The Japanese Art of the Cocktail, Masahiro Urushido and Michael Anstendig (2022). I didn’t intend for this installment to veer in a Japanese direction, but that’s where we’re headed, isn’t it? This book will have you SALIVATING. It’s long been clear to me that I do not possess the brain of a pastry chef or … Read more
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Matsuo Basho (17th century). The author’s unsparing, honest, and delicate travelogue throughout his journeys by foot and horse in Japan, peppered with masterful haiku. I have read and reread and reread this one; the book has a calming, meditative quality to it. Basho wrote it so long ago … Read more
A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches, by Tyler Kord. I don’t know Tyler Kord. I was gifted this book several years ago. It’s the only cookbook I’ve read that made me laugh out loud, and I have done so over and over while re-reading it. I suspect that Tyler Kord is far too smart for … Read more
Ma Gastronomie, by Fernand Point. Is it really a cookbook? Yes, sort of. Do the recipes in there work? Yes, sort of. The recipes are haute cuisine of the Gilded Age, and while they are inspirational and influential and revealing, they are (no longer) the point of this slim but seminal volume. This book houses … Read more