EVERYTHING TASTES BETTER OUTDOORS

by Claudia Roden ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1984

From a cosmopolitan welter of reminiscences, recipes, quotations, and suggestions, Roden, a much-traveled Sephardi and author of the excellent A Book of Middle Eastern Food, has put together a more comprehensive and infinitely livelier book than Hemingway and Maricich's The Picnic Gourmet (1977) or other, kindred entries. It treats 1) home-cooked food to be carried out to ballpark or bosky dell, 2) techniques of outdoor cookery under different circumstances, and 3) strategies for cooking while motoring, boating, or backpacking. The recipes range from gooseberry fool or jellied beef à la mode to roasted garlic, grilled sausages, or tandoori fish. There are large admixtures of Mediterranean ideas and many delightful salads and fruit desserts. The sense of adventure conveyed in Roden's descriptions of far-flung picnic traditions is irresistible. True, the scads of recipes for American staples like barbecue sauce and Thousand Island dressing suggest that, in adapting her British original, Roden overcompensated. If the result isn't entirely of-a-piece, it's still exceptional of its kind.

Pub Date: May 15, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION