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AL DENTE

Name: AL DENTE
Author: William Black
ISBN: 0-593-04942-X

THE ADVENTURES OF A GASTRONOME IN ITALY

by William Black ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 2003

A garden mix of personal history, political history, and food all’Italia.

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Lighthearted travels through Italy that get tightly focused when it’s mealtime.

“I drove on, deviated, climbed inland and stopped for lunch.” So it goes as British food writer Black (Fish, 1999, etc.) makes his way about Italy, cobbling together this gustatory portrait of the country from regular fortnightly doses of cheap travel. There are politics in these pages, from short regional histories to the seriousness with which Italians take their gelati; there is some pursuit of genealogy, of the Rossellis on Black’s mother’s side; and these chapters can easily be deployed as travel guides, organized as they are by specific areas, happy to give directions. (“If you head straight down to the Tiber from here you should get to the ghetto. . . .”) And there are those deviations, such as time to “reflect a little on tales of exploitation and lust among the rice fields of Vercelli.” But ultimately, this is about eating well—and often: of apricots and capers from Stromboli, of casu marzo (rotten cheese) that “is quite difficult for anyone but a Sard to eat,” of Neapolitan pizza and the importance of frogs in brodo. It is about the iconic cacciucco (“the cooking of piscatorial detritus, a dish eaten to keep fishermen's hunger at bay”) and the role played by the town of Comacchio in “the sacred act of eel jigginess.” It is also gratifyingly opinionated: “Her house began to stink, so she said, like a Greek fisherman's crotch [from the smell of stewing octopus]. This is wimpish talk, frankly. I am of the opinion that octopus is quite one of the most exquisite things to come from the sea.” And it is full of good advice: “Now, a word about panissa,” he will state, as befits the son-in-law of food historian Jane Grigson; or, “Let me offer you a few hints, a few truffle do's and don'ts.”

A garden mix of personal history, political history, and food all’Italia.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2003

ISBN: 0-593-04942-X

Page Count: 289

Publisher: Bantam UK/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.