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BEST FOOD WRITING 2013

Name: BEST FOOD WRITING 2013
Author: Holly Hughes
ISBN: 978-0-7382-1716-1

edited by Holly Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2013

A literary trek across the culinary landscape pairing bountiful delights with plenty of substantive tidbits.

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Longtime editor Hughes once again compiles a tasty collection of culinary essays for those who love to eat, cook and read about food.

“With such an insatiable audience,” she writes in her introduction, “there are more outlets for food writing than ever, in print and on-line and on the airwaves. It’s an embarrassment of riches, not unlike those overstuffed CSA bags of produce.” Hughes scoured bookstores, magazines, newspapers, newsletters and websites, including GQ, the New York Times, Edible San Francisco, the Chicago Reader, Tin House, Fire and Knives, Graze and GiltTaste.com before selecting the essays included here. Together, they represent the diverse tastes, quirks and passions of America’s burgeoning food culture. Organized within categories such as The Way We Eat Now, Farm to Table, The Meat of the Matter, Home Cooking and To Be a Chef, the essays surprise, educate and highlight the trends within the food movement. A short sampling includes: the merits of seasonal eating; celebrating Thanksgiving on the Chesapeake Bay; how saying grace can offer a different take on a meal; the rigors of tossing pizza; how to make real New England clam chowder; food trucks in Hawaii; the Southern pleasure of combining cola and salted peanuts; and the demise of Hostess Bakeries. Michael Pollan opines on the chemistry and heavenly benefits achieved while sautéing aromatic vegetables. Investigative journalist Tracie McMillan explores the stories we tell ourselves about the joys of home cooking. Houston Press writer Katharine Shilcutt bemoans America’s industrialized agriculture and food production systems and deconstructs her first taste of a McDonald’s McRib sandwich. “I felt so hollow afterward,” she writes, “that it was as if my stomach had shifted outside my body, as though my abdominal cavity was rejecting it in shame.” Other contributors include Edward Behr, Gabrielle Hamilton, Rowan Jacobsen and Eddie Huang.

A literary trek across the culinary landscape pairing bountiful delights with plenty of substantive tidbits.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-7382-1716-1

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong

Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BEST FOOD WRITING 2014
edited by Holly Hughes

- BOOK REVIEW
BEST FOOD WRITING 2012
edited by Holly Hughes

- BOOK REVIEW
BEST FOOD WRITING 2011
edited by Holly Hughes

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.