Food isn’t just a gustatory pleasure; it is the stuff of life. At its best and most memorable, a meal becomes a story—and a story becomes a feast. In this collection of essays by some of the country’s finest writers, food is the central player in memories both exquisite and excruciating. Steve Almond recounts the gleeful daylong preparation of a transcendent lobster pad thai dish. Sue Miller reveals that after a lifetime of practical cooking, she is finally fed by a man who presents food as an offering, made just for her. Aimee Bender ponders her lifelong envy of what everyone else is having for lunch. Richard Russo relates the celebratory day he and his wife spent eating their way through haute Manhattan—and departing utterly famished.Expertly compiled and edited by Douglas Bauer—including pieces by Amy Bloom, Peter Mayle, Jane and Michael Stern, Ann Packer, and Andre Dubus III—this unforgettable collection presents food as education, test, reward, bait, magnet, and, most of all, gift. Gathered here are meals that sate our most complex palate, the appreciation of life.
Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Though Bauer's introduction invokes M.F.K. Fisher—in the early 1970s he escorted her for a magazine story on New Orleans restaurants—this collection of 20 essays concentrates more on nostalgia than on the actual pleasures of the table. From such writers as Amy Bloom, Claire Messud, Andre Dubus III, Richard Russo and Peter Mayle, Bauer gathers pieces about meals that were "unforgettable by occasion"—if not savoriness. Sue Miller's contemplative opener touches on the stupendous appetite of her teenage son, memories of her mother's dreadful cooking and the first meal her husband made for her. The reliable Jane and Michael Stern, here writing separately, provide the most humorous essays. In "Stir Gently and Serve," Jane details the first—and only—Thanksgiving she hosted, after which even the bulldog wouldn't eat the leftovers. Michael recalls a "night of a thousand embarrassments" in "My Dinner with Andy Warhol's Friends," when the Sterns took a Swiss art dealer to a fish house in Hoboken, N.J. Steve Almond's gem of a title story serves as one of the more appetizing tales, a funny, wonderfully descriptive account of a sensational homemade pad thai involving fresh Maine lobster. "Words are inadequate," Almond writes, but the reader will be salivating. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
This anthology of some 20 short pieces focuses on each of the contributors' most memorable meals. Amy Bloom recounts her quest for the ultimate lasagna, recoiling in horror from the oxymoronic "dieter's lasagna." Jane Stern, today a great exponent of thoughtful American cookery, recalls with some embarrassment her first postwedding Thanksgiving, a menu loaded with half-baked ideas and overbaked frozen turkey. Dinner in a French inn fashioned out of an old mill means perfection for Claire Messud, but the experience so overwhelmed her that she has forgotten any specific dishes. Not knowing at the time that he would eventually become a leading exponent of French cooking, Peter Mayle accompanies his boss to Paris for a meal that opened new vistas. For Henri Cole, a good dinner companion trumps any food, and he chooses a stellar one: Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. A very few of these essays have recipes attached. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfection on paper,
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This review is from: Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals (Paperback)
This is a book in which authors, some well known and others not so well known (at least to me) were asked to write about a memorable meal, whether in a positive or a negative light. Almost all of the resulting essays are, as the book's cover notes, not really so much about food, but rather about romance, disappointment, family and celebration. Highlights for me were the title story -- an operatic essay about creating lobster pad thai in an orgy of male cooking, by Steve Almond; a tragicomic story about a first Thanksgiving dinner by Jane Stern; and a hilarious tale of trying to impress visitors from Switzerland (friends of Andy Warhol, no less) in New York, by Michael Stern (husband of Jane). I recommend this book most wholeheartedly not just to food mavens, but to anyone who enjoys top-shelf writing about a subject which, after all, is near and dear to all of us -- food.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Twenty Essays That Should Please Any Foodie's Literary Palette,
By Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals (Paperback)
The quirky title was enough for me to pick up this entertaining and often penetrating collection of twenty essays by renowned writers who look fondly back on their personal culinary experiences. Some are better than others, but editor and author Douglas Bauer has recruited an irrefutably impressive roster of talent from professional food writers Jane and Michael Stern to acclaimed novelists like Richard Russo, Sue Miller and Claire Messud. His starting point is appropriately himself as he describes a week when he accompanied food essayist M.F.K. Fisher on a gourmet adventure in New Orleans as part of an assignment for Playboy. Their journey comes down to the hunt for the perfect Ramos gin fizz which they discover unexpectedly at a local dive. From there, we learn from Russo that even a glamorous restaurant in Manhattan is not immune to the compromising view of a man urinating off a neighboring rooftop. The irony of this sight comes just after the acceptance of his first novel, and he and his wife decide to celebrate in a place they can barely afford.
Miller reflects on the fast food that was her constant staple growing up and how that contrasts with the sophisticated dishes she has tried to concoct ever since. She celebrates the imperfections of the meals she has prepared and makes us acutely aware that hunger is never just about food. In her adroit essay, Messud revisits a French meal so incredible that her selective memory of it is at odds with the reality of what it was, while in contrast, Scottish-born novelist Margot Livesey writes emphatically of her distaste for mutton and mint sauce. Lan Samantha Chang, a short story writer specializing in the Chinese-American immigrant experience, goes into the details of an enormous feast that follows sudden revelations during a palm reading; and fellow essayist Steve Almond brings an infectious tone to his lively account of the day-long effort behind a homemade pad thai with Maine lobster. Not too surprisingly, the writers closest to food professionally provide the most insightful stories. For example, Michael Gorra, the son of a New England produce broker, provides a meticulous but vivid description of an Italian immigrant worker who made do with what he could afford, which translated into a feast of fried peppers and Parmesan cheese for his co-workers. My favorite of the bunch is Jane Stern's account of her first Thanksgiving dinner, a comedy of errors beginning with a too-small oven and an array of canned goods served as side dishes and ending with her bulldog refusing to partake of the table scraps. With this anthology, Bauer has really brought together a set of stories that reflect shrewd observations and a good sense of humor but not at the expense of the very human experience that food creates for people. He even includes a recipe for each essay.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A themed anthology with heart, wit and taste,
By
This review is from: Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals (Paperback)
Bauer asked 20 writers to deliver a piece on food occasions that stuck in the mind, "memory evoking taste." What he got are essays (some with recipes) ranging from Jane Stern's hilarious account of cooking her first Thanksgiving Dinner, to Andre Dubus III's poignant recollection of disintegrating childhood meals in a disintegrating family.
Unlike most themed anthologies this one doesn't really have any weak moments. Sure, some essays are stronger than others, but each is resonant, eloquent, and moving. Most evoke the crucial role that food plays in life; the glue of friendship, family, and tradition. Peter Mayle recollects the French meal that changed his life by waking up his post-war British palate; Henri Cole savors a dinner with Seamus Heaney; David Lehman recalls his wife's frenzy over a dinner party for a poet they both admire. Some reflect on a lifelong relationship with food - Susan Isaacs wanders from her son's prodigious appetite to her mother's awful meals, her own first forays into cooking and the gift of a lovingly prepared meal. Amy Bloom reflects on the role of lasagna and her hopes for love. For Elizabeth McCracken gray meat conjures up a loveless childhood, and Ann Packer marks the milestones of her life in food. This is a contemplative, reflective book with dollop of pathos in even the cleverest, most amusing essays and moments of joy in the saddest. For anyone who likes to read or eat. -- Portsmouth Herald
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