HKFE

This is by far the best cookbook of the year (French Laundry 2nd IMHO). Not only are the recipes within the grasp of the average home cook, but they taste great as well. I've eaten at Daniel and Cafe Boulud and and more than a few of the dishes I've enjoyed at the restaurants are in this book. I've cooked over a dozen dishes and haven't had a disappointment yet. Most, if not all ingredients are easily accessible and no exotic kitchen tools or highly advanced cooking techniques are neccessary for 90% of the recipes. If you love to cook and eat, this book is a must have.

Martha Stewart captured the charm of this book in her introduction when she says '...I cannot wait to open it again (for)... those recipes that I want to try immediately... then to all the other recipes, because I'd like to try them also'. I have felt that same urge while reading other great cookbooks, such as Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', to which this book is a worthy amendment. This urge is a sure sign that the author(s) of the book have something which have touched your sensibilities.

It is important to note that while Daniel Boulud is the headliner, there is a very important co-author, Dorie Greenspan, who has won more cookbook awards than any three celebrity chefs put together. It's hard to determine exactly how much Dorie contributed, but, as a major cookbook author in her own right, I have to believe her contribution was a lot more than transcribing Boulud's words from tape recordings and notes. My guess is that, at the very least, she was instrumental in translating the recipes from the restaurant to the home kitchen. Her contribution must be, therefore, essential to the attraction of this book.

As other reviewers have noted, the book, like the menu at Café Boulud, is divided into four independent sections covering French, World, Seasonal, and Vegetarian cuisines. In evaluating the recipes, I believe this division is incidental. All of the recipes are easily identifiable as having sprung from the French culinary tradition. The only thing distinguishing one section from the others in my reading is that the first section on traditional French recipes presented a concrete look at the elements of Nouvelle Cuisine in the Troisgros brothers recipe 'Salmon and Sorrel Troisgros'. In the past, I have read many generalities but few real examples on what this movement is really about. I thank Daniel and Dorie for that. There is, of course much, much more.

While the subtitle of the book proclaims it to contain recipes for the home cook, these are primarily only practical for the 'foodie' cookbook collector, food hobbist, weekend meals, and special entertaining meals where the added cache of preparing something from Café Boulud adds interest to the feast. Almost all recipes are LONG, with long ingredients lists. Many recipes include long marinades and braises. Most recipes include substantial subpreparations such as for stocks and sauces. Luckily, the authors always add a warning when the technique requires a plan ahead step. None of this detracts from the type of enthusiasm Martha Stewart had for the book, as I felt the same thing. These are good recipies.

It is to our advantage that the new interest in food in the US is centered around both American and French cuisines, as this means that very few ingredients used in this book will be hard to find. I have even seen Jerusalem artichokes in my local supermarket. No need to travel to a farmer's market or to the regional megamart. Spices and herbs should be no problem. The hard to find stuff is more likely to be things like sweetmeats and marrow bones.

I found no errors in this book. The closest it came was to relate Jerusalem artichokes with globe artichokes in the main section of the book. The two are not botanically related, and this is cleared up in the appendix on ingredients. In general, I find such appendices on tools, techniques, and terms to be of little value, since, being just a few pages long, they invariably omit something you may look for. This book's appendices have good content, but they fail to explain many of the French culinary terms. I also give little credit to the pantry recipe sections, but, in this book and other good books like it, you need to know how the author prepared their veal stocks and the like to really know how their stuff is supposed to turn out.

The color pictures in this book are the way I like them in separate sections, all together, so you can page through all the pictures to choose a dish. In this book, the pictures are divided into the four sections of recipes. Very wise.

This book is MUCH better than the later 'Chef Danial Boulud: Cooking In New York City', where the celebrity chefs started entombing their cuisine in coffe table books with lots of useless photographs. The absence of Ms. Greenspan's influence is also felt in the latter volume.

Even at $35, this book is a keeper.

This superb chef provides intense food that the home gourmet that has been cooking for sometime can easily handle with ingredients that are not as bizarre and hard to find as most cookbooks from star chefs.

Unique is the organization of recipes, here into four groupings of Traditional French, Seasonal Specialties, Other Cuisines and Vegetarian.

Offerings in each include main entrees, sides and desserts as well as first courses, soups, etc.

