—daughters now grown and facing struggles of their own.

The Hindi-Bindi Club

Meenal

Survived breast cancer this year and has found that this experience has opened her mind to things that she would have rejected in the past

Saroj

Had to flee her beloved hometown of Lahore as a child during Partition. Now is considering traveling back to Lahore to find the childhood friends left behind.

Uma

Disowned by her father after marrying an Irish man, she wants to translate her late mother’s poetry from Bengali to English if she can get her relatives to give her access to the journals

The Daughters

Kiran

Meenal’s daughter disappointed her family by marrying a man they disapproved of and then getting a divorce. Now, 5 years later, she is considering a semi-arranged marriage.

Preity

Saroj’s daughter was always the perfect one but she’s haunted by a romance that her mother put a stop to because the man was Muslim.

Rani

Uma’s daughter left her prestigious job to be an artist. Now she isn’t sure that she made the right choice.

The women would have never been friends if they hadn’t ended up in the same university when they came to the U.S. and then all moved to the outskirts of Washington D.C. Their daughters were never friends despite being thrown together all the time. Each of them is now struggling with major life decisions and finds that they need each other.

I expected this book to be much lighter than it was. There are some serious issues here but there are also funny moments.

There are some amazing sounding recipes here. I want to try the rice dish. I can never get rice to taste as good as it does in Indian restaurants.

A photo posted by @dvmheather on Jul 9, 2016 at 5:16am PDT

07 Jul, 2016

The Mango Season

/ posted in: Reading

The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi
on October 26th 2004
Pages: 229
Genres: Fiction
Published by Ballantine Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Set in India

Every young Indian leaving the homeland for the United States is given the following orders by their parents: Don’t eat any cow (It’s still sacred!), don’t go out too much, save (and save, and save) your money, and most important, do not marry a foreigner. Priya Rao left India when she was twenty to study in the U.S., and she’s never been back. Now, seven years later, she’s out of excuses. She has to return and give her family the news: She’s engaged to Nick Collins, a kind, loving American man. It’s going to break their hearts.

Priya is horrified to realize that she considers India differently now than when she left. It is too noisy and chaotic. She is scared to eat food in the market without washing it first. She also can’t fit easily back into her family. Now she sees the racism and misogyny that she grew up with and considered normal.

She knows that her family will probably disown her when she admits to loving a foreigner. She isn’t going to tell them that she’s been living with him for two years.

Things come to a head during a few days at her grandmother’s house to make mango pickle. Her entire extended family is there. She sees how horribly everyone treats her unmarried aunt and the woman of the wrong caste that her uncle married. Her mother and another aunt spend the whole time in a power struggle. When Priya starts speaking her mind she throws her family into an uproar.

This book made me nervous. I knew that at some point Priya’s family was going to try to arrange a marriage for her. So I did the unthinkable. I read the last chapter to see how it ended.

I knew if it was up in the air for me that I would rush through the book to find out. This is a book that should be savored more than rushed.

“I looked at all the women in the room and wondered if behind the facade all of us wore for family occasions we were strangers to each other.

I was trying to be the graceful granddaughter visiting from America but my true colors were slipping past the carefully built mockery of myself I was presenting. Maybe the masks worn by the others were slipping, too. Maybe by the end of the day I would know the women behind the masks and they would know me.

I tried once again to talk to Ma but she shunned me and I concluded that she didn’t want to look behind the label: DAUGHTER, and didn’t want me to look behind the label: MA. If she wouldn’t show me hers, how could I show her mine?”

When discussing her grandfather:

“The man was a bigot, a racist, a chauvinist, and generally too arrogant for anyone’s liking, yet I loved him. Family never came in neat little packages with warranty signs on them.”

I saw this video just after I finished the book and it fit the story perfectly. I laughed at loud at the line about chapati.

