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10-09-09: Kentaro Kobayashi Builds a 'Veggie Haven' : Recipes Even a Carnivore Can Enjoy
I am NOT a vegetarian. I like meat enough to have no moral qualms cooking up the flesh of any commonly eaten critter in the US. But just because I'm a carnivore, that doesn't mean I don’t like a well-prepared and tasty vegetarian dish. I'm a huge Mollie Katzen fan, and I use her recipes regularly. I'm also a Kentaro Kobayashi fan, as readers should well know by now. So I guess that nobody is more surprised than I that his latest book, Veggie Haven (Vertical Inc ; October 20, 2009 ; $14.95), proves to be chock full of good stuff that's easy to make.
As far as vegetarian fare goes, Chef Kobayashi is pretty flexible. There are already eggs and anchovies in some of the recipes, and so far as I'm concerned, you can always add a bit of chicken, fish, steak or pork to at least some of these recipes. But when you have something as delicious as the Tofu Steak, why bother?
As with every other Kobayashi title, the emphasis is on simple, quickly made recipes that generally use ingredients you can easily pick up at the supermarket — or better still, the farmer's market. For example, Warm potato and broccoli salad; boil a couple of (Yukon gold) potatoes until they can be easily skewered, cube them, then blanch your broccoli. Then in a sauté pan, brown a little garlic in olive oil, add white wine, add 1 1/2 tbsp butter and 2 pinches sugar, salt and pepper. Pour over the veggies, and you have a delicious, hearty but light salad. Kobayashi's idea of what a salad is is quite hearty and, to my mind not bad for a main dish or side dish. And they're all easy. String bean and tomato salad, endive and blue cheese salad or rapini and scallop salad — simple, fast, hearty and delicious. And nothing too exotic.
Given the heft of the salads here, the main dishes are indeed rib-sticking. The Tofu steak soaks up garlic and soy sauce, and bit of crisp by virtue of a bit of flour before frying. There are a couple of nice pizzas with a great, makeable dough recipe. And though there's naturally a bit more work involved, home made steamed vegetable dumplings are company-worthy appetizers or a nice side dish.
I do have one caveat; some of the recipes are printed against a burlap background that makes them a bit hard to read. Fortunately, with Kobayashi, there's just not a lot of reading involved — it's mostly cooking. To quote Damon Knight, famously via rod Serling — "It's a cookbook!"
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10-08-09: Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam : Paperback Packaging
Oh, the distress as the world goes to hell. Goes? Its already there. Margaret Atwood did a dandy job of making the point that we're already moving from one fresh hell to another in 'Oryx and Crake.' Now the book itself seems to have firmly placed there, having spent five and a half years in purgatory.
Sometimes it seems as the left hand of the publishing world is not even aware that it has a right hand, let alone what said right hand may be doing. Or maybe both hands are just playing dumb, or maybe it’s all a clever ruse to get us to buy every re-packaging of Margaret Atwood's 'Oryx and Crake' (Anchor / Random House ; September 30, 2009 ; $14.95). It's pretty much like something that would happen in the novel itself. And, as in the novel, one must take a step or two back to sort out the chronology.
Back in 2004, Atwood rolls out 'Oryx and Crake,' a dystopian polemic in which the present is re-cast as a future that looks really, really bad. Looks like another one-off novel of speculative fiction (don't call it "sci-fi!") from the author of 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Now, in the book's future, we get 'The Year of the Flood' (Nan A. Talese / Random House ; October 6, 2009 ; $26.95). Its clearly another book set in the same milieu, though you'd never know until you read it and noticed, hey, I recognize those made-up product names. And God's Gardeners! And -! Holy Sequel, Batman, this book's a follow-up! But the hardcovers do nothing to give you much information, one way or the other.
Oh ye of little faith, or at least, ye not of the trade paperback packing department, who are cooking up something entirely different, and apparently have a hotline to the Margaret Atwood PrognostiCorps. That nicely-done trade paperback tells us something we dont already know; not that the world is a hell, and that the lucky will die quickly of a hemorrhagic virus so virulent you practically explode. No, the trade paperback tells us that 'Oryx and Crake' is the first of the MaddAddam (not a sci-fi!) Trilogy. And it even includes one of those cheesy (to me at least) previews of the second book in the MaddAddam Trilogy, 'The Year of the Flood.' By this time, some readers may have simulated the effects of the hemorrhagic fever without the aid of any viral infection.
How did 'The Year of the Flood' get into hardcover without knowing it was the second book in trilogy? You know, any speculation on my part would be entirely fictional. I must admit, I enjoy the heck out of these books, which Atwood writes with a breezy sense of pacing and an icy-hearted black humor. I just hope, no, in keeping with the religious themes of the second book in the trilogy, I pray that the MaddAddam trilogy follows in the footsteps of so many others before it ... and that the next book, and the one after that keep up the trilogy theme, even as the volume count marches steadily onward. I mean, really, its not like we're going to run out of fresh hells to lampoon anytime soon, is it? I'd hate to think that we'd ever encounter an Apocalypse shortage.
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10-07-09: A Review of 'The Case for God' by Karen Armstrong : Going Against the Grain
Were you to tell me that I'd a) read b) enjoy c) want to talk to the author of a book — titled 'The Case for God' — I might very well just laugh in your face. Until you told me the author was Karen Armstrong. Armstrong writes about religion in a manner that turns the stuff of self-important blowhards into a gripping and intelligent exploration of what it means to be human.