A marvelous dish from French category is Sea Bass en Croute or the Cornish Hens a la Diable. Unusual combo exemplefies Boulud's coupling of tastes, Sweet Swiss Chard Tourte. Don't tell your guests what this is until they eat. Swiss Chard done right is magnificent. A tangy sweetness to it that here is married with honey, orange and pine nuts. This is superb!

How about Cod with Blood Orange Sauce and Creamy Grits from Seasonal section? Who would have thought to put blood organes with cod? Citrus goes so well with seafood as this, but with grits? This guy is truly French-American chef.

I find his abilities and recipes to be inspirational for amateur gourmet. Techniques are not too formidiable and much is offered in the way of purchase and prep techniques. The small, details are what is worth the book. The user will see that this guy is on to each ingredient and wants to display its savor at max.

This is breakthrough cuisine, with simple, straightforward technique, but full throttle flavor and expert combining of luxurious components. You'll have fun with this one!

I was hoping this would be another great book by Rylant, but I was shocked to find the cleverly woven references to homosexuality....this is a book for young readers...not appropriate!

THE VAN GOGH CAFE is a selection of stories about a "magical" cafe in a particular town in Kansas. The cafe is run by a man named Marc and his daughter. The cafe used to be an old moviehouse/vaudeville theatre and some of the performing magic is still around. Strange and uplifting events happen at the cafe. Some would call them bizarre, some just mere coincidence, others perhaps Providence. The book pretty much lets the reader decide. Whatever the case, one will go away feeling kind of warm and fuzzy and uplifted about life. I usually don't recommend books that are totally warm and fuzzy, but this is a book that I'll make an exception.

Not only does the magic renew Clara's (the 10 year-old who helps her father run the Van Gogh Cafe) hope and add a rainbow splash of color to her life, but the magic between Marc (Clara's father) and Clara struck me as inspiring, too. Marc and Clara share the work, and share the magic: The father and daughter make an interesting, enjoyable team to read about, from the time lightning struck the Cafe, to the time they met a very special writer and all the times in between. It seems Clara expects good things (magic) to happen, and that expectation is contagious to readers as they can't wait to find out what happens next in this book (which is a quick and easy read - it was over too soon). It's easy to get involved in The Van Gogh Cafe, and easy to find hope and cheer there.

I love this book. I've been a part of two startup companies over the last five years and I think the author really 'gets' it.

She made the decision to divide the book by themes rather than by case studies (though there are mini-studies sprinkled throughout) and this serves the book well. She shares her analysis and illustrates her theses by example. I have found this to be rare in the business press which is too often a collection of case studies with minimal connective tissue.

I don't know how Esser won the trust of the entrepreneurs she interviews but she clearly has. And not by promising them rose-colored prose; she respects the technical and financial individuals she writes about without automatically accepting what they have to say at face value.

I've read this book straight through twice and recommended it to my friends - and both technies and money people have enjoyed it. I'd suggest it to anyone who wants to read an insider view of how the high-tech entrepreneur world that is thoughtful and balanced rather than worshipful or cynical.

The spirit of entrepreneurship can be very contagious. Teresa Esser's book captures not only an entrepreneur's passion but also the environment which fosters it. Venture Cafe documents the atmosphere at MIT, where technologists, angel investors, venture capitalists lawyers, and advisors converge to discuss new business ideas. But Esser doesn't stop there. She gives a unique perspective to the players as the companies succeeded and failed both during and after the dot.com craze. The book is a must-read for anyone looking to learn from other entrepreneurs, think like venture capitalists, or find hot spots similar to those at MIT.

What separates a successful entrepreneur from an unsuccessful one? The successful ones have these seemingly serendipitous things happen to them - meeting the right investors, hiring the right employees, getting supportive beta customers, getting prominent play in the press.

Teresa Esser's point is that what often seems to happen by happenstance, isn't so random at all. She believes that successful entrepreneurs have put into practice - knowingly or unknowingly - the "ideal" of what she calls "The Venture Café."

One of Esser's subjects, Joost Bonsen (who runs informal networking events in Cambridge, MA), has the book's best take on what a Venture Café is:

"It is a venue for adventurous thinking or a cauldron of creative ferment. Who knows what will pop up from it? In fact, nothing is likely to. But you never know. When it does happen, it does have powerful consequences."

Bonsen goes on to add that his role is to be "a catalyst - some type of connection machine. An engine of introduction. A tangible mechanism by which two people who ought to connect do." Esser spends the book driving to the heart of how best to capture and create the essence of what Bonsen describes.

