Customer Reviews

THE ELEGANT ART OF DINING - Bohemian San Francisco - Its Restaurants and Their Most Famous Recipes-- The Elegant Art of Dining

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Very fun and interesting book that combines local history, food history, restaurant history with tons of recipes. From 1914.
Also at gutenberg and manybooks.

Recipes are simple, whole foods kind: Chinese, Japanese, American, German, etc.
Sample:
Oyster Omelet - (For two): Take six eggs, one hundred California oysters, one small onion, one tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of flour, salt and pepper to taste. Beat the eggs to a froth and stir in the onion chopped fine. Put the eggs into an omelet pan over a slow fire. Mix the flour and butter to a soft paste with a little cream, and stir in with the oysters, adding salt and pepper to taste. When the eggs begin to stiffen pour the oysters over and turn the omelet together. Serve on hot plate with a dash of paprika.

The only thing I find amazing about the above is you need 100 oysters to feed 2 people!

Interesting, if not especially well-written. As a former resident of San Francisco, I enjoyed this book for its comprehensive overview of the pre-1906 streets, restaurants and culture of the city. I was a little shocked by the author's casual racism (attitudes and words which were probably commonplace back then, even in "bohemian San Francisco.") And the florid, overblown Victorian language is a bit much at times. But overall, worth reading.