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Lucky Peach: Issue 1 [Paperback]

Chris Ying , David Chang
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)


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Book Description

July 12, 2011 Lucky Peach (Book 1)
Lucky Peach is a new journal of food writing, published on a quarterly basis by McSweeney’s. It is a creation of David Chang, the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the Momofuku restaurants in New York, Momofuku cookbook cowriter Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Productions—producers of the Travel Channel’s Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

The result of this collaboration is a mélange of travelogue, essays, art, photography, and rants in a full-color, meticulously designed format. Recipes will defy the tired ingredients-and-numbered-steps formula. They’ll be laid out sensibly, inspired by the thought process that went into developing them.

Each issue will focus on a theme (Issue One’s theme is “Ramen”), with contributions from Harold McGee, Ruth Reichl, John T. Edge, Todd Kliman and a cavalcade of other writers and artists. The reader will meander through arguments about the superiority of yellow alkaline noodles over Italian egg pasta; a taxonomy of ramen-package characters; an eating tour of Japan helmed by an over-stuffed and nauseated, but nevertheless intrepid, David Chang; and a booze-fueled rant on mediocrity in American cuisine with chefs Chang, Bourdain, and Wylie Dufresne set in the Spanish Basque country.

The aim of Lucky Peach is to give a platform to a brand of food writing that began with unorthodox authors like Bourdain, resulting in a publication that appeals to diehard foodies as well as fans of good writing and art in general.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: McSweeney's Insatiables; 1 edition (July 12, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1936365464
  • ISBN-13: 978-1936365463
  • Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 0.8 x 10.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

If you like food and enjoy reading about it, this is fun, new and different. NyiNya  |  13 reviewers made a similar statement
Can't wait for the next issue. Shawn  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
I do like how the recipes are presented in a unique graphical way--almost like flow charts. G. Dawson  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A foodie magazine with a rock-and-roll attitude July 7, 2011
Format:Paperback
Lucky Peach is a foodie magazine with a rock-and-roll attitude. Published quarterly by McSweeney's (beginning with the Summer 2011 issue), the magazine is loaded with the McSweeney's brand of quirky style. The design is hip and eye-catching with lots of original artwork and full-color photographs. The articles are substantive and well-written and contain a variety of styles (travel journaling, interviews, transcribed conversations, traditional essays, etc.). There's even a short story titled "The Gourmet Club." Perhaps best of all, there are no advertisements.

The Summer 2011 issue focuses on ramen, and the level of detail and research into the subject is impressive. I particularly enjoyed the map of Japan annotated with the different types of ramen that can be found in various regions. I was motivated to search my own city (Houston) for some good ramen choices after learning so much about a dish I previously associated only with mediocre dehydrated, microwavable meals.

There are some well-known writers featured in this debut issue of Lucky Peach. For example, Anthony Bourdain discusses David Chang's culinary influences, and Ruth Reichl rates instant raman brands. Even better are some of the essays by lesser-known names. I particularly enjoyed Todd Kliman's piece on the authenticity of food. This isn't a magazine that's loaded with hundreds of recipes. There are only twenty or so, and many of them are quite complicated (homemade gnocchi using crushed ramen noodles?). One recipe (corn with miso butter) takes the form of several haikus. I'm tempted to try it just to see if it works out, but I expect I'll be reading my Lucky Peach more often than cooking from it. I do like how the recipes are presented in a unique graphical way--almost like flow charts.

Overall, this debut issue of Lucky Peach is a success. It's unlike any other food magazine being published right now. It offers high-quality food writing and gorgeous art in abundance, detailed recipes with tips and photographs, and lots of attitude.

A word of warning: there's some cursing in here. It didn't bother me overly much (though some of it did seem gratuitious), but you might want to exercise discretion about leaving this magazine lying about for your young children (or prudish grandmother) to discover.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Note recipe corrections August 18, 2011
By J. Mach
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This magazine certainly has plenty of attitude and hipness, but is you decide to try the alkaline noodles, note that the amount of baked soda should be 4 teaspoons, not 4 Tablespoons. The correction is listed here: [...]

