cookbooks
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French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano


Ahh, to be French!

About French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano: Stylish, convincing, wise, funny, and just in time: the ultimate "non"-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live - now with more recipes.French women don't get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this "French paradox" - how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy - Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and eating for our times.For anyone who has slipped out of her Zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a positive way to stay trim, a culture's most precious secrets recast for the twenty-first century. A life of wine, bread - even chocolate - without girth or guilt? "Pourquoi pas?"

My thoughts

The book in one sentence: French women love life and it shows in their svelte figures ... because of this book's practical insights, advice and easy recipes.

Funnily, I first read Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen because one, I'm Asian and I thought I could better relate to this, and two, I love Japanese food. But it's pretty obvious that this was a spin-off from the wildly successful French Women Don't Get Fat which I now have read twice!

I am so averse to dieting that while I inwardly cringe when I can't button my favourite pants anymore, I have never ever withheld food from myself. I have always eaten what I wanted. And I mean anything - from chocolate to ice cream to roast pork. And the anti-dieting stance of this book is what appealed to me most. Maybe I was French in my past life?

I found Guiliano's own experience heartening. She went through a fatty period in her life when she went to the US and sadly acquired bad eating habits. She was called a "sack of potatoes" by her own father! She sought out help from a doctor she calls Dr. Miracle and she was successfully was able to get down to her ideal weight and maintain it.

She outlines a four-phase plan to getting to your ideal weight, which is done over several months (length of time depends on the person) through a subtle but conscious shift in eating patterns:
  • Wake up call!
  • Recasting 
  • Stabilisation phase
  • "The rest of your life" 

Much of Guiliano's advice is common sense. And I can't disagree with having some good dark chocolate once in a while!
  • Small portions of quality food and savouring what you eat ... no eating on the go!
  • Drinking more water. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
  • Preparing your own meals is key - enjoying the process of finding ingredients, preparing dishes however simple they may be
  • Exercise built into everyday activity which includes walking more, taking the stairs
  • Never ever go on a diet because it develops an adversarial attitude towards food, rather than food being something to enjoy 
Guiliano packs a punch with her charming anecdotes of eating in France and the US, her own life experiences (and a few of her friends'), as well as personal recipes along with all this good advice. However, she doesn't really mention anything about nutritional advice, although she advocates for variety. And there is little discussion on emotional eating (which admittedly I am guilty of).

French Women Don't get Fat has been wildly successful and Guiliano has widened her discussions beyond food, to balancing work and life, looking good ... ala Francais.

Verdict: Food isn't simply about controlling what we eat, it's a lifestyle choice.

Check out this sensible French woman's website: http://mireilleguiliano.com/.

I like this short talk by Mireille:


How to Eat by Nigella Lawson


I know how to eat, thank you. 

The book in one sentence: An ode to good, easy food and a recipe book rolled into one.

My thoughts 

You probably know I am a hard and fast Jamie Oliver Fan. I've watched Nigella on TV but have heard that her books are pretty good, so I decided to give her a whirl through How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food.

This book is so highly recommended that I was sort of expecting not to be blown away with it. I'm not sure I'm going to be a Nigella fan any time soon. I thought her writing would be better than her TV show because she started out as a writer. But while her TV shows overtly capitalize on her as eye candy, and rightly so, she has failed to impress me as she seems rather averse to actually doing any dirty work, like chopping her herbs. And long nails and the kitchen are obvious no-nos, to me at least. It's like watching her TV shows. She looks pretty, she chats but she makes me sleepy, with her overly flowery and strangely weirded descriptions of food. 

Her book sounds exactly as she sounds on TV minus the eye candy. The book is underwhelming. While I envy her ability to talk about food from the point of view of an "eater," agree wholeheartedly that cooking shouldn't become drudgery, and her being able to pull together recipes in a more popular categorization ... I got tired of this chunkster and decided to just scan it. I noticed a few interesting recipes and read a few snippets of sound eating advice, so maybe I'll give Nigella another chance.

Oh, if this is a recipe book, where are the pictures? I need them, I need them, I need them ... if for the simple reason that I like to know what I'm going to be preparing and eating is going to look like.

