Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

T R E 4 5 O N

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

I really should read my own blog.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Food!

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Food!

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In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in.  We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Food!

In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk about the reason for the season: Food!

We all know the famous food movies (Big Night, Babette’s Feast, Tampopo, Ratatouille). There are also a lot of documentaries and documentary series about food (Salt Fat Acid Heat, Taco Chronicles, Ugly Delicious, Bourdain).

What are some other food-centered books, TV shows, lesser-known films?

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Oh, I am so very tempted to suggest Soylent Green. But no, I cannot bring myself to do that.

    :-)

  3. 3.

    Yutsano

    Quails in rose petal sauce. Like Water for Chocolate.

    The book is as much about the food as it is Tita’s slow awakening as a woman.

  4. 4.

    Miss Bianca

    One of my favorite Marge Piercy novels, Fly Away Home, is about a cookbook writer. Along with the story of how she copes with a divorce from her lawyer husband, who is gradually revealed to be not just a sleazebag but an actual criminal, is a detailing of her love affair with food and cooking. I reread it every couple years or so at least.

    ETA: Oh, and for movies? Jiro Dreams of Sushi is pretty amazing.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    Eat Drink Man Woman 1994 – Ang Lee, also I’m  drawing a blank on the name of it – with Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub running an Italian restaurant and waiting for a famous guy to show up to eat.

  12. 12.

    Lymie

    Jules and Julia was fun. Anything about Julia Child – I think there’s a new documentary out…..

  14. 14.

    Rachel Bakes

    Chocolat (the film)

    Most of Peter Mayle‘s books include eating amazing Provençal food a key plot point, and leave me hungry even though I wouldn’t eat much of it. (A Year in Provence, and Hotel Pastis are my favorites)

  15. 15.

    Scamp Dog

    Eat Drink Man Woman. I spent a year in Taiwan studying Mandarin, and I’ve eaten at the Wendy’s shown in the film.

    ….and I see that Mary G mentioned it before I did.

  18. 18.

    currawong

    The Hundred Foot Journey from 2014 wasn’t bad – about an Indian Family setting up a restaurant in a French Village opposite Helen Mirren’s Michelin-starred restaurant. Juliette Binoche in Chocolat, of course. The Trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon started as a series of visits to restaurants in the North of England and spawned trips to Italy (spectacular scenery), Spain and Greece. Famous for impersonations of Sean Connery and Mick Jagger. Chef I also enjoyed. I love food trucks.

    Do you get Cheese Slices on TV in the US? It’s a 30 minute program about cheese and the writer, Wil Studd travels round the world meeting cheese makers. He’s famous for fighting the Australian Government (successfully) to overturn its ban on cheese made with unpasteurised milk to allow the import of Roquefort. Mmmm. Perhaps you should do a Medium Cool on cheese.

  19. 19.

    currawong

    @Rachel Bakes: I had an audio tape of on of Peter Mayle’s books – I think it was ‘Another Year in Provence’ which he narrated himself. It had a memorable story of Dinner with Pavarotti.

  20. 20.

    Yarrow

    Can’t fully recommend the film “Paris Can Wait” but it’s really all about the food. Stars Diane Lane and Arnaud Viard. Alec Baldwin also gets top billing but isn’t in it that much. It’s designed as a rom com for middle-aged adults, but really it’s a romance with the food. There’s a cheese basket that is just mouthwatering. Watching it is like you too get to drive through France eating and drinking amazing food and wine.

  26. 26.

    Yarrow

    Also can highly recommend “East Side Sushi,” an indie film about  a Latina woman who wants to become a sushi chef.

  28. 28.

    oatler

    i like Binging with Babish, my favorite being his Parks & rec burger contest. Spoiler, Ron Swanson’s plain burger wins.

  30. 30.

    PJ

    The best, and certainly the funniest, book about food and Paris is A.J. Liebling’s Between Meals.

    Brillat-Savarin’s The Physiology of Taste is also very amusing and full of wisdom on all kinds of subjects besides food.

