[.ca] Choice Cuts (ISBN 0142004936)

From Amazon.com:
"Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man's relationship with nature ... about nation-building, cultural struggles, friends and enemies ... and at times, even about sex." Thus Mark Kurlansky, author of the award-winning Cod and Salt, introduces Choice Cuts, his anthology of food writing throughout history. Kurlansky has cast his net very wide and presents a legion of food writers on every possible culinary subject. The usual suspects are here, sometimes in triplicate: Brilliat Savarin on gourmets, female food-love, and how to gain weight; M.F.K. Fisher on bachelor cooking, the dislike of cabbage, and dinner at France's famed Monsieur Paul's in the 1940s; Elizabeth David on the folly of the garlic press, the glories of toast, and English pizza. But Kurlansky's trail starts much earlier with Plato on cooking (food as a branch of medicine, a notion shared by many modern advertisers), Heroditus on Egyptian dining, and, resoundingly, Mencius, a student of Confucius who, in the third century B.C., implored Chinese leaders to observe saner food and environmental policies. There is a great deal to digest here, but readers can take small bites at their leisure. Enjoyed in this way, the book provides an endlessly fascinating glimpse of humankind's second--or is it the first?--greatest pleasure. --Arthur Boehm

Vast Buffet, Much Unseasoned, Only A Few Tasty Cuts:
I second the notions of the other reviewers who feel this collection sits heavy on the stomach of the mind (so to speak). Too much bland starch of info, too few servings spiced with literary feel, emotion, significance. In no fewer than 234 entries (in 30 chapters), I found intensity of the writer producing intensity in me, only in these five items: 1. Wechsberg's report on the social-gastronomic intricacies of a boiled beef restaurant in earlier Vienna. Such fussing! Such snobbery. But, such expertise! 2. Grigson on English food. Sad but incisive critique of her nation's failings--at that time. 3. E. M. Forster on ditto--cameo sketch of a perfectly awful breakfast on a train is a gem. 4. Pelligrini on "the abundance of America"--heartfelt hymn to ham and eggs and more, with feeling. 5. Curnonsky on the political spectrum of gourmets, from far right (starched traditional), right, center, left, and far left (exotic ingredients and more). A classic truth perhaps. Mere information is basic nourishment perhaps; literary quality is "finer cuisine" probably...?

Gourmets and Gourmands:
CHOICE CUTS Mark Kurlansky, Editor ISBN 0-345-45710-2 This book, a collection of writing about food, drags somewhat from the burden of including too much arcane material, for example Pliny the Elder's note on onions from the first century. Elsewhere, another chapter devotes too many words to the difference between a gourmet and a gourmand, which is perhaps not as critical to the reader as to the editor. There are some excellent pieces in this book however. Among the best are the articles by M. F. K. Fisher, who was a food writer, but felt that food, security, and love are entwined. She also wrote very well. Her story about a last meal at a favorite restaurant before leaving France in 1932 is warm and witty. Fisher almost did not get the last meal because a waiter failed to recognize her and her husband. He spotted her precious accordion she was carrying on to the ship, assumed that they were street musicians, and showed them the door. In another article, Fisher writes about bachelors' cooking, "few of them under seventy-nine will bother to produce a good meal unless it is for a pretty woman." Another fine piece by Jeremy Wechsberg about a restaurant in Vienna before the war, where the boiled beef specialties required a customer to have a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of a steer, is one of my favorites. The restaurant kept herds of cattle, fed with molasses and sugar beet mash to supply its pampered customers. The story, written in 1948, reflects a past lifestyle to which few of us could relate. It was said that Austrian poets lavished rhymed praise upon the delicacies they consumed at "Meissl & Schadn". The George Orwell article about cooks and waiters in Paris is the writer at his best. The waiters made more than the cooks, and the waiters had the mentality of snobs. A shorter piece about English food is equally good. In it, Orwell offers, "England is a very good country when you are not poor." I also admired John Steinbeck's article about hunger in California during the depression. Steinbeck wrote that, when children starved, the coroners wrote "malnutrition" on the death certificate because is sounded better "when a thin child is dead in a tent". This book offers a number of satisfying entrees, even for those whose main interests are other than food. However, one has to get through too many bland side dishes between them.

Excellent Piece of Work:
I found this book to be highly entertaining and at times even somewhat amusing. Who couldn't laugh at Giacomo Castelvetro's accusation that the English put enough vinegar in their salads to give Morgante a footbath? Several reviewers have complained about the lack of diversity and the Euro-centric selection of writings. I disagree. I feel that this book represents an accurate cross-section of world-wide food writing. Sure, it contains a lot of writing about French food, but then who has written more about food than the French? One of the prerequisites of writing about food is to have some, lest you will not know what you are writing about. And the massive abundance and variety of food that the French have access to and have mastered the preparation of, lends to them a certain exclusivity regarding the matter. This book was by no means meant to contain every tidbit ever written about food in the history of the world. One will be much more pleased with it if it is viewed as an introduction to many notable and worthwhile food writers, from which one may seek out the other scribblings of these authors.

Entertaining Reading for Foodies:
With Mark Kurlansky's reputation as one of the best food writers today, it was only a matter of time before a collection of some of his selections of good food writing came together. "Choice Cuts" is entertaining reading, especially for those who are interested in the history of eating and food. There are few recipes in this book, but this collection is more of a book that you sit down with a cup of coffee or tea after you've finished the dishes.

A Sat-On Sandwich with Cornichons...:
For food literati greedy for the ample feast Choice Cuts offers in its 452 pages, two outcomes may arise. 1 - The charming collection of food history, recipes, and eloquent opinions is enough to satisfy the reader in a nightly-nibbling sort of way (you really will have to take it chapter by chapter). M.F.K. Fisher is predominantly laced throughout the other narratives and her presence alone warrants a read through as a daily reminder of the pleasures we could encounter everyday... or 2 - Every night after you put down the book, however charming the prose or hindsight-humor of ancient observations on cabbage you'll sit and wonder why it's subtitled: "A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World..." Apart from a brief recipe for Baghdad Onion & Eggs and Confucian musings on the effects of food, the focus is acutely European/Western and if my georgraphy knowledge serves me correctly, there's still alot of the world left terribly underrepresented in the collection... That is to say, perhaps other cultures didn't devote as much thought to the realm of food, agriculture, and health, etc. Or perhaps such writing never survived, never existed, was never bothered to be translated/researched properly. Judging, however, from the infinite number of dishes that manage to delight the palate whether or not served in the dilapidated charm of a tiny french restaurant, the book is a little lop-sided. But still, for greedy ones like me, a good leisure read.