First line: The Great Culinary Renaissance we have heard so much about has done many things-given us extra virgin olive oil, better restaurants, and gastroporn-but it hasn't taught us to cook.

Verdict: Flowery prose but sensible food and cooking advice for the non-cook ... but no pretty pictures, sorry!

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama

 

Here goes. Book reviews K-I-S-S- style. Reposted from my foodie blog.

Ok, so maybe you've heard of the book French Women Don't Get Fat ... obviously this book capitalized on its success. But hey, French women don't have sole dibs on non-fatness. I have always admired that Asian women in general tend to look younger than they usually are.

I decided to read this because: I love Japanese food!

I‘d recommend it to: Those interested in keeping those pounds at bay, Japanese food aficionados, those who are curious what this hype is all about.

 
The book in one sentence: Japanese women live longest and have the lowest obesity rate on earth ... why and how is this possible?

Ok bits: The origins of the book are simple. Naomi, a Japanese who came to the US to study, realized that she retained her slim physique without really trying in Tokyo. She credits it to the fine food her mom used to make her, simple yet fresh home cooking. She set out to try and recreate her mother's Tokyo kitchen in a Western milieu.

The book is a hodegepodge - you get recipes, explanations about Japanese ingredients and where to find them, and Naomi's anecdotes and childhood memories put a personal touch to the recipes as well as the healthy eating advice (mostly her mom's) is scattered throughout.

Probably most important is hara hachi bunme or "Eat until you are 80 percent full." I've fully believed in moderation and shun the idea of having to diet. Moderation obviously makes sense whatever the eating culture you come from.

Based on Naomi, Japanese recipes are based on these "seven pillars"—fish, vegetables, rice, soy, noodles, tea, and fruit.

More sound advice is that food is just an element of healthy living. The Japanese walk a lot. And everyone knows that physical activity is necessary in keeping the weight down.

Serving portions are also key. I have been quite enamoured by how the Japanese package their sweets and cakes, where the visual element is as very much as important as what you are eating, and desserts are packaged in small portions.

I didn’t like: The lack of photos. I'd have loved to see samples of her mother's cooking along with the recipes, as well as snapshots of Tokyo. But then the book may have morphed into a travelogue.


Verdict: Pick and choose the advice found here and I am sure that you'll enjoy the book! I personally would like to get my own copy of this book because of the recipes


Read more here: 

Watch a video of author Naomi and her husband: 

A related video "The benefits of a Japanese diet"

A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain


About A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain: The only thing "gonzo gastronome" and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?," Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of "perfection" inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks' Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef.

My two cents

Despite the strict weight restrictions on Air Canada, this didn’t stop me from scouring bookstores while in Winnipeg. I would haunt for hours on end the sale sections at each bookstore run in. So imagine my surprise (shock?) when I stumbled upon a C$6.99 hardbound copy of Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal. I snapped it up and went home, sneaking peeks into it during the bus ride with, what I am sure was a silly smirk on my face.

(For those who cannot imagine why I would go gaga over a silly outdated book, here’s the context. I wanted to give the same book as a gift to Y one Christmas and flitted from bookstore to bookstore in the Philippines to get a copy. To no avail. Eventually my request to order in the book came in. Way past Christmas. And way past my limits of my patience. And Y and I had moved on to Jamie Oliver. Oh, at the time, I was willing to buy the book at a crazy close to 2000+ peso tag price.)

Have been reading it (Y has again moved on to another author) and marvel at how much better Tony Bourdain writes so much better than he speaks on TV. He’s not much a looker (he IS middle-aged and is a 28-year-old veteran of New York kitchens) but his book transforms him in my eyes. He is alternately hilarious, irreverent, insightful, silly … but compelling, strikingly honest, and in-your-face in his quest around the globe for a “perfect” meal.

I especially enjoy “Reasons why you don’t want to be on television” where he lambasts his network on his dilemma of how to make good TV and talking in sound bites and forced conversations at the loss of spontaneity. There is no worse thing than saying something scripted for the sake of TV while digging into a piously painstakingly prepared meal (thank goodness his network didn’t sue him for breach of contract, though I guess they realized this makes for even better TV).

You know the “joys” of eating – like indigestion and sometimes inevitable vomiting, and worries about food poisoning and hygiene issues? Tony tells it like it is, and his graphic descriptions are surely not for snotty gourmet eaters.

