Customer Reviews

Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History

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If I were Kurlansky's publisher, I would have liked his book pitch, too: pull together several short essays of food writing into a single book. Kurlansky is an excellent author -- I've read a few of his other books and liked 'em quite well -- but this one doesn't quite make it.

When an essay works, it's a great sampler for the author's work -- which may not be a "foodie" writer. You'd expect to find Lucullus, but not Herodotus (Kurlansky includes a page from The Persian Wars, fifth century BC, with Herodotus' comments on Egyptian dining). I've read _of_ AJ Liebling more than I've read him, but I loved the four pages reproduced here about dining with his parents at Restaurant Maillabuau in Paris, followed immediately by MFK Fisher on Monsieur Paul's.

The book has thirty chapters which group the material by topic: ethnicity, such as The Americans, or food items, such as the Mystery of Eggs. A section on seasoning includes Pliny the Elder on Thyme, the Talmud on Garlic, Platina on Basil and Saffron, Karl Friedrich von Rumohr on Sorrel, and The Aobo Tu on Salt Making.

On the positive side, each of the essays is very short. Most are 2-3 pages, and few are more than 5, making them suitable to enjoy in the john (and I do mean that in a nice way). That's also a negative, however, because by the time you've gotten into an essay (or poem or song lyrics -- Kurlansky mixes 'em up), and figured out whether this one is meant to be funny, or sensual, or instructive, or whatever... it's over. When something doesn't work for me -- and it could be a matter of mood -- I find that I flip forward until I find another essay that attracts. Perhaps that's a strength, too, because there's always something to get my interest. But mostly I'm aware of how much of the book I'm skipping.

The uneven nature of the collection makes it hard for me to recommend this book without reservation. I like it; I don't love it.

This is a mixed selection of food journalism, with some very savory good food expose, and the other rather bland. The problem is that the book is 450 pages long, so sorting is necessary. The titles are deceptive. By them, this would be a fantastic collection. But they are deceiving, and the delectable title does not guarantee savory reading.

I've consumed about half of this collection, and find some very sumptuous cuts, including a most delightful work by Escoffier on the Art of Cooking in Modern Society as well as John Ash's lovely story on lunch with M.F.K. Fisher.

This is diminished by repeated bland works. Thus, unless one is willing to sort and read, this book becomes tedious and makes the price and effort less palatable except for the most interested.

With Mark Kurlansky's reputation as one of the best food writers today, it was only a matter of time before a collection of some of his selections of good food writing came together. "Choice Cuts" is entertaining reading, especially for those who are interested in the history of eating and food. There are few recipes in this book, but this collection is more of a book that you sit down with a cup of coffee or tea after you've finished the dishes.

CHOICE CUTS
Mark Kurlansky, Editor
ISBN 0-345-45710-2

This book, a collection of writing about food, drags somewhat from the burden of including too much arcane material, for example Pliny the Elder's note on onions from the first century. Elsewhere, another chapter devotes too many words to the difference between a gourmet and a gourmand, which is perhaps not as critical to the reader as to the editor.

There are some excellent pieces in this book however. Among the best are the articles by M. F. K. Fisher, who was a food writer, but felt that food, security, and love are entwined. She also wrote very well. Her story about a last meal at a favorite restaurant before leaving France in 1932 is warm and witty. Fisher almost did not get the last meal because a waiter failed to recognize her and her husband. He spotted her precious accordion she was carrying on to the ship, assumed that they were street musicians, and showed them the door. In another article, Fisher writes about bachelors' cooking, "few of them under seventy-nine will bother to produce a good meal unless it is for a pretty woman."

Another fine piece by Jeremy Wechsberg about a restaurant in Vienna before the war, where the boiled beef specialties required a customer to have a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of a steer, is one of my favorites. The restaurant kept herds of cattle, fed with molasses and sugar beet mash to supply its pampered customers. The story, written in 1948, reflects a past lifestyle to which few of us could relate. It was said that Austrian poets lavished rhymed praise upon the delicacies they consumed at "Meissl & Schadn".

The George Orwell article about cooks and waiters in Paris is the writer at his best. The waiters made more than the cooks, and the waiters had the mentality of snobs. A shorter piece about English food is equally good. In it, Orwell offers, "England is a very good country when you are not poor." I also admired John Steinbeck's article about hunger in California during the depression. Steinbeck wrote that, when children starved, the coroners wrote "malnutrition" on the death certificate because is sounded better "when a thin child is dead in a tent".

This book offers a number of satisfying entrees, even for those whose main interests are other than food. However, one has to get through too many bland side dishes between them.

