Customer Reviews

Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals

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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.

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.

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

I love reading about food almost as much as I enjoy eating it so food writing, and food writing anthologies specifically, are often on my reading list. Unfortunately, this was not one of my favorites.

The premise of the collection is that Douglas Bauer reaches out talented writers from different backgrounds and asks them to write about the most memorable meal they ever had. These range from meals where the food is integral and the focal point to meals where the food is merely a backdrop for relationships, discoveries, and experiences.

I think Bauer succeeded in bringing many perspectives to the table. No two essays were anything alike and they show how the prompt of asking someone to recount a memorable meal can bring about so many different interpretations.

My issue with this collection was that the quality was just too mixed. There were some essays that sucked me in where I easily could have read 20-30 pages more by the author. There were others, unfortunately, that dragged and I was tempted to skip over entirely. A little variation in quality is to be expected in any collection, but in my opinion some of the essays here were weaker than similar collections like Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone. The strongest essays in my opinion were the ones by food writers since they were the ones where the food seemed to play the most integral role and where the flavors and textures were best brought to life.

This is also really not the book to go to if you want colorful descriptions of food and to really taste what the authors are talking about. If this is the kind of food writing you prefer (and for me it often is) you'd probably be better off reading something by Ruth Reichl or an anthology of the best food writing.

Overall this book was just okay and probably something I wouldn't recommend to a friend.

This book is extraordinary not only because it does entertain and delight with its insightful foodie short stories, but it also sends you on a nostalgic excursion of your own past gustatory experiences, seeing that the human brain is designed in such a way that food sensations are so closely linked to memory synapses! I literally went into a dream state after each story, remembering similar situations in my past: unforgettable bright crimson whole shrimp grill-roasted on the beach in Corfu that we ate with our fingers, my mother's "galettes surprises" which I always requested on my birthday (see recipe below), my first dinner in a French restaurant when I was seven years old tasting rubbery, garlicky Escargots a la Bourgogne and loving it! All these memories and more flooded my mind and gave me such marvelous Proustian moments...

Galettes Surprises
Take about 2-3 cups left-over mashed potatoes, and knead a couple of beaten eggs and some grated Gruyere cheese into it. Take balls of this mixture about the size of an egg and form flat pancakes about half an inch thick and put them on a greased cookie sheet. With your thumb, make an indentation in the middle of each galette, and fill with a mixture of crumbled cooked bacon, finely chopped onions and garlic, parsley, and grated Gruyere cheese. Sprinkle more Gruyere over everything, and bake in a hot oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese starts to melt and brown. Yum! I didn't realize as a child that this was my mom's way of preparing a really inexpensive meal into a festive creation!

Twenty short works using a particular meal as a catalyst to memory, some which relate an incident amusing in retrospect, some which illuminate a life, all written to the point and with skill. I highly recommend this collection of original works.

"Death by Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals" consists of 20 short stories that focused on stories of the experiences of different individuals which revolved around food. Most of the contributors are names in the literary world - poets, novelist, professors, and others, who wrote about his/her most memorable experience or sometimes, encounter with food. Some stories were more memorable than others, such as the case of this individual who was always envious of her friend's food, or the experience of a couple trying to impress their Swedish friends in a shabby restaurant in New Jersey. The focus of the book was not so much of the food itself but how food relates to each individual's life. The was an interesting read for me as the 20 stories in "Death by Pad Thai" were diverse and very much different from one another, but were all memorable to read, and it reminded me once again to think of food as more than just something to eat to sustain ourselves.