Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It was a time of innocence, nuclear families, traditional values . . . and BAD FOOD.

In an era where cooks wanted to put their best foot forward, there was no end to the creative, cost-efficient, and cream-based dishes that disgraced the family dinner table, the cocktail party, or the neighborhood BBQ. Recipes involving ingredients like ground meat, bananas, and cottage cheese sound innocent enough—unless you mix them all together in a strange attempt to cover every food group at once.

In Gastroanomalies, James Lileks gathers another remarkable assortment of dishes that once inspired cooks to brave new heights but now inspire sour stomachs and thoughts of “how did I survive?” Highlighted with excerpts from bizarre cookbooks (like Joan Crawford shilling for Bisquick), dubious images (is it meat or chocolate ice cream?), ads heralding the latest in kitchen technology (how about a bacon-egger?), and Lileks’s acerbic, off-the-wall commentary (“Put your ear close, and you can actually hear the meat screaming in terror”), Gastroanomalies is an irresistible retro documentation of a bygone era when artisanal cheese and vegetables lightly steamed (not boiled to mush) were still light-years away. Gastroanomalies will have foodies, baby boomers, and lovers of kitsch in stitches.

About the Author

JAMES LILEKS is the author of The Gallery of Regrettable Food, Mommy Knows Worst, and Interior Desecrations. Visit his popular website at www.lileks.com.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Crown (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307383075
• ISBN-13: 978-0307383075
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #383,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's time for a potluck -- What Would Satan Do?, November 30, 2007

By	S. Radler (USA) - See all my reviews

If I could, I would give this book six stars. I just bought it at my local Big Box Bookstore and sat down to read it in the store but literally had to leave because I was laughing so hard. People were looking at me funny. So I read it at home, making those alarming laugh-snort-gasping sounds. Now my dog is looking at me funny.

Once again, Jame Lileks skewers the horrible foods of the mid-20th century. How could things so bland and tasteless manage to look so disgusting? Why are the colors of these dishes brought to us by Technicolor on steroids? Yes, this was the era when " 'Mexican' meant three entire grains of pepper added to a gallon of tomato juice" and pizza crusts -- when pizza was consumed at all -- seemed to be made of Saltine cracker crumbs. Lileks also shows us what Satan brings to every darn potluck (Silly me. I thought he'd bring lutefisk.), and ponders the secret ingredient in the oceans of white sauce -- bleach, maybe?

If you loved Lileks's "Gallery of Regrettable Food" and thought it was one of the best humor books ever, like I did, come back for a hearty, heapin', second helping of lard-filled laughter, held up for your amusement in a colorful yet quivering aspic.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wanna eat less? Skim through this first!, November 29, 2007

By	Jan in NC - See all my reviews

The chapter on "how to drive off your husband with lousy cooking" is some of the funniest, horriblest photography and writing I've had the pleasure of reading in months. Lileks is wonderfully droll.

The meat dishes are disgusting. What on earth were these folks thinking?

For samples of the author's sense of humor, his website is www.lileks.com. If you like what you see, buy his books and keep him in business.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SHOW HER MR. BANANA!, November 30, 2007

By	Nancy Beiman "Northernexpress" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

James Lileks has done it again. I'm still fondest of THE GALLERY OF REGRETTABLE FOOD and INTERIOR DESECRATORS but GASTROANOMALIES deserves a place of (dis)honour near these worthy tomes. This time there is no attempt to explain the origins of the revolting dishes (with one exception: 'food' from Austalia that explains why that country's liberal immigration laws have greatly improved its cuisine since the time of this 'cookbook's' publication--it couldn't have gotten any worse!)
I think Mr. Lileks' creative writing is at its best in the "Please let her pick the bananas" section.
I wonder if any of these dishes were actually prepared by the victi--uh, cooks. If people then were like people now, the books were just for lookin'. Maybe some of the pictures were intended for dieters--you won't want to eat after viewing some of the greasier, sugarier examples in this appallingly hilarious book.