A Hot Topic
Written: Feb 05 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Delightful fun read - with good recipes, too.
Cons: Occasional spelling errors make it difficult to look up some ingredients.
The Bottom Line: If you enjoy hot spicy food and/or a fun read, I expect you will enjoy this book.
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| hularider's Full Review: Geraldine Duncann - Some Like It Hotter: The Offic... |
Are you one of those people who adds Tobasco to your food BEFORE tasting it? Yes? Then, you will adore this cookbook. Copyright 1985, it was published by 101 Productions, and remains a classic in its genre.
Not only are the recipes good, but the writing is funnier than all get-out. And the illustrations, both photos and sketches, are wonderful.
But I have an additional reason for loving this book. You see, each platter, cutting board, jar, and fork in those photos has a history. They were not culled from a backlot stage set. They were taken from my mother's kitchen shelves and drawers. These are the bowls my mother served these same meals in when I was a little girl. Some of them were used to serve these meals when my mother was a little girl. This is not just a collection of recipes. It is largely a history of my own family and family friends.
The sketches are much like the sketches with which my mother decorated the letters she wrote me when I left her home. Each one brings back a special memory.
Sometimes, it is in the personal that we find the universal. Judging by the reactions of my friends who have perused this book, I think that my mother has achieved that here.
The forward was written by family friend Frank Herbert, who refined his knowledge of chili peppers while researching the spice trade as essential background for building the milieu of Dune. In true style, he dabbled in a bit of friendly one-upsmanship of chili-counting - rather like what bird-watchers do with their life-lists. Turn to page 136 for his fried rice recipe.
One of the lovely things about this book is that, like a good meal, it takes its time. It collects the basic spices and lays them out before you. Each source of culinary heat is identified and discussed, lovingly examined and figuratively sniffed before it is set on the literary cutting board for later use. Then she brings in other assorted ingredients and does the same. The result is that you now know not only what the ingredients are, and with which recipes they go, but you have an intimacy with and understanding of them, so that you can begin to experiment and create with them for yourself.
You will not find recipes for common dishes such a quesadillas, tacos, and such which appear in abundant variety in other cookbooks and throughout the Web (though you may wish to check out Mom's Retro Fiesta - a Gringo's Guide to Mexican Party Planning).
Instead, you will find bagna cauda, kifto-stuffed chilies with berbere, chancho adobado, and poached shark steaks.
Along with the culinary skills, history, and recipes themselves, Mom shares concerns which are even more poignant today than when she wrote of them over two decades ago. In her introduction to the chapter on fish she so eloquently writes, "When I bite into an oyster I taste all the sea has to offer. I see pirates and pearls, schooners and sea monsters; great crashing waves engulfing a jetty and silent, long, lone stretches of sand where the sea oozes landwards, and then - with a sigh and gentle hiss - rolls back to its bed. The sea was the beginning, and if we don't take steps to save it, it may be the end."
". . . When this, the mother of all life on this planet is dead, what will be left?
"Think of this when you spray your flies, think of this when you bait your snails, think of this when you wash your clothes, think of this when you vote, and think of life, if indeed there would be life, without the seas, without winter walks on windswept sands, without quiet times together on sunny beaches, without clamming, without musseling, without sails on the bay. . . ."
In this book, you will find not only wisdom regarding food, but regarding life itself.
In addition to the chapter on fish, there are chapters on soups, salads, beef, pork, and lamb; sausage and variety meats, chicken and turkey, eggs and cheese. And glorious fresh vegetables. And noodles, beans, rice, and bread. And sauces, pickles, and chutneys. And, thankfully, a chapter called "Fire Extinguishers" which includes such cooling treats as iced yogurt and cucumber, salsa cruda, and gewurztraminer sherbet. And, as every good hot chili-laden meal I have ever consumed was accompanied by and ended with a good beer, that is the chapter with which this book ends.
When you have finished the meal, reminisce on it, and plan the next by perusing the thorough index.
There are a few spelling errors. on page 44, kaakuie should be kukui, but Hawaiian ethnobotany is MY field, mot Mom's!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hularider
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Member: Leilehua Yuen
Location: Hilo, Hawaii, USA
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
HulaRider is an author, artist, and educator who specializes in Hawaiian culture and arts.
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