Customer Reviews

Far Flung and Well Fed: The Food Writing of R.W. Apple, Jr.

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R. W. Apple was one of my newpaper heroes; I read every story with his byline with great interest and pleasure and was lucky enough to spend an hour learning about the world during a conversation in a bar in Teheran just before the fall of the Shah. His columns and books are a great pleasure to read, even years later. This extract from his last column gives you a flavor of his approach and appetites:

Extract:

"AFTER half a century of assiduous eating in restaurants around the world, first avocationally and more recently professionally, I have become accustomed to certain questions: "What's your favorite restaurant?" "What will you order for your last meal on earth?" "Which is best -- French cuisine? Italian? Chinese?" All unanswerable, of course. Now comes a more modest proposition: Name 10 restaurants abroad that would be worth boarding a plane to visit, even in these fraught days.

"O.K. Here's my list. Please note, this is neither an enumeration of my favorites (though some of those are included) nor a ranking of the world's best (like those fatuous lists put out each year by Restaurant magazine in London). Rather than reciting a long list of two- and three-star gastronomic temples, I have chosen purlieus both grand and small, better to reflect my own eating habits. And rather than loading up my list with French and Italian addresses, I have arbitrarily restricted my choices to one per country, for much the same reason. I would expect no one else to choose the same 10, but on the other hand, I would be astonished if many of my nominations disappointed.

"FLEURIE, FRANCE Auberge du Cep, Place de l'Église; (33-4) 7404-1077; [web link deleted]

"French country cooking -- or bistro cooking, as its urban variant is called -- deserves, but is not often accorded, a place among the world's culinary glories beside French haute cuisine. Based on regional products, honestly handled, "unfoamed and unfused" in the words of my friend Colman Andrews, late of Saveur magazine, it is the specialty of this small restaurant on the main square of a prettily named village in Beaujolais. It is a specialty unflinchingly embraced by its proprietor, Chantal Chagny, who five years ago banished lobster and truffles from her menu and turned her back on two Michelin stars in favor of the simpler dishes she adores, like herb-crusted, perfectly fried, never-frozen frogs' legs, crisp-edged sweetbreads, soup made of garden herbs, roast wild duck from a local river and rosy tenderloin of regional Charolais beef, France's best.

"Love and skill are lavished on the simplest dishes -- tiny, tender lamb chops, neglected freshwater fish like perch and pike-perch (sander), eggs poached in red wine (oeufs en meurette), toothsome squab, black currant sorbet, even snails -- great fat ones, bubbling happily in their shells, bathed in garlic, parsley, butter and Pernod. Here is the food most of us travel to France to taste, and who can resist it once tasted? Here, too, are the little regional wines we search for -- especially Beaujolais, 60 of them, including 30 from Fleurie itself, one of the 10 designated crus known for excellence."

Apple's range is remarkably wide -- politics, wars, international affairs, travel [he carried his own pepper grinder], bourbon and bacon, potatoes and tomatoes, langoustines and mangosteens, barbecue and Bouillabaisse, New Orleans and New Zealand -- and his other books are equally rewarding for anyone interested in travel:

Apple's America: The Discriminating Traveler's Guide to 40 Great Cities in the United States and Canada. An excellent brief introduction to 40 cities together with additional sources of information.

Apple's Europe: An Uncommon Guide. The predecessor volume to "Apple's America".

Calvin Trilling quoted Mr. Apple's attitude toward his 70th birthday party, and [from "The Times" obituary] "toward the rich, long life and career that produced it: 'It's my understanding that Apple has simplified what could be a terribly difficult choice by telling them to bring everything.'

If you love great food and great writing, this book will satisfy both yearnings.

Robert C. Ross 2009

Newly released, this book is a great collection of legendary New York Times writer Johnny Apple's best food pieces from around the world. Apple covered wars, elections, food and travel for the Times for over 40 years and was a judge for the James Beard awards, among many other accomplishments. His captivating writing tells the story of a dish or ingredient in the context of culture, history and the land. Exploring the story of dishes from around the globe, this is a phenomenal example of food and travel writing at their best.

Tim and Nina Zagat (of Zagat's Guide fame) wrote: "As much as Johnny Apple loved politics, he might have loved food even more. He loved searching for it, learning about it, writing about it, and most of all, eating it. This classic collection of food writing from one of The New York Times's most renowned writers deserves to be on the shelf-or kitchen table or in the travel bag-of each and every foodie."

This compilation is a wonderful compendium of Johnny Apple's writing about food. Fans will not be disappointed and readers who newly discover his writing will be enthralled with the stories about chefs, growers, and purveyors of all shapes and sizes. Because the book is made up of individual newspaper and magazine articles, it is an easy read and one that can be put down and picked up without losing a step.

Mr. Apple's writings are most enjoyable to read, and the book takes you along on numerous exciting culinary travels. I highly recommend it.

I heard Mr. Apple's wife interviewed on NPR about this book, and she was so charming that I not only purchased one for myself, I bought four, to give to friends. They have enjoyed it as much as I.

A must read for all foodies. I even found a website some excellent Irish smoked salmon at a good price.

I usually finish every book I start. I only made it until about page 80 when I realized I no longer had any interest in reading about food - not my cup of tea, so to speak. That's why I'm still giving the book 4 starts rather than fewer. It may have been more me than the book; then again, had it offered more I may have finished it and given it five stars. What I did read was good, though not great. Apple does a good job of describing the various locales where he chows down. He manages to get the essence of a place in a few and memorable sentences. An example of this is his characterization of Baltimore, Maryland as an essentially working class culture, despite having one of the elite educational institutions - Johns Hopkins - in its midst. Frankly, I tended to lose track of all the descriptions of the various foods, but there were some that captivated me enough to want to try them - scrapple, for example. The other thing that comes across clearly is the passion that the various restaurant and shop owners, as well as farmers and other growers have for their product and their profession. It made me aware of how complex and demanding jobs are that tend not to be in the forefront of our minds. Perhaps other readers will follow through to the end. This reader got full rather early.