    I also recommend Henri Charpentier’s Life a la Henri for his perspective on the old school restaurant trade. Charpentier worked under Escoffier before coming to the US in the early 20th century and bringing fine French dining to the restaurants he opened, first in New York, and, after WWII, in California. From him, I learned that improvisation and flattery of customers are essential to keeping a restaurant alive.

  31. 31.

    Glidwrith

    Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Restaurant family baker with desserts that make you gain weight just reading the descriptions. And there’s vampires.

  32. 32.

    randy khan

    @Kristine:

    My Dinner with Andre

     

    Well, maybe not really a food movie.

    But Wallace Shawn was in that movie, and then in a movie with Andre the Giant (and specifically in a scene where drinking was very important), which is kind of a fun double.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    Way too many films to list all at once, so a smattering:

    Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
    Eating Raoul
    The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
    Delicatessen
    Le Chef (Comme un chef)
    Chocolat
    Le Grande Bouffe
    Maacher Jhol
    The Baker’s Wife
    Super Size Me
    My Dinner with Andre
    Jiro Dreams of Sushi
    The Hundred-Foot Journey
    Dough
    The Freshman
    Pie Lady of Pie Town
    The Last Supper
    The House of Yes
    .

  34. 34.

    Origuy

    If we’re allowed scenes, how about the Mr Creosote scene from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life?

  37. 37.

    randy khan

    I’ve read more food books than I’ve seen food movies.  Besides the obvious choice of Kitchen Confidential, I really enjoyed Gabrielle Hamilton’s memoir, Blood, Bones, & Butter, and Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, which intersperses recipes with the narrative.  Julie Powell’s book Julie and Julia, which was part of the basis for the movie, was fairly interesting, but the movie was better because it had Streep as Julia Child.

    Also, still not a movie, but I have to say that if you can find the original Anthony Bourdain series – A Cook’s Tour – it’s remarkably fun to watch.  Two scenes always stick out, first, when he ate at The French Laundry and the kitchen made something very special for him (I don’t want to spoil the joke) and, second, when he was in Japan and ate fugu.  But really the whole series was great.

  41. 41.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Tequila Sunrise (Pasta Quattro Formaggi) with the reprehensible Mel Gibson and the sublime Raul Julia.

  43. 43.

    sab

    I am reading a historical fiction novel set in the mid 1400s and I cannot imagine Scottish or German cooking without potatoes, or Italian cooking without tomatoes.  What were they eating? They complain about everyone else’s cooking, but what were they eating? Lots of fish and venison, apparently. And various birds.

  45. 45.

    MarkPainter

    I love Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, a 1978 romantic comedy/mystery in which a serial killer is stalking the finest chefs in Europe and killing each one in the style of his/her signature dish. Jacqueline Bisset plays an American dessert chef who has reason to believe she’s going to be the killer’s, well, dessert, unless she can catch him first, with the aid of her ex-husband, a fast food mogul played by George Segal. Robert Morley steals the picture as the publisher of a gourmet magazine who inadvertently started the killing spree by publishing a piece on “The World’s Most Fabulous Meal.”The movie travels from London to Venice to Paris and is filled with comically arrogant chefs, images of wonderful dishes, and more food jokes than you can shake a stick at.​​​​

  46. 46.

    stinger

    Most of my fave food movies have already been mentioned. The first few minutes of Much Ado about Nothing show the non-military characters sitting on a Tuscan hillside snacking on cheese and fruits and nuts and bread and wine while Beatrice reads Hey-Nonny-Nonny. I want to BE THERE.

    PBS has what may be just a few episodes of Julia Child’s The French Chef, and today’s hot chefs sit around watching the show and commenting on Julia’s style and knowledge. Can’t remember what it’s called.

  47. 47.

    FlyingToaster

    I can’t believe I’m the first one to mention Eat The Rich (1987)… I know nothing about the new one.

  49. 49.

    BGinCHI

    @sab: ​
      I think a lot about the Italian regional dish called, roughly translated, “small birds.” You just chomp right through the bones….

