I Want You! On my bookshelf.

I know it is hard for you to believe, but there are a few books I really want to get my hands on. I can’t believe it either! And, not so surprisingly since I’m trying to loose some weight, I seem to be craving foodie books. Which is bad, since I’m 2 pounds away from my goal weight. *sigh*  Here are a couple near the top of my list.

M.F.K. Fisher is a legend in the food writing world and I am ashamed that I haven’t read anything she wrote yet. Something I really want to remedy. A co-worker let me borrow his copy of The Art of Eating, but I want my own copy. The Art of Eating is a five-in-one volume of some of Fisher’s best writing; Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wold, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets. The copy I’ve borrowed is old; this cover is the newer 50th anniversary edition and, you guess it: I think it’s gorgeous!   I love that Barnes and Noble has quotes from each of the five books on their website and I want to share them here.

SERVE IT FORTH
“The Standing and the Waiting”
“We talked, and well, and all the dinner was most excellent, and the wine was like music on our tongues. Time was forgotten. . . . We watched as in a blissful dream the small fat hands moving like magic among bottles and small bowls and spoons and plates, stirring, pouring, turning the pan over the flame just so, just so, with the face bent keen and intent above.”

CONSIDER THE OYSTER
“The Well-Dressed Oyster”
“There are three kinds of oyster-eaters: those loose-minded sports who will eat anything, hot, cold, thin, thick, dead or alive, as long as it is oyster; those who will eat them raw and only raw; and those who with equal severity will eat them cooked and no way other. . . . The first group may perhaps have the most fun, although there is a white fire about the others’ bigotry that can never warm the broad-minded.”

HOW TO COOK A WOLF
“How to Boil Water”
“Probably the most satisfying soup in the world for people who are hungry, as well as for those who are tired or worried or cross or in debt or in a moderate amount of pain or in love or in robust health or in any kind of business huggermuggery, is minestrone. . . . It is a thick unsophisticated soup, heart-warming and soul-staying, full of aromatic vegetables and well bound at the last with good cheese.”

THE GASTRONOMICAL ME
“The Measure of My Powers” (1919-1927)
“The first thing I cooked was pure poison. I made it for Mother, after my little brother David was born, and within twenty minutes of the first swallow she was covered with great itching red welts. . . . The pudding was safe enough: a little round white shuddering milky thing I had made that morning. . . . I ran into the back yard and picked ten soft ripe blackberries. I blew off the alley-dust, and placed them gently in a perfect circle around the little pudding. Its cool perfection leaped into sudden prettiness. . . . Mother smiled at my shocked anxious confusion, and said, ‘Don’t worry, sweet . . . it was the loveliest pudding I have ever seen.’ I agreed with her in spite of the despair.”

AN ALPHABET FOR GOURMETS
“G Is for Gluttony”
“I cannot believe that there exists a single coherent human being who will not confess, at least to himself, that once or twice he has stuffed himself to the bursting point, on anything from quail financière to flapjacks, for no other reason than the beastlike satisfaction of his belly.”

It won’t be long, I’m going to devour this book. What gorgeous writing! Have you read any of the five books included in this volume?

What books have you been coveting lately?

The Art of Eating by MFK Fisher