Merry Christmas with a special Nativity

Merry Christmas to all my readers! Apologies I have been absent for so long, but I have been in Italy these past few days, and the internet connection in my area is sketchy at best (as a Tuscan friend told me, Italy is the most advanced area of the Third World - sad, but true).

Anyway, a friend on Facebook published this photo, and when I saw it I thought it was the best nativity scene I had ever seen, from a foodie point of view! Merry Christmas again!

Is it a sin if I feel like eating this all???

New York Times cookbook

One of the great things about being in a multinational/multicultural marriage (my wife is Belgian) is that we end up celebrating the holidays of both countries. Not that there are many variations, but certainly there are a couple that are worth living for. One is December 6, when Belgians celebrate Saint Nicholas, while Italians couldn't care less. On this day, Belgian kids receive a lot of presents, more than for Christmas: the real gift giving old man is not Santa, but Saint Nicholas for the Belgians.

So, being a 37 year old kid, I also got a present from my wife: The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century, which I had put my eyes on for a couple of months now.

The book, written by Amanda Hesser, a food critic at the New York Times and blogger at Food 52, is a collection of over a 1000 recipes, taken from the archives of the New York Times, from 1875 (the year the Times began covering food) onwards. It is in a way a community book, for two reasons: the first one is that the recipes are not by the author, but by the regular people like you and me who sent them to the paper over the pas 135 years (although Hesser had to at the very least test them and rewrite them in a coherent English); secondly, because the author has turned to the Times' readers, asking them to indicate which was the best recipes from the Times' archives that they thought they should include.

For each recipe, Hesser included a few notes, explaining the origin of the dish and why she chose to include it. There also suggestions on how to pair each dish, both in terms of wine and of other dishes.

I haven't had the time to cook anything from this book yet, but what I do like is its structure, with a lot of charts with the history of food. This is not a food history book, Hesser says it clearly. But it does contain nice charts that are a joy to read. It also contains tables (conveniently located inside the covers) that will make the life of any cook easier: conversion tables, USDA recommended temperature tables, "handy substitution and tips" (my favorite). I also like the general feel of the book: it is a beautiful object, with excellent paper. It just feels wonderful in your hands. What I do not like are the very few photos in the book. I guess the author went for the "old style look", with photos from 50-70 years ago. But these photos do not conjure (at least in my mind) images of old glamor, rather they remind me of old Soviet era books. Not cool.

Are the recipes good? I have no clue, although I intend to find out soon enough. But I think that The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century makes for an excellent Christmas gift (and on Amazon you pay $23 and no sales taxes, versus a cover price of $40...)

For other books recommendations, click here.
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Gluttony pants, anyone?

We all know, the period that goes from Thanksgiving to New Year's eve is a gluttony time: we pass from one festive table to another, pigging our way through life. But there is a problem: an expanding waistline. Too often even thin people will have experienced the issue of having to unbutton their pants after a major meal...

Now, there are two ways to try and tame your expanding waistline. The easy way out is to go to the gym and sweat your food. The hard way out is to design a system that allows you to leave the table without having to unbutton those trousers that are inexplicably and suddenly very tight.

Look no further: here come the gluttony pants, which - at $100 - now top my wishlist for Christmas... 

These pants come with a series of widgets that all foodies and gluttons will enjoy. First and foremost, these pants have three buttons, aptly named piglet, sow and boar, that will let you adjust them without having to leave the table looking like a rapist with his pants open. They also come equipped with their own napkin, so that if you have to pig out unexpectedly, you will do it in style, without having to get dirty. There is also a nice graphic touch: the inside of the pockets and of the waistband have comics depicting the life cycle of a glutton, from birth to death (presumably by a heart attack?)

If you are thinking about a Christmas gift, this could be a good idea...

Food books of the week

I haven't been very good in keeping up with my idea of talking about a food book every week. To make it up to you, and considering that Christmas is fast approaching and food books are a great present, I will talk here about not one, not two, but THREE books (I know, I know, I am so generous, but it is Christmas...). Also, FYI, I have created through Amazon a list of books that I either use regularly or that are on my wishlist. If you are looking for inspirations for Christmas, have a look (there is also other stuff beside cookbooks, if you are interested).