  51. 51.

    Tamospam

    No one is mentioning one of the funniest tv shows ever?  Kitchen Confidential?  John Cho?  Bradley Cooper?  Nicolas Brendan? Andrea Parker?  Yes, loosely based off of A.B.’s book.

  52. 52.

    West of the Rockies

    @currawong:

    I liked that movie, but Coogan… totally subjective, but he seems like a jerk, a condescending, mean person. Maybe he’s a sweetheart in real life.  I don’t know.

  55. 55.

    stinger

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache spends a lot of time eating exquisitely prepared French-Canadian meals.

    Thank you for pointing me to Penny, BTW! I’m on her fifth, The Brutal Telling, with many more still to be read!

  56. 56.

    ThresherK

    Bob’s Burgers always has a Thanksgiving episode, and any entry centered on Bob’s cooking is worthy.

  57. 57.

    RaflW

    I loved the short British series Chef! where Gareth Blackstock (itself a <chef kiss> character name for Lenny Henry) runs the Maison Anglaise.

    Worth watching the 20 episodes if you can find em online or if they come back to your local PBS station.

     

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    Some mystery novel series in which food is a central motif.

    Avery Aames’ cheese shop mysteries
    Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen mysteries
    Gale Dietch’s Trudie Fine mysteries

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    Lunch Box

    Chocolat

    Inglish Vinglish

    BTW the thing I miss most about India (other than loved ones) is the city of my birth Mumbai and its food! Most Indian restaurants in this country leave much to be desired.

    OT and not food related, Just started watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix, 4 episodes in. Has anyone else watched it?

  62. 62.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Is it heresy to mention The Great British Baking Show? I enjoyed this season, although the final episode seemed a little flat for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Lizzie was my favorite contestant, especially in the way she embraced her “lack of finesse.”

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” was my introduction to Helen Mirren. I kind of remember the plot, and of course, the final meal.

    “Eating Raoul” was a hilarious ’80s romp.

  64. 64.

    zhena gogolia

    Christmas in Connecticut is a great food movie. Stanwyck eating sardines out of a can while she types up a recipe for delicious roast fowl, S. Z. Sakall’s restaurant where they drink martinis out of tiny glasses and everyone gets up and gets their hors d’oeuvres from a central table while the cimbalom plays, the Irish stew that Sakall turns into paprikash, the flapjacks! And Sidney Greenstreet getting up in the middle of the night for a chicken leg.

    ETA: I might not have all the details right, but it’s a food movie from beginning (Dennis Morgan starving on a lifeboat and fantasizing about a restaurant) to end (Sidney Greenstreet chuckling because he hasn’t had to keep to his diet).

  65. 65.

    BGinCHI

    I’ve mentioned this series here many times, but the Marseilles Trilogy by Jean-Claude Izzo is so great on eating and drinking in and around Marseilles. Great noir novels, but especially because of their attention to local cuisine and culture.

  70. 70.

    Craig

    Food is really central to The Godfather. Family dinners, cooking for the boys when it’s time for the mattresses, Michael’s dinner with The Capt, and The Turk.

  79. 79.

    dm

    I suppose The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie isn’t a food film as much as a film about eatus interruptus.

  80. 80.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: She’s entertained by the politeness

    Perhaps she’s missed that “This isn’t quite what I might have hoped” is UK English for “You’ve ruined this completely and should never have been allowed within a mile of a kitchen.”

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Food scarcity and food fantasy are at the heart of Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel.

    There’s a terrific ballet by Albert Rousseau ROUSSEL called Le festin de l’araignée (The Spider’s Feast).

  84. 84.

    dopealope

    Micheal Bond, author of Paddington, wrote a series of novel featuring M. Pamplemousse, who is a restaurant reviewer for a Michelin Like publication. He travels with his hound dog, Pomme Frites. Every novel is a pretty enjoyable read.

