Book: Julie & Julia

As I reported way back here, I picked up an advance reading copy of Julie & Julia at the book expo in NYC. So in a fit of room cleaning where we winnowed out the books we'd never read to put up on half.com, I decided this one was worth carrying on a plane.

The book is a condensation and commentary on Julie Powell's blog where she attempts to cook everything in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (MtAoFC, as it's referred to in the book).

Anyone who's drooled over a post here will enjoy this book. Not as much about the cooking as I thought, a lot of it is about the work it takes to get around to cooking, dealing with houseguests, dealing with being away from your blog, obsession, and enough crazy friends and sex talk to fill a season of Sex in the City (I've got an advance reader of Bushnell's latest at home too, but that hit the Half.com pile).

It's kind of weird reading about French cooking while eating cheap chinese, or decent italian, and I got to pimp it to someone at the next table too. (Too bad I won't get a cent off that. Gotta get Mrs. F to sell books for grownups).

Her style is very nice: bitchy at times, funny often, with all the vicarious thrills of reading food porn. Veal Prince Orloff sounded quite decadent. And though she sort of tries to deny it, she's a geek girl: obsessing about being able to post, needing to unwind by watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I find myself chanting One of us. One of us. One of us.

No, I haven't finished the book, so the ending might suck (I can only think that Julia's passing figures in there somewhere), but it's a great trip so far.

Hi,

I read the Julie/Julia Blog as it unfolded a few years ago. While I didn't care for the swearing, I did love her frequent tantrums and meltdowns.

Sometime ago when you brought the topic up, I commented:

I was also surprised by the efforts it took to buy food in New York City. It made take-out look like a very reasonable option.

Do you get the same impression from reading her book?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Sometime ago when you brought the topic up, I commented:

I was also surprised by the efforts it took to buy food in New York City. It made take-out look like a very reasonable option.

Do you get the same impression from reading her book?

Definitely. Her quests for marrow bones and lobsters make trying to find a volcano to dump an old ring into look easy.

OK, so I exaggerate. She does end up in what sounds like unpleasant neighborhoods just to get a butcher, though. And having to bring lobsters home on the subway is pretty darn funny. And somehow, calves feet (to make aspic) seem to be easy enough, but not marrow bones.

I get the feeling it's all a matter of neighborhood. Certainly, she couldn't have been anywhere near Zabars, which, while not having the lobsters (I don't remember if they have a butcher at all), certainly would have been able to stock most of her other foodie ingredients. But MtAoFC is less about exotic ingredients (canned onions being an exception, they're so mundane they're exotic), as baroque preparations, lots of butter, and having freshly made lamb stock around for the next dish.