I'm giving away 26 food books, from Nigella Lawson's How to
Eat to Diana Abu-Jaber's childhood memoir, The Language of
Baklava.
I haven’t written a word in the last five days.
Naturally you’re dying to know what I’ve been up to.
Oh, just sorting through a thousand or so books. A whole section of our library— 21 square feet of shelf space—is devoted to the culinary arts. Still some of my 371 cookbooks had escaped their confines, finding strange new places to roost. It was time for a purge—and a giveaway.
I don’t know anyone who’s really organized about books. Personally I rely on “a Baconian scheme of memory, reason and imagination”—sort of like Jefferson’s cataloguing system for the library of Congress. (“The Great Library Jefferson Began, and How it Grew,” Charles McGrath, The New York Times, January 16, 2009, p. C36.)
Sure.
On Wednesday I discovered a long lost copy of The Mint Julep, a University of Virginia monograph by Richard Barksdale Harwell, crushed behind a pile of art books on Gauguin in Tahiti. Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s Hot, Sour, Salty Sweet was in the philosophy section, next to Robert Solomon’s treatise on Love. And a pile of children’s cookbooks were stacked atop Paul Theroux’s decidedly child-unfriendly Mosquito Coast.
Creative as some of these accidental juxtapositions might seem, I could never find the book I wanted. So the minute B left for New York, I dismantled the entire library, pulling volumes off the shelves, sponging off dust and dead insects, piling up the discards, reshelving the keepers.
I should have taken a ‘before’ picture, but it was too awful. Here’s the 'after' shot.
So here’s the deal: I’m giving away 21 cookbooks, plus a few others that might be of interest. Some are current, a few are out of print. Check out the titles below and, if you want one, email me at: spicelinesatyahoodotcom (You know what to do.) Don’t forget to include your mailing address. If you live in the continental United States, I’ll send you one or two books for free. Yes, that’s right. I’ll pay the postage. (If you live elsewhere, let’s discuss.)
Once a book is spoken for, I’ll delete it. The offer’s good till the end of February, when the stragglers are destined for a local sale.
Here you go--whoops, half of them have just flown the coop. Hurry, hurry--there are only two left. Either would make a fun gift for the right person.
A Decent Cup of Tea, Malachi McCormack, 1991. Small nicely bound book, with a personal take on tea and a few recipes for accompaniments. How to read tea leaves. Best quote (from Anthony Burgess): "The best thing to do, when you've got a dead body and it's your husband's on the kitchen floor and you don't know what to do about it, is to make yourself a good strong cup of tea." Amen.
White Trash Cooking, Ernest Mathew Mickler, 1986. Low-rent Southern food, such as the Kiss Me Not Sandwich: mustard on two slices of white bread with sliced onion in between. OK, there are some real recipes too, like Jail House Chili and Swamp Cabbage Stew. This one's a giggle.
Comments (8)
This is really generous of you but I live in Canada. I would have loved The Spice Merchant’s Daughter.
Posted by Hélène | January 18, 2009 3:28 PM
Posted on January 18, 2009 15:28
Thank you in advance for the two cookbooks you've let me claim.
Regarding your: "The Best of Singapore Cooking, Mrs. Leong Yee Soo, 1988. I bought this book on my first trip to Singapore. Authentic recipes including hawker favorites..."
My family and I had corporate hosts on our second, brief trip to Singapore in 1989. Among the things I can still taste: chili-crusted grilled crabs (with the shells so crunchy you could eat them), and an incredibly succulent serving of crocodile tail. The slices of crocodile tail reminded me of pork loin, but no pork loin has ever reminded me of half the flavor in that crocodile.
More recently I read a great Calvin Trillin piece on visiting the Singapore food courts to which the hawkers were moved from their prior street spots. You can find the piece in the 2008 Best American Travel Writing (edited by Anthony Bourdain). I read that book while visiting Indonesian and Vietnamese relatives in southern TX.