I like to have a small stack of books on my nightstand that I can just pick up and read before sleep that have nothing whatsoever to do with my current daytime/evening reading. The best candidates for that small stack are poetry, short stories and essays and so I have been happy to have Mark Kurlansky's "Choice Cuts" around for that style of casual, drifting away reading. I know from Kurlansky's "Cod" and "Salt" that he's a real bloodhound researcher so I imagine he comes across all kinds of material that catches his attention but doesn't suit his purpose at hand. The book has interesting Contents pages but I rarely use them, I just open the book at random and see where it takes me; it's all interesting to me. For instance Von Rumohr's, "Emotions to be Avoided While Eating" (p.126), Hooker, "On Icelandic Food"(p.67), ALL of Marjorie Rawlings, James Beard on "Radishes" (p.161) and many more delight me. In fact the whole book sooner or later. There are so many books with so many different purposes and uses. This one is just a little buddy to have around to amuse, to entertain and to delight, to accompany me into dreams. Then all of a sudden, too late at night, I'm stirring up a batch of Marjorie Rawlings, "Hush Puppies" (p. 255) to eat with blackberry jam and "Hot Chocolate", James Beard (p.341).

I found this book to be highly entertaining and at times even somewhat amusing. Who couldn't laugh at Giacomo Castelvetro's accusation that the English put enough vinegar in their salads to give Morgante a footbath?

Several reviewers have complained about the lack of diversity and the Euro-centric selection of writings. I disagree. I feel that this book represents an accurate cross-section of world-wide food writing. Sure, it contains a lot of writing about French food, but then who has written more about food than the French? One of the prerequisites of writing about food is to have some, lest you will not know what you are writing about. And the massive abundance and variety of food that the French have access to and have mastered the preparation of, lends to them a certain exclusivity regarding the matter. This book was by no means meant to contain every tidbit ever written about food in the history of the world. One will be much more pleased with it if it is viewed as an introduction to many notable and worthwhile food writers, from which one may seek out the other scribblings of these authors.

Having been very impressed by Kurlanksy's earlier works, Cod and Salt, I picked this one up with much anticipation. Sad to say it does not live up to its word.

Kurlansky's coverage has a decidedly Eurocentric tilt (read French) despite the occasional word from Nigeria or a quote from India. This is not "writing from around the world." There is also a lot of coverage devoted to MFK Fisher. That might be a good thing but it looks more like Kurlansky has decided to slap some nuggets together in time for the holiday shopping season. His usual exhaustive research is not exhaustive enough.

I second the notions of the other reviewers who feel this collection sits heavy on the stomach of the mind (so to speak). Too much bland starch of info, too few servings spiced with literary feel, emotion, significance.

In no fewer than 234 entries (in 30 chapters), I found intensity of the writer producing intensity in me, only in these five items:

1. Wechsberg's report on the social-gastronomic intricacies of a boiled beef restaurant in earlier Vienna. Such fussing! Such snobbery. But, such expertise!

2. Grigson on English food. Sad but incisive critique of her nation's failings--at that time.

3. E. M. Forster on ditto--cameo sketch of a perfectly awful breakfast on a train is a gem.

4. Pelligrini on "the abundance of America"--heartfelt hymn to ham and eggs and more, with feeling.

5. Curnonsky on the political spectrum of gourmets, from far right (starched traditional), right, center, left, and far left (exotic ingredients and more). A classic truth perhaps.

Mere information is basic nourishment perhaps; literary quality is "finer cuisine" probably...?

For food literati greedy for the ample feast Choice Cuts offers in its 452 pages, two outcomes may arise. 1 - The charming collection of food history, recipes, and eloquent opinions is enough to satisfy the reader in a nightly-nibbling sort of way (you really will have to take it chapter by chapter). M.F.K. Fisher is predominantly laced throughout the other narratives and her presence alone warrants a read through as a daily reminder of the pleasures we could encounter everyday...

or

2 - Every night after you put down the book, however charming the prose or hindsight-humor of ancient observations on cabbage you'll sit and wonder why it's subtitled: "A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World..."

Apart from a brief recipe for Baghdad Onion & Eggs and Confucian musings on the effects of food, the focus is acutely European/Western and if my georgraphy knowledge serves me correctly, there's still alot of the world left terribly underrepresented in the collection...

That is to say, perhaps other cultures didn't devote as much thought to the realm of food, agriculture, and health, etc. Or perhaps such writing never survived, never existed, was never bothered to be translated/researched properly. Judging, however, from the infinite number of dishes that manage to delight the palate whether or not served in the dilapidated charm of a tiny french restaurant, the book is a little lop-sided.

But still, for greedy ones like me, a good leisure read.

This collection of essays is a must-read for anyone who loves food and loves reading about food.