Let other books tell you how to put together a business plan, how to sell your products, and other "blocking and tackling" elements of a start-up. Teresa Esser's fine work captures a key piece of the puzzle that you you'd be crazy to ignore.

In Laurell K. Hamilton's fourth installment of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, Anita gets a glimpse of boyfriend Richard's furry side. His werewolf side, that is. After 7 shapeshifters go missing, it is up to Anita to try and find them. While doing that, she is having to deal with a marriage proposal from Richard, a dating proposal from Jean-Claude, and a murderous proposal from the werebeast community. Busy, busy, busy.

This is not the best book I have read so far in the series. I took a long break from reading it in the middle of it, but I started back up the other day and had it finished off fairly quickly. I think maybe one of the reasons it seemed slower is because I'm not a huge fan of Richard. He's a nice guy and all, but a possible romance between Anita and vampire Jean-Claude seems much more exciting. This is definitely an Anita/Richard novel. Still, this book was fast-paced, fun and creepy all in one. This is all you could ever want in a series.

Normally, I can't stand this genre; instead of something new, the cliches are just tossed together in a hash. But Laurell K. Hamilton keeps me coming back.

Part of it is the ongoing plot threads that go from book to book. Although these novels can stand alone, there are larger threads. Anita Blake's "romance" with Jean-Claude, the master vampire, for example, or the hints that Anita is something much stronger (and dangerous) than she or anyone else knows.

Another part is Anita. She isn't just a hard rock, lacking any humanity; she's really truly affected by the blood and death she's constantly surrounded by. She doesn't casually walk up to corpses, she has to compose herself before she looks. She's not callous, she's just able to hide her horror, fear and sadness better than most people. We only know because we're in her head.

"The Lunatic Cafe" is where the series, in my opinion, REALLY starts to pick up (read the other books "Guilty Pleasures", "The Laughing Corpse", and "Circus Of The Damned" first, it WILL help.) The soap opera kicks into high gear with a rather twisted little love triangle, not to mention some unfinished business between Anita and a vamp named Gretchen. Plus we get more of an introduction to the lycanthropes (werebeasts) of the city, their social structure, and the whole host of problems that go with THAT.

The novel itself is also pretty good, with the mystery at its center rather clever. Although she doesn't really play fair (we're not given much in the way of clues to possibly solve this mystery on our own), Hamilton does have a satisfactory solution. Like the other books so far, it's got a lightning-fast pace; poor Anita NEVER gets any sleep, something always happens to her.

This is, in the end, fun junk, great for airports, beaches, and the living room. They aren't classics, although they'd make great action movies, but the Anita Blake series is worth an occassional $7 now and again.

As with the previous three books in the series, this book is a tremendously fun read, mostly because the character of Anita Blake is one of the best characters in fiction since Randall P. McMurphy in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". The background world, the other characters, the plots and such are all okay, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. It is Anita that makes this series work, and boy, does she.

This book was at least as good as the first three in the series, although I suspect that some fans will feel that it spent too much time (that is to say, any) on the soap opera that Anita's personal life is becoming, at the expense of the cover-to-cover action that we've come to expect. Others, myself included, will find the closer look at previously unexplored aspects of Anita's character fascinating, and will point out that there is no shortage of action here.

Although this is book four of the series, and I have read the previous three, I have the impression that one could read this book without having read the others without being hopelessly confused. Hard to say, though. Probably best to start with "Guilty Pleasures" and be safe.

This ambitous masterwork seems to be doing just fine (as I write this, it ranks 215 in sales on this site). It hardly needs a recommendation, for the book will surely find its audience without this review. But it is so unique, so fine, that I can't help myself. While I am a chef and cookbook writer myself, I choose to remain anonymous for personal reasons.

Judy Rodgers is well known in San Francisco, but she hasn't published much before. I don't recall any articles by her in food magazines, but I could have missed them. She is simply the best food writer that has emerged in a long, long time. She seems to have absorbed cooking knowledge the way the rest of us breathe, and in her book, she puts it all down. Open any page, I mean ANY page, and you will get a piece of information, an idea, a tip, or tidbit that will make you rethink the way you cook. Her recipes are written with the same loving detail that she puts into her restaurant cooking. She writes a recipe like she might simmer a complex and utterly delicious stock--slowly, gently, without shortcuts.

Cooks who are looking for the fast and easy should pass this book by. I do have a few criticisms, which are totally immaterial when you think of the vast amount of gold to be mined. Nonetheless, they are worth mentioning for those who calculate the amount of recipes they might use from a book. The dessert section reflects Judy's simple tastes in this area, and it could have been balanced with a few more cake-like pastries. There are plenty of recipes that mere mortals will not make, unless you dedicate the auxilary refrigerator in your garage to hold the odiferous masterpiece (salted anchovies, salted cod), but at least she is frank about the problems you face in making them. And, like a lot of California-based cookbooks, the success of many recipes depends on the excellence of your produce, which is certainly a basic cooking rule, but more so when you have a tight palette of flavors.

My hat is also off to Judy's editor, Maria Guarnaschelli, who seems to have said "Judy, tell me everything!," rather than "Judy, tighten this up." The book and any cook that reads it are better off for the collective vision of these two extraordinarily talented women.

I love this cookbook, but I understand why some other readers are having a tough time with it. This cookbook would be best for the professional chef, or the serious home cook with skills in fine cooking (not only good home cooking). You have to care about the details to make this food special.

It would also help to be a committed foodie. Some key ingredients are hard to find, and usually available only to professional chefs. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I shop in the food mecca of Berkeley, and even I would have trouble finding some of the ingredients.

There are reasons why this is restaurant food that people spend big bucks for to go out and eat.

If you have skill in fine cooking, if you love to cook for recreation and for art, and if you like this kind of California Mediterranean food, you would probably enjoy this cookbook. It is extremely well-written and thought out. So far I've tried 16 recipes from this cookbook, with excellent results. (Note: I've taken many cooking classes over the years and I've worked as a prep assistant for some great local chefs, so that's my skill level.) Judy Rodgers and her editor have made every effort to convey her signature recipes and deserve applause for that. I think this a great cookbook, a classic cookbook, but not for everyone.

This excellent book by Judy Rodgers is an addition to the growing body of works by prominent American chefs who learned their craft in France and whose doctrine on food and cooking has been reinforced by the writings of Richard Olney and transformed by the California doctrine of using fresh local foods. The foremost of these writer chefs are Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, Paul Bertolli, and Judy Rodgers herself. The Italian wing of this group is represented by Tom Colicchio and Mario Batali (In spite of Mario's antagonism to the 'F country', he is a true student of this group, having been a chef at Stars under Jeremiah Tower).

This book won two James Beard awards and Rodgers garnered a third Beard Award for best chef last year, making it a true hat trick for Rodgers and the Zuni Café. From what I have seen in this book, it earned every bit of recognition it has garnered.

The only recent American book I know which is comparable to this book in the quality of its lessons is 'Jeremiah Tower Cooks'. This book succeeds at an even higher level than Tower since the older writer has some strong opinions on some not entirely universally held opinions. Tower redeems himself by making his book just that much more engaging by so energetically endorsing these controversial opinions.

Rodgers engages in no controversy. Her lessons in cooking follow the straight and narrow of French technique mellowed by her beautifully plain doctrines about using simple equipment. Before I get too far, I must warn the reader that what people like Rodgers and Colicchio mean by simple is much different from what the fast cooking maestros such as Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee, and Ann Byrn mean. Rodgers and Colicchio are talking about simplicity within the world of haute cuisine as defined by Richard Olney in 'Simple French Food'. Basically, simple to this school means using well-understood techniques without excessive or overly architectural ornament. This style still requires many years of training to become familiar with one's materials and techniques.

There is at least one pleasantly surprising joining of opinions between the haute cuisine Rodgers and the English popular food writer Nigella Lawson. Both make the point, that to really know your materials and procedures, it is essential that you repeat the same few dishes rather than doing something different every time you turn on the range. While Lawson uses this principle to recommend a list of recipes she considers important to master by repetition; Rodgers gives a more methodological approach by advising us how to make little variations in one's practice to teach oneself the variations in your prima materia.

The instructions and explanations on stock making alone are worth the price of the book. Here, Rodgers is following Olney's lead by explaining why you do things this way rather than that way. The explanations are leavened by anecdotes on Rodgers experiences in training and in her kitchen at Zuni. Especially delightful is the tale of a pig's head being used to make a pork stock. Among the stories are some experiences in the kitchen of the Troigros brothers in France. These legendary chefs are often mentioned together with other modern greats of the French kitchen. This is the first look I have seen into the basis of their renown.

Among the very many lessons about basic cooking techniques, the most dramatic and most useful is in the application of salt to food. While Food Network junkies may not find this lesson too dramatic, it does give one a new respect for this most simple of culinary techniques.

Every chapter in the book dishes out not only Zuni Café recipes, but also a California gold mine of techniques and explanations on why these techniques work. Even the single page on vinaigrettes offers ucommon wisdom on a very common subject, such as the relevance of the dish to be dressed on the ratio of oil to acid in the vinegrette. The star of the latter portion of the book is 'A Lesson in Sausage Making', comparable to some of the more lovingly detailed chapters in Bertolli's 'Cooking by Hand'.

This book should be on every foodie's short list of must reads. Unlike excellent books on various methods and materials, this is a book you will want to read from cover to cover. The attitudes and knowledge will infuse and improve all your thinking and working with food.

If you are the book buying public, you can tune out now so I can talk to the book designers at W. W. Norton.

After the most beautifully composed photograph on the dust jacket, you seemed to drop the ball in laying out parts of the inside of the book. The photographs are too close up and are taken from an angle which does not present the food in the best light. The Table of contents is very poorly done. It is just about the worst I have ever seen in the way it is layed out. And, the tiny black and white photos used on the chapter title pages are simply a waste of money and space. One has absolutely no idea of what they are. The pictures on the 'Stocks' title page could be from a restaurant, a hospital, or a laboratory. To your copy editors, I warn that Harold McGee is probably cringing at the many uses of 'dissolve' where you really should say 'bring into suspension' or simply 'incorporate'.

To all foodies, this is a must have book.

This is the first Naylor book I ever read. I have now read them all. This book, along with Mama Day and to some extent Linden Hills put her in my trinty of greatest living writers, along with Morrison and Kingsolver. The technique of introducing us to the "customers" at Bailey's is a great way to tie together so many wonderful stories. All of her characters are beautiful, sweet sad and doomed. Between the happy little wife who becomes a wino prostitute and the little delta girl who can never wash the delta dust off, I cried and I fell in love a hundred times (and I'm a big tough souther nwhite male). I notice some of the other reviewers had a hard time "following" Naylor at times. My suggestion is just ride the story, do not try to see what's coming or what she means. It is like the most wonderful meal in the world, put it in your mouth and savor it, don't spend too much time trying to figure out what the chef was thinking, its all about taste and feel. This is one of the 10 best books written since Faulkner died, in my opinion, and Mama Day is another of those 10. Enjoy!

Bailey's Cafe is a mixture of suffering and redemption shown through a number of African-American women's lives. Nalyor does a great job explaining the characters and their backgrounds. It has wonderfully descriptive portrayals of each character and no one character is alike. The stories easily saddened me, but it is clear that hope, respect and recovery are important themes throughout the novel. There were also times when I was a bit lost as to what Naylor was trying to say . But, by the end of the chapter, I would figure out what it was that she was trying to depict. At the end of the novel, you realize that Naylor's complex writing style and all her characters will to survive just make this book that much better. I especially love the way Naylor connects her books. This is a must-read for anyone who is a fan of Gloria Naylor. I first got into her books because of my teacher, and now i have read all but "Mama day", which i look forward to reading. But Bailey's Cafe has been my favorite so far.

This book made me want to jump inside and take a seat in the cafe. I mean, I am a college student and I missed some class trying to read this book. From the first page, Ms. Naylor sucks you in with what I call poetry in motion. The words were so beautiful that it was hard to belive you were reading stories of tragedy. From Mrs. Maple the transvestite to Sadie whose mother often referred to her as "the one the clothes hanger missed", it was hard to believe that there are people in the world going through these kinds of tragedies. I dont' want to give the storyline away, but if you want a different type of read, not the kind you read in an hour and forget about then this is the book. I am still sitting here wondering abotu the characters lives and what they would be doing.

How was lynching ever respectable? Why did nightclub owners discourage Billie Holiday from singing this protest song against the murder of innocent Blacks? How did this powerful, somber song become Time Magazine's Best Song of the Century?

David Margolick traces the history of Strange Fruit from a forbidden, banned song to a celebrated cry for civil rights in a concise style. Performers, club owners, reviewers, and activists are extensively quoted - and the differing perceptions allowed to exist next to each other without comment.

This facinating book should be carried in all public school libraries, read in courses on American music. It's a fine addition to the scholarship on the civil rights movement too.

I do have, however, one serious criticism. Somehow, even if in just a single sentence, Margolick should have noted the irony of sensitive, gentle progressive defending Stalin's regime. Several key people, great souls, involved in the early civil rights movement - including the songwriter of Strange Fruit - were members of the Communist Party during the Stalin's dictatorship. They were outraged at the lack of freedom for blacks in America, and their criticisms of Jim Crowe laws were totally accurate. I wish, however, that Margolick had at least mentioned - once - their blindness toward the brutal rule of Stalin in the USSR.
The vast, vast majority of these progressive activists recognized their mistake, and their committment to the Bill of Rights and individual freedom only increased.

Despite this minor criticism, this is a fantastic book that documents the great change in American cultural norms over the last 50 years.It's hard to imagine a time when Billie Holiday and Strange Fruit would be banned and lynching accepted as a Southern tradition.

Thank God for progress!

It may seem odd to devote an entire book to a single song, but if ever a song demanded such an exploration, itÕs Billie HolidayÕs recording of Strange Fruit. Almost everyone thinks itÕs brilliant, yet few people listen to it often. Holiday makes this depiction of a lynching so real that the song is physically painful to listen to. To this day, itÕs rarely played on jazz-formatted radio stations. ItÕs too disturbing. IÕve always wondered how Billie Holiday managed to get it recorded in 1939. Did radio stations play it? And where did she sing it? I simply could not imagine Lady Day, with a gardenia in her hair, singing such a horrifying song to people in a nightclub while they sipped martinis. And if she did, how did her audience react? The fascinating thing about this book is that it not only answered my questions, it also raised many issues I hadnÕt thought about. David Margolick has collected comments and anecdotes about Strange Fruit and HolidayÕs performance from a wide variety of sources Ð musicians who worked with her, people who saw her perform the song at different time in her life, and contemporary singers who have recorded the song or performed it. What they say raises a lot of interesting questions about the relationship between art and politics, as well as the relationship between an artist and her art. The most fascinating Ð and shocking Ð thing to me was the number of people who worked with Billie Holiday who insist that her performance was a fluke, that she did not understand what she was singing. She was an uneducated, not terribly intelligent woman, her "friends" say, and didnÕt even know the meaning of the songÕs words. To anyone who has ever heard the song, that suggestion seems insane. The words are powerful, but it is what Billie Holiday does with them that makes this the most disturbing recording ever made. It is clearly a song with a deep, personal meaning for her. In the end, after reading the book, and hearing about how she performed the song throughout her life (sometimes sharing it with an audience she thought would be sympathetic, but just as often using it as a slap in the face to an audience she felt did not respect her), you canÕt help but see that what makes HolidayÕs recording so personal, so deep, is that for her it wasnÕt only a song about lynching, it was a protest against all kinds of racism, including the racism of dismissing a brilliant artist as one more empty-headed "girl singer." Margolick makes a strong case that it was the first cry of the civil rights movement that began more than a decade later.

This thought-provoking and well-researched book moves beyond the racism and anti-Semitism that have fueled myths, misconceptions, and inaccuracies about its subject for years. Unfortunately, we see many of those those inaccuracies lingering still in a number of popular forums. Do not be duped; read for yourself and learn the truth:

1) Lewis Allan is a PSEUDONYM for Abel Meeropol, a well-known and well-regarded high school English teacher and composer. He also wrote "The House I Live In" (music by Earl Robinson) which Frank Sinatra later made famous. Allan and Meeropol are THE SAME PERSON.

2) Meeropol and his wife LEGALLY adopted the Rosenberg children after their parents were executed and remained their legal guardians ever since. Both Rosenberg sons, Robert and Michael (who use the last name Meeropol) love and revere the Meeropols and consider them their parents.

3) The money to support the Rosenberg children was not raised by the Meeropols, but by a foundation, whose trustees included Shirley Graham Dubois, wife of civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois. The foundation existed PRIOR to the Meeropols' adoption of the children.

I bought this book because of the good reviews. I'm vietnamese and since moving away from home, I wanted to replicate the home cooking. Instead, what you're find is that it's not real Vietnamese or Thai but maybe a cross between the two? Requires too much ingredients (like a restaurant) so unless you want to spend up a storm of money to get a mediocre meal, don't bother. I think it's tailored more to American audience then authentic viet/thai. After about 4 recipes, I've basically gave up. The other cookbook I felt was more home/authentic in the vietnamese food dept is written by corinne trang. Hope that helps.

