Things have calmed down a bit at work, so it's been a better week, but I'm still only staying there till I have the experience to apply for another job.
Saturday B and I headed to downtown Toulouse to look for a friend's birthday present and to browse the electronics stores (guess who did what).
I initially wanted to find my friend (who is Russian) a cookbook presenting some of the most classic/traditional American dishes. A while ago I offered "Petit guide d'initation à la cuisine US" by Framboiz to my mil, and I remembered being pleased by the authenticity of the recipes. Of course, the book is no longer to be found in Toulouse's book stores (okay Fnac, and Ombres Blanche, the two places I went), so instead I leafed through Yes we cook!, but I was really disappointed. The carrot cake in Yes we cook! looked like normal birthday cake with a few flakes of carrot in it, instead of the darker denser real thing. I decided I didn't want to offer my friend* a cookbook of my country's food if it wasn't the real thing. Then I noticed the book next to Yes we cook! on the table. "Bagels comme à New York". At last, a real bagel book in French! It has pictures to illustrate the different steps of preparing the dough, and then instructions for how to incorporate nuts or berries.
Then I lingered, and I came across a cookbook a colleague had highly recommended: Mon cours de cuisine Les basiques d'Asie. This cookbook is wonderful because there are a) pictures of all the ingredients, including the Asian vegetables you've never heard of b) pictures for each step to show you what it should look like c) usually not that many steps and d) it only cost 15€, which I think is very reasonable for 80 recipes and full color semi-glossy pages.
And right next to the stairs back to the cash register were the cocktail cookbooks. And I'd looked at them before but decided I didn't have the money since I was unemployed and all that. But now I am employed. And this book has almost all the classics and the "correct" recipes for my favorites.
When I got home I realized all three of my new favorite cookbooks were published by Marabout. As they describe on their website, they're the leader in "practical" books (cooking, exercise, gardening, self-help, etc) and apparently cooking has become their focus thing since 2000. They got bought out by Hachette a while ago, so they're not any independent editor or anything, but I'm happy with what I got.
*I did eventually get the present at Trait. In Toulouse there's the stationary store and a second random-neat-stuff store where I found the present. I first found Trait in Montpellier, but I'm not sure if it's open anymore.
1 comment:
I have lots of Marabout cookbooks and have given some. They have so many pictures! Their exercise series looks good too, but haven't bought any yet. Nice to hear a review on the Yes we cook! book, I was thinking about it for Ben but I'll keep looking, it doesn't sound that good.
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