A Book for Food Lovers

I don’t know if you are as big a fan of the “food network” television channel as I am, but it is one of my favorites. The chefs on most of the food networks shows are wildly popular with our library’s patrons, and in response to their popularity we have purchased many recipe books authored by Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis and Sandra Lee. One of my new favorites is Alton Brown’s Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run. The book itself is a visual feast! It is chock full of colored photographs, recipes, portraits, and notes that Brown wrote while traveling up the Mississippi River from Louisiana to Minnesota on Buttercup, his motorcycle. Along the way, he stops in river cities and towns to sample (in my opinion) some of the best food in the United States. Brown does not just visit restaurants, however—he takes time to visit many culturally significant museums and other places in these towns, while giving a brief history of each place. Most of the recipes in the book came straight from the mouth of the chef, but if the chef was unwilling to give up the recipe, Brown does his best to write down what he thinks is in the dish, as well as a “who inspired the dish” notation. I might be partial to this book simply because it includes a description of Alton Brown’s visit to the Beidenharn Candy Co. and Coca-Cola museum in Vicksburg, but I do know one thing. Don’t read this book while you are hungry- it will only make you want to go whip up a batch of your grandma’s best fried chicken!