Here’s a roundup of locally written books on food and drink, in no particular order.
The latest in the Edible series of easily digested food histories distributed by the University of Chicago Press, this one is by local Asian food specialist Sen. Curry may have its origins in India, but she scrutinizes the effect British colonialism had on the dish—the word itself is an Anglicism—and from there charts its progress and permutations all over the globe via the Indian diaspora, from the Caribbean’s callaloo to South African’s bobotie to the color-coded curries of Thailand and the sweet-potato-and-carrot-studded Japanese varieties. As with all the books in the series, there’s an appendix of recipes—some practical, others not—revealing the dish’s historical scope, this time beginning with a recipe from a 15th-century Moghul court and ranging on to Fijian tinned fish curry.
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“It’s like being opposed to music based on a specific hatred of the zither.” That’s what Mueller, formerly a fungi curator at the Field Museum and now Chicago Botanic Garden veep, and McFarland, a staff writer for Outdoor Illinois, have to say about people who decide they don’t like mushrooms before sampling more than one species. Their statement reflects the impish sense of humor in the common American mycologist and underscores the incredible diversity of edible fungi within our own state’s borders. This beautifully photographed, chummily written guide is testament to both, and while it purports to be a beginner’s book, its commitment to detail puts it on a much higher plane, beginning with a chapter on the sort of fungi you should stay the hell away from and moving on to individual groups of edibles: morels, boletes, chanterelles, puffballs, and other tree and grass growers. Each specimen (with tasting notes) is lovingly photographed from multiple angles, and toxic look-alikes are given the same treatment. I don’t know if I’ll ever come across a lion’s mane, an organism that looks like a snowball and is said to taste like lobster, but I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes open. There’s a bonus appendix of recipes by the likes of Paul Virant, Charlie Trotter, Rick Tramonto, and a number of downstate chefs. I’d never heard of Tom’s Place in DeSoto, Illinois, but morel tiramisu makes me want to pay it a visit.
250 True Italian Pasta Dishes
It’s Ross Ryan again, this time in her second collaboration with the fourth-generation Berghoff scion in two years. The biggest surprise here is that there’s apparently a public clamoring for another Berghoff collection so soon after 2007’s The Berghoff Family Cookbook, in which “Classics” were given much more space than the contemporized “Carlyn’s Favorites.” Here it’s all Carlyn, which with some exceptions—such as a whole chapter on pizza—means simple stick-to-your-ribs, vaguely midwestern Germanic recipes, or as she would put it, “tradition with a twist.” There’s stuffed celery, spaetzle, and Salisbury steak, and if you just can’t live without the Berghoff’s take on an egg sandwich, this is the book for you.
Rogue Cocktails Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak
Brockman, founder of the not-for-profit Land Connection, turns in this journal-memoir of the 52 “seasons” on her brother’s Central Illinois family farm, whose 600-plus varieties of vegetables will be familiar to shoppers at the Evanston Farmers’ Market. If you’re thinking that meditations on garlic planting, wily turkeys, seed catalogs, and the peak of pea season make for dull reading, you’re underestimating Brockman’s considerable talents as a storyteller. The book comes with recipes including Bristol chef Chris Pandel’s Grandmother’s Lazy Pierogies With Fresh Italian Sausage.
