Like many engaged couples before us my fiancee and I registered for a wishlist of gifts leading up to our big day. This was before the ease of QR codes and Amazon registries. No, we went old school--carrying around a ray gun of happiness, scanning whatever tickled our fancy in the Belk department store. We even picked out a beautiful set of dishes and envisioned our future family gathered around the table, feasting on happiness and apple pie served up on the perfect dishes.
We got exactly one plate and about fourteen towels.
We also got the most wonderful cookbook I've ever read: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Thank you Todd and Carrie Brotherson. This book lacked fancy pictures or essays about their grandmother's table or quirky sense of humor that spilled into everything she made. Nope, it was the brass tacks of cooking. This book did not just hand me recipes, it taught me how to construct food--what goes well with what, the process of creating soup, the chemistry of making things rise. It is the most well worn book in my home and a regular gift to newlyweds and graduates.
Mark Bittman would love this book.
The premise is delightful: A stodgy old cook is kidnapped by a wild old Pirate Queen. To avoid the plank he must summon his nerve and talent to whip together one heavenly meal a week out of the sparse ingredients found on a pirate ship.
Hilarity ensues.
Well, not quite hilarity, but a dazzling display of spice, ingenuity, and the complicated nature of both food and humanity. Memorable flavor is a nuanced adventure and the cook's journals capture inspiring explanations of how "delicious" is artfully achieved. Meanwhile, he learns that people, much like a simple broth, are layered, complicated, and take time to understand. Learning people's stories can alter their flavor completely.
Be warned: This book will make you hungry. It will not, however, make you want to be a pirate.
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