As can be gathered from the reviews below, there is some disagreement as to whether the recipes in Mai Pham's cookbook represent "authentic" Thai and/or Vietnamese cooking. I'm neither Thai nor Vietnamese, but my guess would be that the recipes, which come largely from Pham's American restaurant, have been adapted somewhat to appeal to non-native palates (the spice level in the Thai recipes seems low, for example). Those looking for "authentic" Thai or Vietnamese recipes may want to look elsewhere.

That having been said, I sometimes find the authenticity fetish a bit much. If you read Pham's chapter introductions, you discover that she is a woman who has moved around a great deal, and her cooking has been influenced by multiple native traditions. Cooking in America is a real melting pot venture, and while this has led to some deserved ribbing from those whose countries have more developed palates, it has also led to a dynamic, creative treatment of food. I think Pham's work falls on the positive side of this dichotomy. To put it plainly, her recipes taste good, are well written and tested, and combine different cuisines with good results. Her recipes are not fusion, and are not ground-breaking in the way of those of say, Ming Tsai, but they are simple and tasty.

The recipes are neither authentic Vietnamese's nor Thai's but they are good recipes that are cookable and nutritious. I admire Mai Pham for her intelligent in creating new versions of cooking great Vietnamese food. Although the recipes are not calling for ingredients found in old style recipes but the outcome/result of the dishes are comparable to the old style and most of all they are healthier and more fit for our new lifestyle, for example -- she uses mayonaise instead of pork fat to make Shrimp paste, that is very brilliant! My grandmother, who was a well known cook in my hometown would not come up with this.
Without the alternative ingredients (mayo in place of pork fat), my friends and I who only consume seafood and vegetable now will never have a chance to taste this dish again. I am thankfull for having the alternative in creating healthier authentic Vietnamese and Thai dishes.

The authentic recipes are always valuable and the alternative, nouvelle recipes are great!

In a novel which is as powerfully sensuous as Suskind's Perfume and as imaginatively tasty as Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, Averill finds his own voice, creating a unique and thoughtful coming-of-age story which, while rich in imagery, is remarkably simple and direct in its message. Food is life here, and the preparation of food and the ingredients one uses reflect the attitudes and spirit with which one approaches life and relationships.

Weston Hingler is the son of two cooks with totally different viewpoints. His father, Robert Hingler, owns the Tsil Café, where he uses robust, New World ingredients and spicy chiles and seasonings to bring the heat of southwestern cuisine to Kansas City. His mother, Maria Tito Hingler, part Italian, is a caterer who uses cultivated, Old World ingredients in a more subtle and traditional way. Stubbornly independent and wildly passionate, Robert and Maria communicate best when talking about food, marching to different drummers in the conduct of their personal lives, thereby creating innumerable challenges for their growing son. As Weston grows up, exposed to both cuisines and working, at various times, for both his parents, he must decide who he is, where he fits, who his parents really are, where each of them really comes from, and, ultimately, who he will become.

Filled with recipes which go way beyond anything most of us have ever imagined (and which, according to the acknowledgments, have actually been tested!), the book is hugely fun to read, even for someone who might not have a great deal of interest in cooking. I'll take a pass on the Dog Tamal, Roasted Maguey Worms, and Guinea Pig Stuffed with Marigolds, but I do understand why they were so important to Robert, and the Crab Cakes with Pineapple-Mango Salsa and the Jicama Salad sound absolutely delicious. This is a delightful novel, intriguing on all its many levels, and full of new insights into how and why we are what we eat.

Midway through Secrets of the Tsil Cafe, the protaganist, Wes Hingler, wakes to find his beloved dog, When Available, has died in his sleep. The dog is quietly buried, in a simple family ritual, in the garden where most of the spices and vegetables for the Tsil cafe are grown.

"We didn't eat him, Wes," says Wes' father, the cook and proprietor of the the titled restaurant, pointing to a joke about the dog's name. "But as he becomes earth, and as we live off this small patch of earth we've made ours, he will nourish us in his death as he did in his life."

And here, briefly, is the crux of the novel, which uses food as a metaphor for life -- the blending and mixing of spices and ingredients that make it interesting or bland. And as in life, there are comings and goings, births and deaths, tragedies and triums to remind us of our own place in the world.