  90. 90.

    meander

    I’m a big fan of the “Trails To Oishii Tokyo” (oishii = delicious) on the NHK World channel from Japan. In each episode an English-speaking resident of Japan explores a single ingredient, like potatoes, mango, soy sauce, miso, and more. They start in the wholesale market, go to farms, eat the ingredient prepared in a farmhouse or restaurant. To be sure, the host is often goofy, but there’s a ton of interesting information supplied.

    NHK World has much more food programming: Japanology Plus often has food episodes, there are cooking shows (Dining With The Chef), a show about Bento boxes, and more.

    Watch on-line via your browser, on streaming boxes like Roku, over the air (e.g., 60-3 in S.F.), maybe on cable. Some old episodes have also been ported to YouTube.

    If there were similar shows about Mexico (“Trails to Central de Abasto”), India, Thailand, etc., I’d watch the hell out of them.

  92. 92.

    Felanius Kootea

    High on the Hog – Netflix documentary about African-American cuisine is a must-watch.

    Loved Like Water for Chocolate, Chocolat, and Chef on PBS. Le Chateau Anglais indeed.

  94. 94.

    JoyceH

    Food, but not ‘good food show’ – am I just an old crank, or do others find Guy Fieri as annoying as I do? I stopped watching Next Food Network Star when he won.

  96. 96.

    billcinsd

    Waitress — Keri Russell plays a waitress at Joe’s Pie Diner where she invents and names pies like Bad Baby Pie when her unwanted pregnancy was confirmed. It was written and directed by Adrienne Shelley shortly before she was murdered and premiered after her death

  98. 98.

    Annie

    Our Life in France, abut Julia and Paul Child’s early years in France, by Alex Prud’homme who was Paul Child’s nephew. It was part of the basis for the movie Julie and Julia.

  99. 99.

    RaflW

    @sab: I don’t recall who made it, and it was a good 15 years ago, but I got a bottle of yuzu fruit body lotion from a natural foods store that was sooo yummy smelling.

    I rarely use lotion generally, because the scents are often offputting. But not that one.

  102. 102.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia: Way OT, but are you as surprised as I am (if you are following the World Chess Championships) by the transliteration of Nepomniachtchi for Непомнящий? That “chtch” for “щ” sure seems odd to me.

  103. 103.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic: I haven’t been following it, but I saw that abominable transliteration.

    I guess a friend of mine’s brother is in attendance, that’s the first I heard of it.

    ETA: Most normal would probably be Nepomniashchy

  104. 104.

    Nutmeg again

    I really truly love Babette’s Feast. Big Night (Stanley Tucci & Tony Shalhoub) is also a fave.

  108. 108.

    dm

    I suppose we should mention some of the many many gustato-centric anime (I’ve not seen many of these, I only know them through reputation):

    • Anpanman — the main character is a bean-bun
    • Yakitate!! Japan! — “fresh baked Ja-pan” — about the protagonist’s quest to make a truly Japanese bread (or, Ja-“pan”)
    • Yumeiro patisserie — I think this one is about a baking academy, but I’m not sure.
    • Dagashi kashi — about a sweets shop in rural Japan.  One of the main characters is the daughter and heir to a major sweets manufacturer, who is herself obsessed with sweets and snacks.
    • Wakakozake — was also a live-action series, about a young office worker stopping at different small restaurants on her way home from work.  A major feature of the anime, at least, is her sigh of contentment that concludes each episode.
    • There are a couple of series about Japanese restaurants with doors that open (occasionally) on other worlds, with diverse fantasy clientele.
    • Bento — about the martial art of waiting for convenience-store dinners to get marked down to half price and obtaining the best one before your rivals do.
    • Food wars! — a shounen battle anime in which the field of battle is the kitchen of a culinary academy.
    • Koufuku Graffiti (Gourmet girl graffiti) — all about eating and preparing good food with your friends.
    • Today’s menu at Emiya’s house — a spin-off of a rambling multimedia franchise known as Fate/stay night, in which the characters chill out and prepare dinner each episode.

