Shaken and Stirred: Through the Martini Glass, and other Four-Ounce Adventures
Author: William L Hamilton
William L. Hamilton loves a good gimlet. Rose's and lime. Straight up. Perfectly iced. Make the glass pretty too. "It ruined my reputation for thinking before I speak," he writes of that love. "I accept the trade-off." Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, when Hamilton sees it, he drinks it -- and tells the incredible tale.
In "Shaken and Stirred," his biweekly Sunday Styles column, now an original book of his drinking adventures, the intrepid New York Times reporter offers a gimlet-eyed look at contemporary culture through the panoptic view of a cocktail glass. From the venerable martini to the young Dirty Jane, Hamilton shares his tip on the sip.
You hold in your hands a guide to "how it goes down." Not a cocktail manual or a Baedeker to the bar scene but a drinker's guide to drinking. These are four-ounce adventures of cocktails and the people who make them, from the bartenders and chefs to the patrons, the politicians and the power players of the liquor industry.
There are tales of the Champagne high life, the Long Island Iced Tea low life; men like Dr. Brown and his celery soda, and women like Eve and her Apple Martini. Hamilton's weekly Runyanesque rounds cover all the watering holes and their poisons, from the East Side's Southside to the Incredible Hulk in the Bronx, and monitors the latest trends, from the ultra-premium vodka wars to the Red Bull market. Shaken and Stirred is a report on a popular culture that comes alive after five, when the mood turns social and the moment is sweet (or sour, or bitter, or dry).
Hamilton has also picked up the best (or the most unbelievable) cocktail recipes from bars, lounges and restaurants in NewYork City and beyond. There is common sense and creativity in the classics, and new inventions with their eye on the prize, such as the Huckleberry Ginn and the Bleeding Heart. "drink me," said the bottle in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Hamilton has, in every instance, and bottled his thoughts in sixty-four essays that are as readable as they are drinkable. Mix a gimlet, or a Minnesota Anti-Freeze, or a Gibson or a Bone. And spend a night in, on the town.
New interesting textbook: Russias Economy of Favours or Business and Information Systems
Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy
Author: Odile Redon
The Medieval Kitchen is a delightful work in which historians Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi rescue from dark obscurity the glorious cuisine of the Middle Ages. Medieval gastronomy turns out to have been superb—a wonderful mélange of flavor, aroma, and color. Expertly reconstructed from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sources and carefully adapted to suit the modern kitchen, these recipes present a veritable feast. The Medieval Kitchen vividly depicts the context and tradition of authentic medieval cookery.
"This book is a delight. It is not often that one has the privilege of working from a text this detailed and easy to use. It is living history, able to be practiced by novice and master alike, practical history which can be carried out in our own homes by those of us living in modern times."—Wanda Oram Miles, The Medieval Review
"The Medieval Kitchen, like other classic cookbooks, makes compulsive reading as well as providing a practical collection of recipes."—Heather O'Donoghue, Times Literary Supplement
Heather O'Donoghue
With a very good introduction on such matters as etiquette, rules on fasting and feast days, and the role of drink at a banquet, The Medieval Kitchen, llike other classic cookbooks, makes compulsive reading as well as providing a practical collection of recipes. -- Times Literary Supplement
Library Journal
An English-language edition of La Gastronomie au Moyen Age: 160 Recettes de France et d'Italie, published in Paris in 1993, this volume of medieval recipes adapted for the modern cook is both usable and informative. Redon (Univ. of Paris), Franois Sabban (L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris), and Silvano Serventi, an independent researcher, have combined their knowledge of languages, food, and history to create this fascinating collection of 153 recipes, ranging from soups and pasta to meats, sauces, and desserts. Each recipe is presented in its original form, in translation, and adapted for modern cooks. A brief passage also explains the significance of the recipe and its relation to other dishes. Although it is not the only title covering medieval cookery (see, e.g., Madeleine Cosman's Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony, LJ 1/15/77), this well-organized and entertaining work is recommended for specialized food or medieval collections in large public and academic libraries.Mary Martin, CAPCON Lib. Network, Washington, DC
Booknews
In addition to over 100 recipes from manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries, revised for modern kitchen, reconstructs the culinary life of the period with details on such aspects as ingredients, spices, shopping, food preparation, feast days and the liturgical calendar, culinary skills, and table etiquette. Includes 12 color plates (to look at, not eat from). Translated from published in 1991 and 1993 by <'E>ditions Stock. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Times Literary Supplement - Bernard O'Donaghue
The great majority of the recipes appear not only possible but positively tempting to cook and eat. With a very good introduction on such matters as etiquette, rules on fasting and feast days, and the role of drink at a banquet, The Medieval Kitchen, like other classic cookbooks, makes compulsive reading as well as providing a practical collection of recipes.
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