Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, by George and Berthe Hertner.

Most unbelievable set of recipes and off-the-wall vignettes that I've ever read, it is a RIOT. Get the Virgin Mary's recipes for creamed spinach!!

quote:

Originally posted by Pwingsx

Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, by George and Berthe Hertner.

Most unbelievable set of recipes and off-the-wall vignettes that I've ever read, it is a RIOT. Get the Virgin Mary's recipes for creamed spinach!!

been looking for another copy ot that!!!!! one of my all time favorite reads!--havent seen one in MANY yrs---35 at least>

Dearfolk,
Two of my favorite food authors (yea, pairs thereof) have already been mentioned: Jane & Michael Stern (natch) and Calvin (& the late Alice) Trillin. Both of those sets of folks raised my consciousness immensely from page the first, and continue to do so.
The one influence of mine who has not been mentioned is Richard H. Collin, author of "The New Orleans Underground Gourmet" (I own well-used [and well-thumbed] copies of all three editions). He made me fall out of my chair laughing when he described one place as "dreadful, and in an occasional flash of brilliance, mediocre" and lamented "Poor Marco Polo. To think he came he distance he did for this!" about a restaurant with his name serving Italian and Chinese specialties (?).
He also introduced me to something I have to list as a Roadfood-I-Want-To-Try, New Orleans' own Yat-Ca-Mein. I haven't the vaguest idea of where in the Crescent City to look for it, though... can anyone suggest something? Eddie's on Law Street? Or would they laugh me out the door?
I daresay, though, that Richard H. Collin (I think he is still living) has never tasted livermush. (I'd better not tell Calvin Trillin, or he'll show up in Shelby just to sample every available brand.)
Inspiredly, Ort. Carlton in Shower-Drenched Athens, Georgia.

quote:

I think I've found a soulmate!

I've got "Dining By Rail"--saw it in the store and had to have it because I enjoy taking trains. But have you actually made any of the recipes?

Now I have to go out and try to find those others you mentioned.

Yes, I’ve tried quite a few of the recipes but mostly I just like to read them and imagine that someone’s making them for me and decide what I’d like for dinner. Tonight, I’d order one of those Southern Pacific’s Surprise Potatoes that must have looked like a giant twice-baked potato but under the mounded potato contained a sauteed filet along with bacon and mushrooms. Although the book thoroughly explains all the mechanics of dining car cooking, I can’t imagine how they ever did it in the pre-microwave days.

Back to reality. The NY Central’s Wheat Cakes (pancakes with maple syrup in the batter) were terrific, as was the PA RR’s Cream of Chicken Soup Roquefort. On a cold winter night, with a BLT, it was comfort food at its best.

Since I really like liver and most recipes for it nowadays are variations on sauteed liver and onions, I tried a couple of the recipes for it from the book and the Canadian Nat’l Stuffed Calf’s Liver was great, especially after the first time, when I reduced the cooking time by about 40 minutes. But you have to have access to unsliced whole livers, which we do at our farmers’ market.

I’m sorry the others are out of print and the Where to Dine was actually published in 1939. Our community library’s used book sale yields these donated treasures some years. If you want to be swept away by a lyrical story of Chesapeake Bay crabs and the watermen who catch them, read Beautiful Swimmers, which is still available.

quote:

Originally posted by RubyRose

If you want to be swept away by a lyrical story of Chesapeake Bay crabs and the watermen who catch them, read Beautiful Swimmers, which is still available.

My parents have had that one for years and I read it years ago. My dad's family had a cottage in Deale, MD; I spent lots of time as a kid in Annapolis, I went to college in Baltimore and in summers have explored a lot of the Eastern Shore where we used to go fishing and duck hunting. I've caught my share of blue crabs.

Tiki, I picked up my copy at a used bookstore while in Madison, Wisconsin. My best find ever -- I adore used bookstores.

Something wrong with my syntax there -- is it the books or the stores that are used?

Grampy's picks are right on, but I have to add, "Smokestack Lightning",
a wonderful survey of southern BBQ, beautifuly written, tenderly photographed, and an absolute must for anyone who would try to get to the soul of BBQ.