    Some of these shows (Koufuku graffiti, Emiya) conclude with short segments explaining how to prepare the featured dish.  (Midnight diner does this, too, doesn’t it?)

    There’s also Bartender, in which characters enter a bar, and the bartender makes the perfect drink for them, the drink they need in that moment, in that time of their life.

    There’s the manga, Drops of God, about wine appreciation, that was so well known in Asia that it could influence the prices of the wines that are mentioned in the series.

    I wonder if Moyashimon counts.  It is a love-story to fermentation, with a supporting cast of microbes.

  109. 109.

    cope

    I “gahr-on-tee” 30 minutes watching Justin Wilson cook Cajun on PBS was never wasted.  The same goes for Padma Lakshmi’s “Taste The Nation” on HULU.

  110. 110.

    Dan B

    @dm: Our nearby Japanese grocery has half price on sushi after 5 PM.  People wander the aisles with their selections for at least fifteen minutes before.  There’s definite behavior change.

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @RaflW:

    Many years ago, I bought a cucumber-based lotion in Canada (Canadian label, and made in Canada). It was hands down the most wonderful-smelling lotion I’ve ever used. Alas, the manufacturer went out of business, and I’ve never found anything even close since then. One of my great regrets in life is that I didn’t simply buy a gross or so of tubes when I had the chance.

  113. 113.

    thruppence

    Tortilla Soup focuses on a Mexican American family restaurant, while Parents  focuses on Mom and Dad encouraging their son to eat meat of, um, uncertain provenance. “What is it?” “It’s leftovers!” “Leftover from what?”

  115. 115.

    randy khan

    @NotMax:

    Avery Aames’ cheese shop mysteries
    Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen mysteries
    Gale Dietch’s Trudie Fine mysteries

     

    That reminds me to mention Nero Wolfe.  We’re watching an Italian version right now, and every episode has a food subplot.

  117. 117.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Very sweet, non-challenging cozies, but every one of Nancy Atherton’s “Aunt Dimity” mystery novels includes a recipe, usually for some delicious English treat. I think the series is now up to 24 or 25 titles, so there’s damned near an entire dessert cookbook by now.

  120. 120.

    RSA

    I was remembering the mention of Chef Anatole in some of P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels, more specifically his relatively ordinary dishes fancied-up with French names. I looked for a few examples online, and what did I find? A 123-page master’s thesis at the Technical University of Dublin: The Contribution of P. G. Wodehouse to the Field of Gastronomy through his Character, the French Chef, Anatole, by Elizabeth Wilson.

    She’s collected, translated, and cross-referenced all the dishes mentioned in the novels.  A sample:

    Nonats de la Méditerranée au Fenouil (Whitebait with Fennel)
    Selle d’Agneau aux laitues a la Grecque (Saddle of Lamb with Lettuce)
    Points d’asperges à la Mistinguette (Asparagus Tips)

    I’m half-laughing but also quite impressed.

  121. 121.

    Warren Senders

    We love all of Ruth Reichl’s books.  Particular fun is “Garlic & Sapphires,” recounting her adventures as the NYT restaurant critic…sneaking into big restaurants in disguise so she’d be treated like an ordinary diner.  What a great writer.

  123. 123.

    eddie blake

    jon favreau’s  2014 food-truck film, chef, is awesome. a thinly veiled allegory about favreau’s disillusionment with marvel studios and desire to get back to smaller, more intimate movies, chef is simply a great film.

  126. 126.

    Ken

    @prostratedragon: The enlightenment scene in that is memorable –the moment of pause, the shifting of gears.

    Which reminds me of Naked Lunch, and “that frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork”. Though I don’t recall much food being consumed in it.

  128. 128.

    Don K

    @sab:

    As soon as I first had spaghetti aglio olio (spaghetti with garlic and olive oil), I realized this was the original pasta preparation, before tomatoes were available. Also various pastas with vegetables Broccoli, zucchini, etc.) and oil.