Apart from the corrections, the magazine is a highly variable mix of interesting writing by such authors as John Edge, Harold McGee, and Ruth Reichel, and lazy page-fillers seemingly re-purposed from an initial attempt at a TV show. For example, the 9-page conversation with Bourdain, Chang, and Dufrense on "Mediocrity" is itself, truly mediocre. I hope that as the authors run out of TV footage, they will find their stride with this magazine, because some sections are truly inspired-- the chopstick wrappers alone are deeply amusing. Only subsequent issues will tell if the authors can get over themselves sufficiently to make this venture a real peach.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Four Thumbs Up!. July 22, 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
FINALLY!!! A Foodie Magazine for the Intellectual Folk without the Snobbery!

I must admit that I rarely buy magazines about food. To many ads. The diet isn't my own. Too much hearts and flowers. I wished for something with GUTS -- preferably not hanging out of anyone's belly, of course. So imagine my surprise when my peripheral vision keyed in on the strangest title in the teeny cooking section at my local grocery story... LUCKY PEACH.

HUHUHUH????

The graphic art hooked me. I didn't need to thumb though the rest. Okay, the cover stating that this was a Ramen issue grabbed me, too. So I bought it... I think I'll have to buy another one because I've been dragging around this copy everywhere with me on errands.

Talk about foodie mag mating with an engineering journal. I couldn't believe the flow-charts for the recipes!! I loved the history surrounding the instant ramen -- reminds me of Spam!!

I shall DEFINITELY be subscribing to this Quarterly. And if you are totally bored with food critic snobs who don't cook or the flakey-headed chefs who use up every pan in the house when making a meal, check this out!!!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Aug 28 not here yet
was hoping that two months is long enough to wait but I am still waiting and they have 2 more weeks and that is just redicul
ous
Published 9 months ago by Randall
2.0 out of 5 stars Typo ruins the recipe
It's a ramen issue, right? But the ramen recipe has a typo that renders the food wholly inedible.

The rest of the magazine is fine, but the recipes (the reason I picked... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Morgan Johnson
2.0 out of 5 stars What a rip off!
How can you justify $150 for one copy of this magazine? Sure, it is a first issue, but I have the next 2, and it is mildly entertaining, good photos, cpmfisomg recipes, some... Read more
Published 14 months ago by frqttrvlr
5.0 out of 5 stars Hip, Hip, Puree!
Lucky Peach resembles every other cooking/foodie magazine the way Foster The People resembles The Andrews Sisters. Same species maybe, but a whole 'nother animal. Read more
Published 14 months ago by NyiNya
5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff
It's great to see independent publishing alive and well with this magazine. Love this fresh take on food writing and the overall style and vibe of the magazine--definitely unlike... Read more
Published 17 months ago by gohaiku
5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty much the perfect cooking magazine.
This first issue was all about ramen. It really has everything you want to know about ramen and more. I really like how they focus on one thing and do so many things about. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Shawn
4.0 out of 5 stars Food and Entertainment
I enjoyed the first issue of Lucky Peach. The articles did not run on too long and the authors' personalities were well-represented. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Agrippina
1.0 out of 5 stars Trees died for this?
Even great writers need editors. This editor and his underlings seem to lack taste, authority, eyeballs (seriously: no one caught tablespoon instead of teaspoon? Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Kocsis
2.0 out of 5 stars Machismo comes to the food mag
I like the idea of a different type of food magazine, focused on accessible themes such as ramen, and interesting new recipe techniques, but the macho tone of much of the writing... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Always Reading
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and worthwhile
It took me a couple of weeks to get through this magazine, due to the fact that it actually has stories instead of mostly advertisements, but I must admit I was only reading a... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Sara Powell
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