For utilitarian recipe books we like: America Cooks, NY Times Cookbook, The American Women's Cookbook, Joy of Cooking ( try to get a copy of each revision - a lot is lost every time they revise), The Seafood Cookbook (Franey& Miller), McCain's North American Fish Cookery, James Beard's New Fish Cookery, The Victory Garden Cookbook, The Fish and Vegetable Cookbook (Morash), and I just realized that this list is getting too long and I've hardly started to list the books we refer to frequently.

Cheers, John

How to Cook a Wolf and Consider the Oyster by MFK Fisher

Food by Waverly Root

When French Women Cook by Madeleine Kamman

If the house is still burning, but slowly, I might go back in and grab my Larousse Gastronomique. And if drinks count, I'd definitely take The Hour by Bernard DeVoto as well.

Has to be - MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM! aka Soylent Green by Harry Harrison, and STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert A. Heinlein. Do you Grok?

No, but I Yahoo!! (rimshot,please!!) I couldn't resist!!

ANYTHING by Edna Lewis, especially her Country Cooking book. We're both from the same place, and what she cooks is very close to what I was raised on.
And my favorite Roadfood book, Square Meals.

Wow! Everything sounds so great- I think you guys have set my reading itnerary for the rest of the year.

Caruso, train food, seacoast living, "historical" recipes... it all sounds like lots of fun!

The train recommendations sound great. I've ridden the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland, Oregon twice with a variety of family members, and the dining car & the observation car are a great relief when you're going coach. Even the dining room seating arrangement is appealing. One woman we dined with (a dental hygenist from New Jersey who had never flown on a plane) commented that she'd love a restaurant where you could opt to share tables with strangers. It's funny how many of the people and conversations I remember from those trips (both over 3 years ago).

My mom and I keep looking for deals to travel in a sleeper car (anywhere). My uncle recently mentioned an amazing train ride through Alaska, and Canadian rail rail sounds really great too. Makes me wish I could qualify for a senior discount, but that's still about a quarter of a century away for me. Oh, you lucky retired folk- time and discounts! *know you are envied by at least one 30-something*

My favorite food book to date is "The Nuts Among the Berries" by Ronald Deutsch. It's one of the source books for T.C. Boyle's "Road To Wellville," but it covers a much longer span of time than just the Kellogg/Post history. It's a chronicle of dietary fad in the United States, and it is a laugh riot (wear rubber pants).

A happy, funny little read with recipes is "Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast" by Bill Richardson. It's about a fictional Canadian B & B for readers run by some foodie twin brothers. It's a bibliophile's dream with loads of references to other books.

I think it's in the sequel (just as good as the first) where one brother writes a lists of the best food books to read (cookbooks/manuals, histories, etc.). The books none-too-long and everyone seems to love them from my 80 year old book club friends to my 19 year old pierced and tattooed Nietzsche-obsessed vegan honors students. That's alway the measure of a good book.

My husband and I are about to hit the road to celebrate our tenth anniversary in the traditional way (America's Largest Yard Sale- Highway 127); we'll be looking for a copies of Bull Cook et al on the road and in any second-hand bookstores we might come across.

Let me know if you think of any other titles. You recommendations are greatly appreciated!

adrienne

quote:

Originally posted by citizengeek

Wow!
The train recommendations sound great. I've ridden the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland, Oregon twice with a variety of family members, and the dining car & the observation car are a great relief when you're going coach. Even the dining room seating arrangement is appealing. One woman we dined with (a dental hygenist from New Jersey who had never flown on a plane) commented that she'd love a restaurant where you could opt to share tables with strangers. It's funny how many of the people and conversations I remember from those trips (both over 3 years ago).

My mom and I keep looking for deals to travel in a sleeper car (anywhere). My uncle recently mentioned an amazing train ride through Alaska, and Canadian rail rail sounds really great too. Makes me wish I could qualify for a senior discount, but that's still about a quarter of a century away for me. Oh, you lucky retired folk- time and discounts! *know you are envied by at least one 30-something*

adrienne

Sorry it's "off-topic" but I'm a real train enthusiast so I've got to take this bait.

First, I doubt you'll find a "deal" on a sleeper. For some reason AMTRAK discounts the regular fares all the time, but I've never seen the extra charge for a sleeper discounted. On the other hand, for 2 people it's not that bad (remember, it includes meals--pretty much all you can eat except alcohol).

A route that I really have to enthuse about is the California Zephyr from Chicago to Oakland via Denver. It's a 2-day trip. They time things so you go through the flatlands (Nebraska, Utah) at night, but both days are gorgeous mountain scenery; the first day it's the Rockies from Denver to Grand Junction, the second day it's the Sierra from Reno to Sacramento.

As far as Canadian trains, they are great fun too. THE trip is the "Canadian" from Vancouver to Toronto (or the other way). This is 3 days and the route, of course, parallels the "Empire Builder" but much farther north. Unfortunately, you do miss some of the best scenery (at least going east as I did) because it's dark, but you see plenty. The highlight of the trip is Jasper National Park where they stopped in the town of Jasper and let us wander and shop for several hours. Besides trains, I also like snow, so I did this trip in the winter (and it's both less crowded and cheaper then as well as, IMHO, more fun). Kind of reminded me of a scene from the movie Dr. Zhivago--snow blowing by the speeding train. I doubt girls have toy trains as kids, but the boys who did may well have had one of those stainless steel, sleek dome cars and that's what the Canadians still use on this route--they bought them from the US railroads when those gave up passenger service and have rehabbed them beautifully. The last car in the train is "bullet-shaped" and has a lounge in the rear as well as a glass dome where you can sit, sip orange juice and watch the scenery go by. It also has a great art-deco cocktail lounge area. All this is run by ViaRail, the Canadian national railroad: http://www.viarail.ca/en_index.html

quote:

Originally posted by citizengeek

Wow!
My mom and I keep looking for deals to travel in a sleeper car (anywhere).

adrienne

PS--Looking at the ViaRail site, I saw this:

Single bedrooms for half the price

As the Ocean train makes its way to Montréal or Halifax, take advantage of the many Easterly class privileges at half price: a private room for travel, a cozy bed to sleep in, and breakfast in the morning. From August 5 to August 31, travel in a single bedroom on selected departures of the Ocean, and save 50% off the full adult fare for all these comforts.

This discount applies exclusively to Internet purchases.

This discount is applicable to travel between Montréal and Halifax aboard trains number 14 (departing from Montréal on Thursdays and Sundays) and number 15 (departing from Halifax on Wednesdays and Saturdays

I just finished "A Cook's Tour" by Anthony Bourdain. I really loved it. I read it while riding back from Kentucky with my parents. His descriptions of food made me delirious with hunger and filled me with a desire to try new places, new dishes, new ways of serving and being served. Stopping at Pizza Hut broke my heart.

Rather than start a new thread about this same topic, I am bringing back this one.

  I recently purchased three Roadfood type books from Amazon. I will add them to my library of Travel & Food related volumes that include  almost all of the Stern's earlier books and a bunch of others. I have skimmed these three and will dig thru the details over the next month or so. So Far two of the three meet my travel/review criteria for carry along when visiting their home area. The third is described as a nation-wide roadtrip, but seems to focus on regional recipes from businesss around the country.

Here's what I purchased-

1. Dr BBQ's Big-Time Barbecue Road Trip
    by Ray Lampe  Paperback ($11.53) More recipes than restaurant review info, although his antidotes are interesting.

2. Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South.
by John Edge  Paperback  ($10.17)  Excellent detailed visits and history of many restaurants in each of the Southern States. It reminds me of Jane and Michael's early Roadfood epics in it's arrangement and prose style.

3. Follow the Smoke: 14,783 Miles of Great Texas  Barbecue,
by John DeMers, Paperback ($13.57) Tons of color photos of Texas BBQ pits and personalities. Arranged by regions within the State.  Excellent reviews of literally hundreds of places. A real plus for the traveler. I wish the place in Belton,TX was included, I wonder if it is still in operation ??

