A thoroughly sumptuous guide to some of the world’s most nutritious cuisines.
Keuneke celebrates good food and good health in this cookbook and love letter to the flavors of the Iberian Peninsula.
Ever since Ancel Keys published the findings of his Seven Countries Study in 1978, nutritionists have promoted the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Our understanding of how diet affects our overall well-being has changed over time, but the idea that minimally processed foods—plants, whole grains, and unsaturated fats—are good for us is well established. While on a trip to Spain, the author, a health writer and natural foods cook, discovered variations on this way of eating that would change her life. The first recipe in the book is for a vinagreta, but the author introduces this simple dressing in the context of a whole chapter on olive oil in which she explains why it’s a superfood; she suggests several ways for enhancing the oil’s health benefits while enjoying its delicious versatility. This section is followed by a lengthy and informative discussion about the gastronomic and nutritional powers of sofrito. Keuneke supports her health claims with relevant research—the bibliography and suggestions for further reading take up more than 50 pages—and she shares stories from her travels. The book includes interviews with world-renowned chefs (including Carme Ruscalleda, the only woman in the world with seven Michelin stars) and recipes for some of their signature dishes. Throughout, Keuneke offers readers a wealth of details about the cultures—Basque, Castilian, Galician, Navarrese, and Catalan—that have produced these incredible foods. Home cooks may have difficulty following some of the recipes, such as one for caldo de pescado that begins with this instruction: “Call ahead and ask the fishmonger to set aside 4 pounds of fish heads and carcasses.” That said, the author does provide an annotated list of retailers that can provide some of the ingredients readers might not find easily, and Keuneke enthusiastically and convincingly argues that it’s worth venturing beyond the supermarket to make these dishes.
A thoroughly sumptuous guide to some of the world’s most nutritious cuisines.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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