I got three cookbooks this year. One is a memoir with recipes, the other two are conventional cookbooks.
Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life, by Emily Kaiser Thelin. This is the memoir with recipes, and has a poignant story behind it. Thelin (along with Andrea Nguyen) decided that Wolfert’s story needed to be told. Thelin and Nguyen started a Kickstarter campaign to get the book published. Wolfert is dealing with dementia, and the book cuts between past and present. The book is a true labor of love.
The Malaysian Kitchen, by Christina Arokiaswamy. In an earlier post, I joked that my ancestors took the Mayflower the long way to Plymouth Rock through Southeast Asia. They may have stopped in Malaysia along with Vietnam. Many of the recipes use ingredients that are easy to find (in Seattle, at least).
Pok Pok: The Drinking Food of Thailand, by Andy Ricker with J.J. Goode. Pok Pok is the go-to Thai restaurant in Portland. (One of my coworkers spent an hour on line earlier this week to eat dinner there.) Ricker highlights the food that goes along with alcoholic beverages in Thailand. Some of my friends would have to be very drunk to try some of these dishes, e.g., pork brains grilled in banana leaves. There are a few more accessible dishes that don’t require heavy inebriation.
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