I’ve also seen his softer side to his oft-times irreverent humor. He become sentimental about his father, his brother, and his childhood in France.

Then in another section he comments about Jamie Oliver ("a boy"), Nigella Lawson’s breasts, and his utter respect for Gordon Ramsey.

Excerpted from the book jacket:
… the adventurous chef crisscrosses the world sampling local delicacies from the sublime to the bizarre.

Throughout his travels, Bourdain discovers again and again the importance of community, of kinship, and the power of food to bring people together.
So did he find what he set out to look for – over Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Morocco, UK, France? His conclusion is surprisingly simple. And so much closer to home.

(I also lugged home Michel Roux’s Le Gavroche Cookbook and Antonio Carluccio’s Italia. I couldn’t very well leave them to languish in an about-to-close bookstore, could I?)


{Originally posted 16 September 2006 on my foodie blog.}

Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders and Bronwen Godfrey





It's about eating intentionally.

 About Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders and Bronwen Godfrey* (description is for later edition): The New Laurel's Kitchen is everything that made the first edition loved and trusted, with hundreds of new recipes and the latest nutritional information.
• Over 500 recipes, ideas, menus, and suggestions, each tested and perfected for satisfying, wholesome home cooking
• Imaginative use of low-cost, easy-to-find foods
• Dozens of ways to cut back on fat without losting flavor
• Revolutionary food guide that makes good nutrition easy
• Sections on cooking for children, elders, pregnant moms, athletes
• Practical applications of the latest in nutrition science

My two cents

No, I’m not a vegetarian (does eating only veggies on some days count?). This powerhouse cookbook looks more like a paperback novel than a cookbook. But has something I couldn’t ignore … nutrition information and what could very well be a treatise on “health foods for healthy living.” It has been dubbed as “America’s first complete guide to cooking delicious natural foods.”

First published in 1976, it started out as friends wanting “to share their unique kitchen experiences and pass on a solid collection of tempting, inexpensive vegetarian dishes.” It has novel-like sections which detail the tentative steps of Carol, a non-vegetarian, into the world of “living intentionally” and hence eating right. Her journey brought her to Laurel, a vegetarian who cooked with a passion.

It doesn’t have a hardnosed vegetarian stance, and I learnt much of the larger context of what it means to “eat intentionally.” Eating, after all, requires discipline. Putting some thought to preparing what you eat demands even greater discipline.

"The way people eat is closely connected with the way they live.” In this fast-paced world, the act of eating is taking on this very characteristic. No wonder then for fast food joints, pre-cooked foods in a pack, eating on the go. And no wonder of the detrimental health effects. All that sugar, salt and grease hidden in these foods has resulted in obesity, heart problems, allergies … increasingly being seen even in the young.

***

The 30 peso copy!
Another interesting thought is how our conception of meals revolve around a meat dish. We ask, what’s for dinner and we say “sinigang” or “chicken”. When we embraced the idea that a meal need not necessarily be so, we are no longer constrained to a meal consisting of rice, a meat dish and a vegetable. We have become more adventurous like having lentil soup for dinner, or grilled vegetables for lunch.

Laurel’s Kitchen discusses valuable nutrition information if you do want to venture into a meatless diet, how vegetarianism can help you with weight control, and ways to preserve nutrients in cooking. And the advice isn’t something to scoff about either as Bronwen is a registered nurse and the book is endorsed by a professor of a nutrition department of a renowned university.

***

May I remind you that it’s a cookbook? It has recipes grouped by the three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and full chapters on breads, salads and salad dressings, soups, vegetables, sauces, grains and beans, and (my favorite) desserts. It also has useful menus and even recipes for international cooking (French, Greek, Italian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, and Indian).

The book has been reprinted and updated numerous times. I even saw that there is a Laurel’s Kitchen Breadbook! All the lessons are invaluable. I can personally attest to how our conscious choice to eat food that nourishes has drastically changed our lives.

At 30 pesos at Booksale during one of my hunts, I could very easily have pushed this unobtrusive-looking book aside. Thank goodness I didn’t.

{reposted from here}


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© guiltless readingMaira Gall