This is the first of upcoming bookworm pieces from Pete Mulvihill, the owner of Green Apple Books. There are some great books at Green Apple (it’s my favorite bookstore in the city), from food to fiction. And remember, as a tablehopper reader, you get 20% off these books below! (The offer last two weeks, until July 10.) Just mention the code “tablehopper” if you’re there in person, or enter it on the website when checking out. Okay, take it away Pete!
Our shelves in the food and cooking section of Green Apple are bursting with fresh goodies. Here’s the briefest taste of what’s in season.
The most useable (for the home chef) cookbook we’ve received lately is Eric Gower’s The Breakaway Cook. The recipes are almost fusion, but with a twist: they combine everyday staples with a few international ingredients to create easy recipes with zing. Rice flakes add some pop to an otherwise straightforward rock cod in reduced citrus. The Maccha Poached Eggs are also pretty simple, but delicately and scrumptiously flavored with maccha salt (easily made from salt and green tea powder). The “exotic” ingredients that give this book its angle are all available locally—most of them can be found at the Asian markets on Clement Street.
Bonus: Gower’s now a local (after 15 years in Japan), so buying his book helps keep another food-obsessed San Francisco full of pie! If he doesn’t open a restaurant or score his own cooking show soon, we’ll be very surprised. Great concept: easy recipes with international flavor that really pop!
Two brand-new books on sushi compete for your attention right now. Both are narratives, not recipe books. The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson focuses on a master Japanese chef and his apprentices while also exploring the history and biology of sushi. The Sushi Economy*, on the other hand, focuses on just how it came to be that you can safely eat raw fish in Kansas City any day of the week—globalization.
Let’s end with a little pork, shall we? Well, a lot of pork. Pork and Sons is by Stephane Reynaud, a French pork devotee/restaurateur. The book covers everything pig, from slaughter (more than we want to know?) to blood sausages, pates, and terrines to BBQ. It’s also a very beautiful book from Phaidon, an art-book publisher whose recent Silver Spoon (“the Italian Joy Of Cooking” *) was a smash hit here at Green Apple.
Thanks for reading, and bon appetit.
*Please note: Sushi Economy and Joy of Cooking are already discounted 20%, so the tablehopper discount does not apply.
