Saturday, December 5, 2009

Sallets Humbles and Shrewsbery Cakes or Quick and Easy Grilling

Sallets, Humbles and Shrewsbery Cakes

Author: Ruth Anne Beeb

A review of cluttered cookbook shelves reveals a surfeit of fetchingly illustrated, full-color books of contemporary cuisine, and a shocking lack of titles dealing with the real history of gastronomy. This compendium of Elizabethan recipes, gathered and annotated (and, we might add, carefully tested) by Ruth Anne Beebe is not only historically accurate (and in places downright fun) but also usable. For in addition to a rich selection of the transcribed original Elizabethan recipes, Beebe has provided modern formulations, including ingredients and measurements. And there is much more to this cuisine than the expected meat and Shepherd's pie; here is fascinating advice on how herbs were used to flavor and preserve, how ale was brewed, and how to "fry and egge as round as a ball." In addition to the recipes themselves, the book offers sample menus, a glossary, index, and a host of elegant and wonderfully evocative period woodcuts all printed in red.



New interesting textbook: Vitamins Minerals and Dietary Supplements or Secret Agents

Quick and Easy Grilling: Over 100 Fast and Furious Timesaving Recipes

Author: Favorite Recipes Press

Grilling seems to bring out the best flavor in everything and it is not just for summer anymore! Bring the taste of warm weather to cold weather meals and go beyond burgers for new dishes that are sure to become family favorites. Quick & Easy Grilling offers elegant to easy recipes for any size gathering.



Friday, December 4, 2009

The Boys Beer Book or Seasonal Country Kitchen

The Boys' Beer Book

Author: Jonny Goodall

An entertaining and informative guide to choosing and buying beer, with inspired tips on how to find the one you want. Beer expert Jonathan Goodall breaks down the wide range of styles, strengths, and flavors in a straightforward way, with hilarious insight and witty observations throughout. He includes fool-proof advice on choosing for taste, information on beer and health, and even suggestions for matching beer with food. More than twenty contemporary illustrations help bring to life the key subjects.



New interesting book: The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence or Managing The Professional Service Firm

Seasonal Country Kitchen

Author: Nikki Rowan Kedg

Seasonal Country Kitchen is a classic British cookery book which reflects the changing face of the countryside, blending the old with the new. The authors have adapted tried and tested favorites by using new and lighter ingredients. Recipes are arranged by season and cover everything from picnics, informal parties and light lunches to grand dinner parties. The approach is informal, the recipes easy to prepare, and the food immensely appealing.



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Exploitation of Fungi or The Asian Cook

Exploitation of Fungi: Symposium of the British Mycological Society Held at the University of Manchester September 2005

Author: Geoffrey D Robson

The fungi are a highly diverse kingdom of eukaryotic microbes. Recent advances in molecular genetics, together with the release of whole genome sequences of an increasing number of fungi, are facilitating their exploitation and commercialisation. Fungi have the ability to secrete large quantities of proteins of commercial value, and their complex secondary metabolic pathways produce a diverse range of bioactive compounds which have had a major impact in the pharmaceuticals market. In addition, the fungi themselves are increasingly being developed as alternatives to conventional chemically-based pest control strategies, and as bioremediation agents capable of transforming pollutants in the soil environment. With chapters written by international experts, this volume highlights current and future biological, biochemical, and molecular exploitation of the fungi in biotechnology. It will have broad appeal, not only to mycologists and microbiologists, but also to biomedical scientists, biotechnologists, environmental and molecular scientists, plant pathologists and geneticists.



Book review: Bridging Deep South Rivers or Under the Flags of Freedom

The Asian Cook

Author: Linda Doeser

Features traditional recipes from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Vietnam, Japan and India.



