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Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Kurlansky
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 196938
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0142004936
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780142004937
ASIN: 0142004936
Publication Date: October 26, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
"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
Product Description
Mark Kurlansky is one of our most erudite and entertaining food writers: the bestselling author of Salt and Cod, winner of the prestigious James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing. Now in this delightful collection he serves up a true smorgasbord of "choice cuts" by the worlds most discerning gourmets and gourmands through the agesfrom Plato on the art of cooking to Louis Prima at the pizzeria. Choice Cuts offers more than two hundred mouth-watering selections, including Brillat-Savarin on chocolate; Waverley Root on truffles; M. F. K. Fish on gingerbread; Pablo Neruda on French fries; Alexandre Dumas on coffee; and a vast variety by Escoffier, Elizabeth David, A. J. Liebling, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Dickens, Balzac, Chekhov, Orwell, and Alice B. Toklas, among others. Filled throughout with recipes, menus, classic photographs, and Kurlanskys own original drawings, Choice Cuts is a must-have for any serious lover of food.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Essays on Food May 8, 2007
This collection of essays is a must-read for anyone who loves food and loves reading about food.
 A Bedside Stack March 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like to have a small stack of books on my nightstand that I can just pick up and read before sleep that have nothing whatsoever to do with my current daytime/evening reading. The best candidates for that small stack are poetry, short stories and essays and so I have been happy to have Mark Kurlansky's "Choice Cuts" around for that style of casual, drifting away reading. I know from Kurlansky's "Cod" and "Salt" that he's a real bloodhound researcher so I imagine he comes across all kinds of material that catches his attention but doesn't suit his purpose at hand. The book has interesting Contents pages but I rarely use them, I just open the book at random and see where it takes me; it's all interesting to me. For instance Von Rumohr's, "Emotions to be Avoided While Eating" (p.126), Hooker, "On Icelandic Food"(p.67), ALL of Marjorie Rawlings, James Beard on "Radishes" (p.161) and many more delight me. In fact the whole book sooner or later. There are so many books with so many different purposes and uses. This one is just a little buddy to have around to amuse, to entertain and to delight, to accompany me into dreams. Then all of a sudden, too late at night, I'm stirring up a batch of Marjorie Rawlings, "Hush Puppies" (p. 255) to eat with blackberry jam and "Hot Chocolate", James Beard (p.341).
 Do yourself a favor and leave this one alone January 22, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I only have three words for this bit of tripe Boring,Boring,Boring.
An uneven collection of bathroom reading for foodies September 26, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If I were Kurlansky's publisher, I would have liked his book pitch, too: pull together several short essays of food writing into a single book. Kurlansky is an excellent author -- I've read a few of his other books and liked 'em quite well -- but this one doesn't quite make it.
When an essay works, it's a great sampler for the author's work -- which may not be a "foodie" writer. You'd expect to find Lucullus, but not Herodotus (Kurlansky includes a page from The Persian Wars, fifth century BC, with Herodotus' comments on Egyptian dining). I've read _of_ AJ Liebling more than I've read him, but I loved the four pages reproduced here about dining with his parents at Restaurant Maillabuau in Paris, followed immediately by MFK Fisher on Monsieur Paul's.
The book has thirty chapters which group the material by topic: ethnicity, such as The Americans, or food items, such as the Mystery of Eggs. A section on seasoning includes Pliny the Elder on Thyme, the Talmud on Garlic, Platina on Basil and Saffron, Karl Friedrich von Rumohr on Sorrel, and The Aobo Tu on Salt Making.
On the positive side, each of the essays is very short. Most are 2-3 pages, and few are more than 5, making them suitable to enjoy in the john (and I do mean that in a nice way). That's also a negative, however, because by the time you've gotten into an essay (or poem or song lyrics -- Kurlansky mixes 'em up), and figured out whether this one is meant to be funny, or sensual, or instructive, or whatever... it's over. When something doesn't work for me -- and it could be a matter of mood -- I find that I flip forward until I find another essay that attracts. Perhaps that's a strength, too, because there's always something to get my interest. But mostly I'm aware of how much of the book I'm skipping.
The uneven nature of the collection makes it hard for me to recommend this book without reservation. I like it; I don't love it.
Entertaining Reading for Foodies September 3, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
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