Thomas Fox Averill creates characters you connect with. His story has been almost universally described by reviewers as a "coming of age" tale, which I guess is technically true.

Yet more importantly, it is a book about life, as told through young Wes' eyes, and it points at all the traditions, secrets and passions that run through a family. Scattered throughout are recipes -- which I have not yet challenged -- along with brief descriptions of the ingredients. And we're given engaging histories of the New World meats, vegetables, spices and fruits that appear throughout Averill's engaging little book.

This is a book that quietly draws you into its pages, keeps you there for a few hours, and when you leave, you are as satisfied and as filled as any of the customers of the Tsil Cafe, and just as eager for another entree.

Here's another good one I lapped for the month of
June...This one is a feast for the Stomach and the
Soul.

The product of a cross-cultural family obsessed with
food, Weston Tito begins his story by saying he was a
seed in his parents' kitchens‹plural in both cases.
Weston's mother is Italian and works the successful
catering business BuenAppeTito upstairs; downstairs,
his father, who is fixated on cooking only indigenous
foods "Santa Fe style" (they live in Kansas City),
runs the Tsil Cafe, a restaurant as it is
tear-inducingly spicy. Wes' crib and later his cot are
literally in his mother's kitchen (in the cabinets,
for a while), and she teaches him her "vocabulary,"
the names of foods, by letting him taste them. His
father refuses him entry into his own obsessive
domain, almost a holy order, until he can claim to
enjoy such un-childlike flavors as habanero and
anchovy. After that, like a knight's apprentice, he is
allowed to help slice and chop ingredients -- carry
his own sword, in effect.

One of the points of contention between Wes'
hot-blooded parents is the local restaurant critic, an
old admirer of his mother's. Nevertheless, the critic,
who acts first as a teeter-totter between the two
adults, ultimately becomes a sort of bridge, giving
Wes his first opportunity to critique -- to see the
food of both parents objectively -- and start to
develop his own concept of food.

Over the years, Wes absorbs a rich stew of influences
and emotions from his mixed-ethnic family, along with
the various Mexican employees of the cafe who serve as
surrogate relatives and even a Native American
graduate student who takes him foraging for cactus and
cattails and invites him to a corn dance. Ultimately,
he will even marry the critic's female successor.

So pervasive is food in this coming-of-age novel that
the recipes become a reflection of life's shifting
flavors in Averill's kitchen novel. The almost

magic-realism intensity of the flavor descriptions and
the author's habit of dropping in dictionary
definitions of various terms such as "turkey,"
"mescal" and "maple" re-emphasizes the native quality
of the ingredients. The narrator's entire life is
lived in the study, anecdotal and later academic, of
foods; ultimately he will become a chef as well,
melding his parents' Old World and New World cuisines
into a One-World cuisine.

A great fascinating read!!

Set in Butte, Montana during the depression, this story is still VERY different from Dallas' Persian Pickle Club of the same era. Whippy Bird and Effa Commander and their friend May Anna meet as childhood friends, and quickly become the Unholy Three. The story revolves around the successful careers of May Anna and Buster, and all of their life journeys of the Unholy ones as they continue down many forks in the road. Whippy and Effa are two unforgettable, completely distinctive characters that the reader just can't help but loving and feeling almost like they are eccentric family members. Perseverence of the spirit and the triumph of friendship (as well as the betrayal) shine through in this very unconventional tale.

Sandra Dallas does a wonderful job of engaging the reader in this work, keeps the pace lively yet does not invite you to jump ahead. Set in Butte, MT, the story is about three girls (The Unholy Three) growing up in the hell-roaring days of mining in Montana. The relationships forged become life long friendships, strained and estranged by hard life, war, and death. One of the three becomes a teen prostitute and goes on to movie stardom. The touching account of the lives and relationships between these girls will make you laugh and make you cry. Anyone from Montana or familiar with Butte should enjoy this book. An excellent use of the language from Butte and accurate depictions of the characters. Native to Montana and married to a daughter of the Anaconda company, I gotta say both my wife and I loved this book!

This is not one of those southern novels that are written to be sold one after the other.(Adrianna and Fannie etc. etc.) Those looking for that kind of drivel may be dissapointed as this is a real book about real people...Think was first fiction written by author published in 1990. Stories like this may not need to be set up- just written the way they happened so can be believed except for the last page when the 70 year old author decked another author who dared to write as if he knew what had really happend.Gotta admit even I found that a stretch of the imagination