For the last week, I have been consuming a steady diet of
leftover turkey and 2013 cookbooks. The turkey is great, and
so are the books (you can see my top 10 picks on CookShelf, my cookbook-rating app). But for a
change of pace, I wanted to showcase two really wonderful books
published this year, neither of which has even a single recipe.
The first one may look familiar,
because I think I mentioned it in the November roundup. For
those of you who like food history, Repast, by Michael Lesy and Lisa Stoffer
(Norton, $25.95), is more than a repast - it's a feast!
It's a thoughtful, beautifully told account of Gilded Age
dining - from the perspective of rich, poor, and everything in
between. And the photographs and reprinted menus are
priceless.
My other choice is as
up-to-the-minute as Repast is nostalgic. You
may have previously come across Mary Roach, the science writer
(known for her hysterically funny approach to the subjects that
make others squeamish) in provocatively titled books like
Stiff, Bonk, and Spook. As people
who love food and cooking, most of our attention centers on what
happens before the food goes into our mouths.
Gulp follows food's journey all the way to the
end - and I mean all the way. Like I said, not for
the squeamish. But vastly entertaining if, like me, you like
that sort of thing.
Back to more normal cookbook coverage next week.