Review: Sweet Shop of Dreams

I enjoyed this quick read where a London gal moves to the countryside to help her ailing aunt out with a sweet shop. The plot is very straight forward as most major plot points are guessed light years before they occur but the writing is fast paced and interesting so I enjoyed the book. 

There are flashbacks from the Aunt's POV which are fine but written in a very difficult to read scripty font which is very tiresome. Additionally, there are sweet based chapter openings that are written in yet another font and seem very out of place but half way through the book I realized that they are supposed to be excerpts from the Aunt's sweet shop book. 

There are some problems with this book but overall I enjoyed it! 

Check out my Goodreads page for more food themed fiction! 

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Review: The Culinary Cyclist

I was beyond excited when I saw the kickstarter for this book because come on! Bikes and Food! What could possibly be better!? I quickly 'kickstarted' this campaign and waited eagerly for it to arrive in my mailbox. 

I am disappointed. Like really, really, really disapointed in this book. 

I was under the impression that this book would be about food and biking - and with a name like Culinary Cyclist how could I not? In reality, this is a lifestyle book that preaches and praises the 'Portland Lifestyle' while excluding other possible interpretations of the the 'good life'. This book is a series of badly written proclamations that we should "...make time for that precious moment where everything else subsides and our senses are completely attuned to what we are drinking." (16) and that "Food is a process; a holistic experience." (14)

While there is nothing techniqually wrong about these statements (in fact I agree with most of them) they do not belong in a book about food and biking. Some information about food and biking belong in a book about food and biking. Bikes are mentioned arbitrarily throughout the book (meaning that instead of writing 'when you are at the grocery store' it is written 'after you have biked to the grocery store').    

There are only two instances where bikes and food are combined in any (potentially) meaningful way. On page 37, the author discusses packing glassware for a picnic but instead of offering real information on the best way to do so for bicycle travel she states "If you're up for it though, there's nothing quite like drinking out of real glass, so learn how to pack your flutes well." 

The second combination of culinary arts and cyclists is well done (and what I expected the entirety of this book to contain) as the author states "What makes this cake ideal for the culinary cyclist is not just that it's easy, but that because it's so dense, it's easy to transport. Once it's baked, the cake and the cake pan can be slid into a plastic bag for protection and placed in a backpack." (82) I'm still left wanting more information - what if I don't bike with a backpack? What if I want a dessert that can be packed into panniers?  

Instead of being a book about bikes and food this is a book about stocking the pantry, creating a relationship with food, and living life at a slower pace. However, there are many better books out there on that subject (Hello Michael Pollen! Hello Wendall Berry!) 

To add insult to injury, there is not a single recipe in this book that interests me in the slightest! 

If I have not dissuaded you from purchasing this book here's the link!     

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Foodie Book Club: Fat Land

This book started out very promising but overall I wouldn't recommend it. The first part of this book is a history of weight gain in American. Weight explained from within the context of the history of science and nutritional advances. This part was well done and thoroughly explained.

Then there is a detailed explanation of the range of health problems associated with obesity. This part was trite and did not offer much in the way of new information.

The author's bias is explicit through the use of specific word choices that show a bias against obese individuals. This bias is odd when the author spends a large word count trying to explain the root causes of obesity.



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Foodie Book Club: Kitchen Literacy

  Kitchen Literacy: How we Lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back by Ann Vileisis is this week's book. I enjoyed the very detailed American food history that the author presents. It was very interested to see that modern food problems are not recent, but instead emerged with the rise in modernity and the industrial system. The picture presented here does not allow for an picturesque and ideal utopia of farming to which we can return. Rather, the author presents an American food history rife with problems and food anxiety.
  Given the subtitle of this book, one would think that a substantial portion of the book may be dedicated to how we can return to a state of kitchen literacy. However, the author does not present a clear picture on how we can return to this type of food interaction. She specifies only that we need to understand how food is linked to people and places, be able to read food labels, and understand how culture and politics affect people and the land. While the history of the food system was very detailed the solution of kitchen literacy is not sketched with much detail.
  Overall, this book is a decent read.

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Foodie Book Club: Slow Food Nation

   I enjoyed this book - but because it's translated from the original Italian some of the word choices and sentence structure is odd. This makes it difficult to read at times. The author does not adhere to the academic standards of notation. This is irritating to an academic. He appears to only reference Brillat-Savarin and Wendell Berry. There is nothing inherently wrong about this but once again, as an academic, I would have liked to a see a broader range of reference.

  Overall, the set up and material covered in this book is good. It was a good read. I especially liked the fact that Petrini uses the word gastronome instead of foodie. However, a clear definition wasn't given for the differences between these two groups of people. The structure of the book was clear and concise. He moved from outlining the problem, to his proposed solution, and application and creation of his solution.

  Generally, Petrini's ideas are good but he presents them in idyllic and grandiose ways. Petrini clearly thinks of himself as being on the same level as Brillat-Savarin and Berry, and while his ideas are (were) cutting edge and vital to the future of food it is presumptuous to place yourself in those ranks. Overall, I would recommend this book because of the content covered within.

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