"A Cook's Tour" by Anthony Bourdain
I've just managed to finish another book. Now, if you're a reader from Jeepers Creepers, you know I lamented how much I couldn't read while LittleJ was, well, little. That hasn't improved at all. In fact, I'm really looking forward to the days when he'll be big enough to run amok on the playground while I get some good time on a bench with a book. I assume this means we'll be frequenting playgrounds that aren't crazy busy. Whoa, back to the book at hand, woman.
My latest reading habits have really run to non-fiction, with a heavy streak in the cooking section. I read cookbooks, yes, but I mean things like "Tender at the Bone". I guess I spend so much of my time cooking that I'm curious to hear how it has been in other people's lives. At any rate, Anthony Bourdain's travel essays about eating in all manner of interesting places was something I'd picked up months ago at the height of my obsession.
Recently, my interesting in all things foodie has cooled quite a bit. Anyone with children knows that you only have a certain amount of time and energy to expend on things that aren't absolutely necessary. I've found that I can do about two things for myself at a time - read a book and work on a craft project. Or blog and read my RSS feeds. If I try to do all four of those things at once, like I have been recently, all four of them get very little attention. So, finishing a book was a big accomplishment. Bigger, almost, than getting the kitchen totally clean.
Bourdain has a fixation, shall we say, on all things cretin. Describing the morning after some bad tete au veau requires the use of the metaphor "getting head". The carnal and the culinary are constant bedfellows in "Tour". Not that I'm prude. No, no, definitely not that. However, the sexual referents tended to distract from the actual experiences being recorded. Bourdain has balls, though, to eat and travel in places I would never have. Vietnam, Cambodia, the underbelly of Russia, Morrocco, etc etc. That isn't saying much - I'm a spineless wimp when it comes to travel. This book may be the only time I get to really "experience" any of those places.
I'm going to attempt to get back "on the book". I'm working on a book about Shakespeare's life, maybe I'll make real progress in that. Expect my blog to suffer if I really get engrossed.
My latest reading habits have really run to non-fiction, with a heavy streak in the cooking section. I read cookbooks, yes, but I mean things like "Tender at the Bone". I guess I spend so much of my time cooking that I'm curious to hear how it has been in other people's lives. At any rate, Anthony Bourdain's travel essays about eating in all manner of interesting places was something I'd picked up months ago at the height of my obsession.
Recently, my interesting in all things foodie has cooled quite a bit. Anyone with children knows that you only have a certain amount of time and energy to expend on things that aren't absolutely necessary. I've found that I can do about two things for myself at a time - read a book and work on a craft project. Or blog and read my RSS feeds. If I try to do all four of those things at once, like I have been recently, all four of them get very little attention. So, finishing a book was a big accomplishment. Bigger, almost, than getting the kitchen totally clean.
Bourdain has a fixation, shall we say, on all things cretin. Describing the morning after some bad tete au veau requires the use of the metaphor "getting head". The carnal and the culinary are constant bedfellows in "Tour". Not that I'm prude. No, no, definitely not that. However, the sexual referents tended to distract from the actual experiences being recorded. Bourdain has balls, though, to eat and travel in places I would never have. Vietnam, Cambodia, the underbelly of Russia, Morrocco, etc etc. That isn't saying much - I'm a spineless wimp when it comes to travel. This book may be the only time I get to really "experience" any of those places.
I'm going to attempt to get back "on the book". I'm working on a book about Shakespeare's life, maybe I'll make real progress in that. Expect my blog to suffer if I really get engrossed.