Regarding your: "Crave: The Feast of the Five Senses, Ludo Lefebvre, 2005. The tattooed chef, currently cooking at Palazzo in Las Vegas, spins a five senses approach to cooking. Interesting use of spices, as in Red Berries with Yogurt Sorbet, Grains of Paradise..."
"Crave" is such a perfect word for how I and others often think of certain foods. I've had recent cravings for crab while writing an article about their marketing and conservation. That craving has yet to be satisfied by I did take care of an oyster craving two weeks ago when I had the BEST oysters ever -- landed at Morehead City, NC.
But the "Grains of Paradise" were what caught my attention in your description. "The Grains of Paradise" is my favorite short story, in which James Street describes a chili-eating contest between an Anglo-American and an Mexican Indian in Tabasco, MX.
I read the story in early high school (10th grade English with Freida Smith, 1982-83) but only recently discovered that the pepper that Street names in the story (amomum melegueta) could not possibly have been the incredibly hot pepper that he describes. Ah, well. Artistic license.
Coincidentally, on my same recent trip to southern TX (where I accidentally left my Bourdain book), I discovered the pequin chile, also known as the "bird pepper" for its means of transport. The bush I saw was at the edge of a community garden in McAllen. I asked, "who does this plant belong to?", hoping to take a few of the seeds. "That's everyone's," said one of the gardeners. "Birds plant those all over Texas. Snap off a few branches."
So I did. The peppers were great but I gave away the last of my supply in Houston. I've asked my McAllen friends to send me a few more so that I can plant them in NC for warm memories.
Posted by Phil | January 20, 2009 5:50 PM
Posted on January 20, 2009 17:50
Phil,
Your stories alone are worth what it's costing me to ship the cookbooks across the country.
There's a recipe for crab in chilli tomato sauce in the Singapore cookbook--and also one for chilli shrimp which might be closer to what you tasted there. The most amazing dish I had in Singapore was the very first--a fiery fish head curry at the old Indian Civil Servants Club--after the usual 24 hour trip over. The night was hot and humid, the ceiling fan was creaking, the plaster was peeling--and I was in heaven. Never again have I had such a vibrantly spiced dish.
Another Singapore specialty is crab encrusted with black peppercorns--the sweet meat, the torrid peppercorns, ginger and garlic--a fabulous near death experience. Like so many things in Singapore, this dish has become a little pallid--I had it again a few months ago--but there's a good recipe on spicelines:
http://www.spicelines.com/2006/02/recipe_singapore_black_pepper.htm
If you can get live Dungeness crab, it's terrific.
Thanks for the memories.
Posted by courtenay | January 21, 2009 3:22 PM
Posted on January 21, 2009 15:22
Organizing your books - what a concept! I need to follow your example...someday...
And I'm impressed by your generosity in sharing the books with other food bloggers - thank you! If either is still available, I am interested in both or either A Taste of Australian Food and Wine and Taste of the Nation Cookbook. I do live in Alaska so don't know if you consider that the continental US [we think we are! ;-)]. Anyhow, media mail postage to Alaska is exactly the same price as to the other states. Please let me know if Alaska works for you and thanks again for the great idea for giving away books!
Posted by Laurie Constantino | January 28, 2009 12:40 PM
Posted on January 28, 2009 12:40
If you still have A Decent Cup of Tea I would appreciate it.
xo e
Posted by Esme | February 9, 2009 7:26 PM
Posted on February 9, 2009 19:26
Esme,
A Decent Cup of Tea is yours. Please send your address to spicelinesatyahoodotcom and I will drop it in the mail when I return from assorted travels.
Posted by Courtenay | February 10, 2009 5:35 PM
Posted on February 10, 2009 17:35
do you still have nigella's and jamie's up for grabs? i'm just trying out my luck. please do let me know if you have anymore cookbooks via email.
Posted by HS | June 13, 2010 8:08 AM
Posted on June 13, 2010 08:08
So sorry, HS, the 2009 books are all gone. Usually readers snap them up within a day or two. But I hold the giveaway every year, so keep reading--the next one will be in January 2011!
Posted by Courtenay | June 13, 2010 11:19 AM
Posted on June 13, 2010 11:19