    Now as far as movies, I’ll nominate Dinner at Eight, from 1933, with a great ensemble cast featuring Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, and a wonderful extended rant from Billie Burke (Glinda), about planning and executing a dinner party. “You’ve had a bad day? You’ve had a bad day?” is a favorite line in our house, but then we’re old movie nerds here.

  129. 129.

    Spanish Moss

    Ntozake Shange’s “Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo” is full of recipes and they are an important part of the book. They are generally included as parts of letters between three sisters, and the nature of the recipes evolve as the characters do. The recipes are meant to be read in all of their detail along with the rest of the text. They give you a sense of where the characters are geographically and emotionally. I love that book! Even made a couple of the recipes.

  131. 131.

    oatler

    “The Supersizers” with Sue Perkins and Giles Coren. They visit the cuisine of different historical periods and the food is alarmingly accurate; we see Sue trying to choke down a Victorian sheeps eyeball or Giles wrestling with ancient Roman duck tongues.

    There was also the post- WWII “A Man and His Meals” by Fletcher Pratt  and Robeson Bailey, a discursive exploration of cooking in general. There is some dodgy lore in it (the assertion that turnips have no nutritional value) but I’m intrigued by the theory that Asian stir-fry developed because there was insufficient fuel but plenty of labor to tend it, whereas in the forests of Europe there was plenty of fuel but not enough labor, hence stews that could be left a long time untended. Just a  notion.

  133. 133.

    Hagsrus

    I’m very fond of Poppy Z Brite’s New Orleans restaurant stories about Rickey and G-man: Liquor, Prime, et al.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Madeleine:

    Don’t know about the books, but in the TV series Montalbano is a major foodie. There is a good Christmas episode with a subplot about his housekeeper’s “croquettes” (arancini), for which multiple people have offered recipes on the Internet.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    I guess mention should be made of the British cozy mystery series Pie in the Sky. Police inspector injured in the line of duty wants to retire to run his restaurant, but his incompetent superior keeps calling him back to “consult.” Lots of foodie stuff in every episode. Available on Acorn; one season available on Amazon Prime. WETA-UK here in the DMV has it in perpetual rotation on weeknights.

  138. 138.

    sab

    Checking the online menu of our most successful Nepali restaurant in NE Ohio. Now they have guacamole. Assimilation proceeds.

  139. 139.

    sab

    Thanksgiving reminds me of who we are. Every family has a Thanksgiving  menu carved in the stone of tradition, but they are all so different. We do turkey with whole wheat stuffing. Others do ham with corn bread. Or turkey with cornbread stuffing. Or stuffing with oyster( ??!!). My Chinese brother in law doesn’t like turkey at all.

    Americans assimilate to be who we are, but every culture we came from survives mother to daughter in our food.

  140. 140.

    Mo MacArbie

    Saw a reference to Mr. Creosote, but there’s another scene that hinges on “The salmon mousse”.

  141. 141.

    RSA

    @sab: Oyster stuffing is a classic Maryland side dish, I think.  A few years ago at a family get-together, my brother brought over a mess of oysters for Thanksgiving, and several of us took a try at shucking them. Not easy! At the end there were enough for a couple of good dishes, though we’d eaten a good number already.

  143. 143.

    Westlake

    1. Kings of Pastry – French pastry chefs competing for the country’s highest award – there is a specific surprising and funny scene in this Hegedus-Pennebaker documentary that I brought up again (in food conversation) just this weekend. I saw it many years ago (in a theater!), but I still remember this scene and the tension of the final moments
    2. Oishinbo manga series – I have only read the volumes about sake, rice, and sushi, but these are fun yet educational!
  145. 145.

    J R in WV

    Will second the Nero Wolfe novels, which frequently include a lot of foody matter, from the restaurant he patronizes (the only one in NYC he feels is worth visiting!) to his method of scrambling eggs, which takes 20-30 minutes…

    and then there are the orchids upstairs… Rex Stout the author. I believe he lived in Sarasota while my parents were there. Some fine food in the area down there. A shame I intend to never go to FLA again! Stone crab…  yum. Well, maybe once, to eat stone crab again…

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