My total was $35.27 and met the standard for the free shipping Amazon offers. I consider these to be well worth the investment.

Anyone else come across any good "travel food Review" books recently??
AL

Southern Belly is one of my lunchbunch buddies favorite books on food.

He does a lot of traveling to blues festivals and has eaten at a  number of restaurants  mentioned in the book.

I have been to a few, including the Green Top BBQ Restaurant in Dora AL:

http://greentopbbq.com/

While their food was excellent their service was abominable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John T Edge - the author of Southern Belly - has a new book coming out next year:
http://truckfoodnation.com/?c=1&page=1

Truck Food Nation

Exploring Modern American Truck Food with John T Edge. -- I'm at work on a new book. My colleague Angie Mosier will shoot the photos. Workman will publish. Stay tuned here.  

alfredo


Have to recommend Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Cod, The History of Salt, both by Mark Kurlansky. Couldn't evacuate from a hurricane without my Joy of Cooking (I know, how plebian.)

I love my Joy Of Cooking!

And

Marcella Hazan's first book; my very, very old edition of Ada Boni's Italian Regional Cooking (as much for the photos as anything else); Waverly Root's The Food of Italy; Susanna Hoffman's The Olive and the Caper, as much for the mythology and commentary as for the recipes; my own hand-written recipe books into which everything else is distilled.

Melrose Plantation Cookbook by Clementine Hunter
Here is a sample recipe. If I ever open a Restaurant several recipes could be used. Or all of them. Amazing Book.
Shrimp Remoulade
 
Boil, peel, and chill 1 pound of fresh shrimp. Boil 4 eggs until hard. Mash the yolks into a smooth paste with 1 teaspoon of prepared French or Creole mustard. Add 1 teaspoon of finely minced onion, 1 teaspoon finely minced celery, 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon of white pepper, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 4 tablespoons heavy cream, and salt to taste. Stir well until all ingredients are smoothly blended. Add just enough wine vinegar (1 or 2 teaspoons should do) to leave the sauce thick and creamy, not runny. Let it stand at room temperature for an hour or so. When the flavors are well-united, divide the cold shrimp among 4 salad plates lined with lettuce and spoon the sauce over each.
Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

...Russ

"The Feast of Santa Fe" by Huntley Dent.  It's a cookbook, but a good read too.  The first part "12 Feasts in Simplicity" is fun to actually do at home and it made me appreciate how good very simple food can taste.

Al... Glad you brought the thread back.

I hadn't thought of Laurie Colwin for ages but do love her stuff!!!

As the thread started before this one was published, I will add a favorite:
eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I think it's a must-read for any woman over 40. I'm not sure how many men would enjoy it though... even so I would never call it "chick-lit"!

Did anyone ever read Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon? He has RFish sections... my favorite is when he describes how you know a cafe/dinner is good: the more calendars on the walls etc., the better the food. LOL! But it worked for me on a cross-country trip. Anything over 4 calendars was always excellent!!!

Thanks for reviving this thread. I also recommend Southern Belly. John T. Edge has also done a series of smaller books about quintessential American food: Fried Chicken: An American Story, Apple Pie: An American Story, Hamburger & Fries: An American Story, etc. I've only read Fried Chicken, but it was great. If you read it while hungry, you'll be dying for some chicken by the end.

I also recommend Ruth Reichl's food memoirs: Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples and Garlic & Sapphires.

Love the Tummy Trilogy, of course, and reread American Fried every year or so.

Also Love  The Stern's "Square Meals" and "American Gourmet"  what fun!

Last but certainly not least.. Ida Bailey Allen's "Cooking, Menus, Service" written in mid 20's it is just a wonderful, albeit preachy book for the homemaker.. Solid recipes, household hints,  poems and commentary..  She had a radio show for years..

I tend to  pull out a food book of one kind or another when ever I am in the kitchen.. just to have something to read while I work.. (hard to wash dishes though)