But let's get down to business.

The first book I want to talk to you about is The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Saying that I when found this book I was excited is an understatement. When I stumbled upon it, I knew I had found exactly what I was looking for, i.e. a comprehensive, encyclopedic book that explains the origins and the history behind anything you may ever want to know about American food. The book is organized in alphabetical orders, with voices that go from fast food to Coca Cola, from johnny cakes to native american food, from Southern cuisine to 'Smores. Whatever you want to know, it is there. And it also makes for a very nice coffee table book.

One thing I am not good at is baking. The real baker is my wife. As for me, baking never interested me: the first time I baked something was a couple of months ago, when I started to experiment with cupcakes. I then started to bake pumpkin and banana breads (by the way, this recipe for pumpkin bread by the Kitchen bitch is TO DIE FOR), and I realized that there is something about baking. So I decided that I needed to bake more. And I bought the very new Bon Appetit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful (Bon Appetit is one of the largest American food magazines). There are various reasons why I chose this book: it contains A LOT of recipes, both classic American and non; it really takes the time to explain stuff that for a lot of bakers is probably basic, but that for someone like me is essential (the difference between baking soda and baking power, the techniques...); it has a very easy to understand rating system (from one to four whiskers) to understand whether a recipe is easy or not. I tried a couple of the recipes, and in spite of my limited baking experience, they came out really well. My wife the baker really likes the book and says it is also for "pros" like she is. So go ahead and buy it.

The third book is La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy. This is a translation of a very famous Italian book, and it is - in my humble opinion - one of the best collection of regional Italian recipes you will find around. My only two beefs with this book is that 1) it doesn't have photos, and 2) its index system is an absolute mess and not so intuitive. In spite of these flaws, this book is basically pretty much open all the time in our apartment. I have tried many recipes that I had never made before, and they all came out fantastic (modesty will kill me). So, if you are looking for ONE good Italian book to have in your library, this is the one.
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The locavore movement and its elitism

The word "local" is now all the rage in Chicago and in the States in general: eating only locally grown or raised food is considered the right thing to do, and is very hip. Often the eat local movement is associated with the seasonal movement, i.e. the credo that you should be eating stuff that is in season at the moment (pears in the Fall, watermelon in the Summer).

If I find the seasonal movement a sensible idea (within reason), I find the local movement quite upsetting. I understand the alleged moral drive behind it, but it makes me uncomfortable. For a long time I couldn't exactly articulate why, but then I read this interview of Nigella Lawson, and she says it perfectly.

"Now I get that [the local movement]. I understand it entirely but I don't buy into it. In the Victorian age the peasants just ate local and in season and the aristocracy spent fortunes building greenhouses and growing pineapples. It was a class issue. It was about the elite. Now suddenly because of supermarkets and air travel, the masses — if you want to talk in class terms — can get out of season produce. So what do the elite do? They say If it is not seasonal, if it is not local, it isn't good. So although there is probably in and of its self there is moral value in it, I distrust elitist attitudes in food.

Exactly! As much as I don't like Nigella's food (for the same reason why I am not a fan of Jamie Oliver: I think their recipes come out bland and don't taste good), I think she is spot on here. One of the greatest advantage of modern life is that you can now eat a variety of food at decent price, thanks to transportation. I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have to pay 10$ a pound for rabbit if shops didn't store only the "local" rabbits...

The whole locavore movement smells like elitism from far away. And if there are two things I distrust in life, these are the Government and the elites. Here you go.

PS: Incidentally, I am often criticized as someone who hates "healthy food" because I DARE say that Jamie Oliver is not a great chef: I think people should grow up and start thinking with their own heads, and understand that you CAN criticize Oliver and still be in favor of healthy food. Fortunately, criticizing the whining Brit is not a crime yet. Jamie Oliver is not God: wake up, losers!
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