Table of Contents:
Introduction6
Soups15
Starters and Snacks49
Fish and Seafood101
Meat175
Poultry235
Vegetables291
Salads347
Noodles383
Rice435
Desserts467
Sauces, Sambals and Accompaniments495
Index506

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Pharaohs Feast or Exotic Appetites

Pharaoh's Feast: From Pit-Boiled Roots to Pickled Herring, Cooking Through the Ages with 110 Simple Recipes

Author: Oswald Rivera

Drawing on written sources from the fifth century, B.C. to today, veteran cookbook author Oswald Rivera recreates ingredient lists and recipes to allow modern cooks to prepare historic delights from Esau's biblical mess of pottage to contemporary pasta primavera. Packed with fun facts, this culinary history includes such treats as a seven-course dinner from King Srenika's royal bash in first millennial Indus Valley, Colonial New England's Johny Cakes and the modern era's meatloaf. Black-and-white illustrations accompany this lively history of cooking.



Book about: Executricks or Developing the Leaders around You

Exotic Appetites: Ruminations of a Food Adventurer

Author: Lisa M Heldk

Exotic Appetites is a far-reaching exploration of what Lisa Heldke calls "food adventuring": the passion, fashion and pursuit of experimentation with ethnic foods. The aim of Heldke's critique is to expose and explore the colonialist attitudes embedded in our everyday relationship and approach to foreign foods. Exotic Appetites brings to the table the critical literatures in postcolonialism, critical race theory, and feminism in a provocative and lively discussion of eating and "ethnic" cuisine. Chapters look closely at the meanings and implications involved in the quest for unusual restaurants and exotic dishes, related restaurant reviews and dining guides, and ethnic cookbooks.



Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Leaving Home: One Girl's Story
Pt. 1Let's Eat Chinese1
1The Quest for Novelty9
2The Pursuit of Authenticity23
3The Other as Resource45
Pt. 2How I Ate Civet Cat and Lived to Tell the Tale61
4And Reader, We Ate It69
5What Do You Mean We Can't Film the Market Sequence Here?89
Pt. 3Let's Cook Thai101
6Can the Doughboy Be an Insider?105
7How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini119
8Aided by My Faithful Old Family Cook131
Pt. 4Toward Anticolonialist Eating151
9Okay, Let's Stay Home157
10The Skeptical Palate169
11Eating in Context193
Epilogue: Returning to the Garden219
Notes223
Bibliography249
Index259

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Vassouras or Forgotten Elegance

Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1900. The Roles of Planter and Slave in a Plantation Society

Author: Stanley J Stein

This book is a now classic social and economic study of the origins, apogee, and decline of coffee in the Parahyba Valley of South Central Brazil. Local society, the free-planters, professionals, tradesmen, and lower class citizens-and the slaves, are viewed through the routine of plantation life. The author shows how abolition, erosion, and bankruptcy transformed virgin forest into a wasteland of eroded hillsides and abandoned towns, of disillusioned planters and poverty-stricken black freedmen.



New interesting book: The South Beach Heart Program or How to Cook for People with Diabetes

Forgotten Elegance: The Art, Artifacts, and Peculiar History of Victorian and Edwardian Entertaining in America

Author: Wendell Schollander

History students and Victorian enthusiasts looking for comprehensive information on dining practices of Victorian America will find this book a vital resource. Revealing the history of 19th-century dining, clothing, and etiquette, the volume includes sample menus and explicit instructions explaining how to recreate a dinner, tea, breakfast, or lunch in the 21st century. Collectors of china, crystal, and silver will also find this book helpful because it provides a photograph of each piece of tableware that was used, with a history and description of the item.



Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
IA Short History of the Art of Dining
1A History of Formal Dining3
2Understanding the Food in a Victorian Meal21
3Wine and Other Beverages31
IIThe Accoutrements
4Silver59
5China95
6Crystal115
7Visiting Cards and Invitations133
IIIStatus and Etiquette
8Seating Etiquette143
9Table Etiquette149
IVThe Dinner Stage and the Props
10Dress165
11Setting the Victorian Table179
VThe Formal Meal as a Performance
12The Progression of the Meal197
VIGiving an Elegant Dinner
13Giving a Victorian or Edwardian Dinner213
VIIOther Elegant Entertaining
14Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate241
15Breakfast and Lunch261
English/French Glossary275
Further Reading283
Index291