Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I wasn't born this omnivorous, this game to devour ant eggs on sticky rice, barbequed eel, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, fresh durian, reeking cheese..." (more)
Key Phrases: dirty sugar cookies, fecal soup, ayun halliday, New York, Betty Crocker, Enchanted Castle (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dirty Sugar Cookies is a sardonic romp...a great read." Michael Nagrant, Contributing Writer -- Chicago Journal, July 5, 2006

Product Description

Ayun Halliday's fourth book, Dirty Sugar Cookies, takes readers into the unpredictable mind and comical experiences of a true anti-foodie, giving even the most hopeless cooks a moment of relief from self-criticism, and the least discriminating eaters a reality check. Halliday started out a repressed picky eater without so much as a single fast-food-loving sibling to save her from the gourmet ambitions of a mother whose recipe for Far East Celery once received favorable mention in the Indianapolis Star. Her palate has since expanded to the degree that she'll hork down anything from chili-smothered insects that pass for an exotic destination's local delicacies to a peanut found wedged between the cushions of a theater seat.

From summer camp's unlimited Pop-Tarts to the post-coital breakfasts of a well-traveled actress-waitress and the frustrating payback of cooking for some finicky offspring of the author's own, Dirty Sugar Cookies is an omnivorous, hilarious chronicle of culinary awakening.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (April 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580051502
• ISBN-13: 978-1580051507
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #589,743 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh-out-loud food frivolity, May 17, 2006

By	J. Topp (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a professional cook and boringly-avid reader of coobooks and food memoirs, this one--dare I say it--hit the spot. Halliday's self-deprecating honesty, sense of crazy fun and scary talent of total recall about growing up in the seventies and all the cream-of soup casseroles that entailed made it a read-in-one-sitting book. All that with some saliva-inducing recipes. So fun!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Library Lady loves Dirty Sugar Cookies, July 10, 2006

By	Midwest Library Lady - See all my reviews

I read it slowly as to savor it! I especially liked reading about the quest for Gran-Gran's recipe box!!!!! I enjoyed Ayun's sugar cookies, dirt and all, every evening for over a month. I read a tasty morsel each night (to help me unwind after a crazy day of summer library program) as long as I could keep my eyes open. Sometimes I stayed awake long enough to mark the page with my new magnetic monkey bookmark recently acquired from a friend who is scared of monkeys. Sometimes I was just conscious enough to dog ear my page before nodding off so I could find my spot the next night. (Don't tell anyone a librarian would do that to a book, but hey it's my book, not the library's copy!) Sometimes I passed out before marking my spot only to roll over and squash my glasses and kick the book onto the floor.

Anyhoo. I woke up this morning determine to finish this long, delicious meal. After enjoying the index, (Ayun, you crack me up! Did you index it your ownself?) I flipped through to the two pages before the last page to find an amazing replica of a squashed pill bug. I thought, dang, whoever designed this book has quite a sense of humor...realistic drawings of flies lighting on the first page of each chapter and now this life-like bug at the end. Jeeze it looks so real, it's almost 3-D. Wait a minute...it was 3-D...I flicked the squashed pill bug out of the back of my copy and just had to laugh. Very ironic. He must have crawled aboard on one of those nights the book got kicked to the floor. The pill bug skeleton is lurking with the dust bunnies under my bed, but the stain remains!

Anyway...thanks again for another great read, Ayun!

(P.S. I loved the cover!!!!! Disgusting AND sweet. You should have seen the looks I got in the doctor's office waiting room...)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious...., June 27, 2009

By	Elizabeth (MA) - See all my reviews

Ayun Halliday remembers the details, and relating them brings humor and poignancy to her writing. I've relished each page of the three books of her's I've read, because she is clever, wide-open and specific - if you relate to her, boy, do you relate. I am a crunchy progressive Mommy who is also a child of the 70's, and Ayun Halliday speaks my language. I will read anything she writes.