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10 Mar, 2016

Thug Kitchen Party Grub

/ posted in: Food, Reading Thug Kitchen Party Grub

Thug Kitchen Party Grub Guide by Thug Kitchen, LLC
on October 13th 2015
Pages: 240
Genres: Cooking, Vegetarian & Vegan
Format: Hardcover
Source: Owned
Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)

From the duo behind New York Times bestseller, Thug Kitchen, comes the next installment of kick-ass recipes with a side of attitude. Thug Kitchen Party Grub Guide answers the question that Matt and Michelle have heard most from their fans: How the hell are you supposed to eat healthy when you hang around with a bunch of a**holes who don't care what they put in their pie holes? The answer: You make a bomb-ass plant-based dish from Thug Kitchen. Featuring over 100 recipes to attend or host parties of any kind, Party Grub Guide combines exciting, healthy, vegan food with easy-to-follow directions and damn entertaining commentary. From passed appetizers like Deviled Chickpea Bites to main events like Mexican Lasagna, Thug Kitchen Party Grub Guide is here to make sure you are equipped with dishes to bring the flavor without the side of fat, calories, and guilt. Also included are cocktail recipes, because sometimes these parties need a pick-me-up of the liquid variety.

I love my Thug Kitchen cookbook so I was really excited to see that they had a second cookbook out. I got it from the library first and then bought my own copy. My husband was concerned about this. He rightly pointed out that I am not in fact a “social mother-f*cker”. I told him that I liked to make the recipes for myself and maybe I’d share with him. He went off muttering about me being the exact opposite of what the book was for.

I keep pushing back posting this review because I keep making more recipes from this book that I love!

I’ve made the Butternut Squash Queso-ish Dip. No one is going to actually think this is cheese based but it is a nice creamy sauce that I like to put on pasta along with some salsa. Good way to sneak some extra squash into your diet too!

I’m excited about the Artichoke Dip and the Rosemary Caramel Corn. The dip was slightly disturbing to look at but tasted great, especially mixed with some salsa. The caramel for the caramel corn didn’t melt for me as nicely as it was supposed to but it still tasted pretty good.

The Meatball Subs made with kidney beans and lentils were a hit with the omnivorous husband. Definitely making those again.

The Creamy White Bean sandwich spread is good for a vegan who wants something on a sandwich but can’t have hummus because of food allergy concerns.

Everything I’ve made out of these cookbooks have been great so far. If you have any interest in food made with healthy ingredients even if you aren’t normally eating a vegan diet, you should check these out. The emphasis is on people who don’t cook often so the basics are explained.

14 Nov, 2015

Foodies Read 2016 Sign Up Page

/ posted in: Food, Reading

Welcome to Foodies Read 2016!

Do you love reading books about food? Do you want to find more recommendations of books to read and to sing the praises of books that you’ve loved?

You’re in the right place. Starting in January 2016, I’ll be taking over Foodie Reads.

We will still have a challenge levels and for those of us who don’t like to plan that much there will be an a la carte option.

Want to challenge yourself? Pick a level below.

Short-Order Cook: 1 to 3 books
Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books
Sous-Chef: 9 to 13 books
Chef de Cuisine: 14 to 18
Cordon-Bleu Chef: More than 19

Don’t like to plan? Choose the a la carte option and let us know when you read a book about food.

What counts as a food book? Any genre – fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, etc. If food is a major part of the plot then it counts!

Each month I’ll have a new page for book reviews that you post. You can find the page for the month linked here and on the blog’s right sidebar. Each month will feature some posts from the last month. Posts will be pinned to Pinterest and publicized on Twitter to get the word out. Along the way there may be giveaways for participants.

January Link Up Page

Help me get the word out! Write a post to let everyone know that you are going to joining Foodies Read. Link it up here.

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Tag Archives For: foodies read

Welcome to Foodies Read!

For December we will be having multiple giveaways!

Announcing Foodies Read 2017

Want to challenge yourself? Pick a level below.

Don’t like to plan? Choose the a la carte option and let us know when you read a book about food.

Book received in exchange for review from BloggingforBooks.com

Animal Welfare on Chicken Farms

Welcome to August’s Foodies Read

All of the entries in August will be in a drawing for your choice of:

The Hindi-Bindi Club

Meenal

Saroj

Uma

The Daughters

Kiran

Preity

Rani

Welcome to Foodies Read 2016!

Want to challenge yourself? Pick a level below.

Don’t like to plan? Choose the a la carte option and let us know when you read a book about food.