No, I'm not the sort to read too many "inspirational" or "spiritual" books. Not me, nope, just not the right fit. But Karen Armstrong doesn't write either type of book; rather, she writes histories of religion and belief ('The Great Transformation' is equally compelling) that examine what it is that makes humanity religious, what it is that makes religion important to humans — and in this book, how that has changed. I think this is a book that readers will greatly enjoy, so long as you're willing to plunge into non-fiction and especially if you want to wrestle with an author's thoughts, to literally feel your brain stretched. Here's a link to my review of 'The Case for God' by Karen Armstrong; look, even if, especially if, you think that this book or this sort of book is not for you, I suggest you give the review a read — an the book itself. Going against the grain is good for your brain, and its a bracing, smart reading experience.
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10-06-09: Cherie Priest Unleashes 'Boneshaker' : The Zombie Steampunk Continuum
There's something about the steampunk genre that says, "Give me zombies." George Mann's 'The Affinity Bridge' and Jonathan Barnes' 'The Domino Men' both brought the living dead to a steam-tech enriched Victorian London. The combination of a science-fictional vision of the past with an at-first-glance supernatural menace just seems right.
Cherie Priest is thus far best known for her Eden Moore books; 'Four and Twenty Blackbirds,' 'Wings to the Kingdom,' and 'Not Flesh Nor Feathers.' They're excellent, textured novels of supernatural goings-on set in the present and featuring a richly created heroine. Now Priest is reaching back into a past that never was to bring readers 'Boneshaker' (Tor / Tom Doherty Books ; September 29, 2009 ; $15.99). It's set in the Seattle you've always dreamed about since seeing original Darren McGavin Night Stalker sequel, The Night Strangler, which was set in the underworld of Seattle — unless you've been to Seattle yourself to experience that underworld in person. The "city built on top of an older city" is a classic horror trope, and Seattle is already that city. It's ripe for re-imagining.
Priest's take on Seattle, steampunk and zombies is complex, detailed, gnarly and lots of fun. She had to re-engineer history a bit to get things in gear and does so in literally grand style. The Gold Rush, in Priest's vision, leads to some intense competition for that precious resource, and the Russian prospectors aim to get one step ahead by hiring Leviticus Blue to build a machine that will dig through Alaskan ice for gold. Blue starts building his machine in his basement in Seattle and ... things go wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. A big chunk of downtown Seattle takes a hit and in the process, a blue gas is released that creates, naturally, zombies. Sixteen years later ... things are worse. Blue is dead and his widow is eking out a living with her teenage son, who decides to re-write history in a quest that takes him into the walled-off portion of Seattle where the good stuff is. Zombies and zeppelins
Steampunk is a genre that sounds rather easy once you get your high concept in place, but that's not the case. Priest has the right chops to pull of the combination of re-invention, ripping yarn and detailed faux-history with just enough irreverence to keep the world she creates afloat in the reader's mind. Her characters have the gritty ring of truth even as they face outlandish foes and surreal circumstances. Her plot is rock-solid consistent and her sense of invention is intoxicating. Zombie steampunk is in good hands with Priest, and it looks as if there is at least one sequel in the works. Here's a book you can tuck right into at a bargain price. At least, until the zombies come and begin to tear society apart. At that point, make sure it gets into your zeppelin-escape suitcase.
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10-05-09: Peter Richardson Finds 'A Bomb in Every Issue' : 'How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America'
History is best viewed through a filter. Try to look at any single time period without some limiting factor and you'll simply have too much information to put together a coherent picture. Look at the late 1960's and early 1970's say, through the history of Ramparts Magazine, and you get both history — and story.
Peter Richardson's 'A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America' (The New Press ; September 8, 2009 ; $25.95) is much more than the story of a single, at this point in time, rather obscure magazine. Using Ramparts as a focal point, Richardson offers a crisp vision of change in the United States over the period of Ramparts' run. He also tells one hello of a great story, with vivid characters, clashing personalities and literally the fate of a nation hanging in the balance.
Richardson tells his story (history) in a straightforward manner, starting with the creation of the magazine as a Catholic literary quarterly by Edward Keating in 1962. At its inception, it was not the liberal firebrand it eventually became. It featured spirited criticism of J.D. Salinger and Tennessee Williams. But when Keating broght on Warren Hinckle, things began to quickly shift. Judy Stone published an interview with Rolf Hochhuth, who had written a play titled The Deputy that criticized the Catholic Church's reaction to the Nazis, and the Pope in particular. Dugald Stermer came on board to create a classic and classy look that to this day seems clean and contemporary. And when Robert Scheer, who has been recently interviewed here, came on board, the alchemy was complete. Hinckle provided, as he called it, "the dressing," an irreverent and outrageous style, Scheer the hard substance and the investigative reporting, and Stermer the arresting visual style.
Richardson's narrative is entertaining and often quite funny. You'll meet Colonel Sanders (yes, Virginia, there is a Colonel Sanders) and young Hunter Thompson as he's introduced to a quirky artist named Ralph Steadman. But you'll also have lunch with Martin Luther King, Jr., and witness the US involvement in Vietnam start badly and end worse. For a small book, with lots of verve, 'A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America' covers a lot of ground, keeps the pages turning at a brisk pace and leaves the reader with a fresh perspective on troubled times that were — and those to come.
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