I am at the city house this week and perusing the aisles at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore, a stop I always make when coming to the city. I spied this periodical because of the title and thumbed through it. Wow. A cookbook that starts out with the launch in 1977 of the time capsule aboard the Voyager spaceship into deep interstellar space in hopes that one day another civilization might find it and know of earth and its inhabitants. Natural history, geology, space, oceans, pot-feuled trips to the tune of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon to Stravinsky, origins of species, whew! Sounds like the kind of cookbook I would write - unable to stick to topic and going from one thing to another.
How about a recipe for a Coconut Lychee Aquarium? Gelatin, coconut milk with lychee juice and other ingredients; you use a syringe to add the things into the bowl shaped jello dish. Gorgeous and tasty I am sure.
Beautiful; it just blows my mind.
How about an Encyclopedia of Nuts Bar with Chia Pudding for dessert. Notice the snakeskin in the bottom righthand corner of the page. I have them and vertebra from water moccasins. So me.
Perhaps you'd like to try this bread which sounds and looks delicious. It even has its own haiku.
Beauty, old as time.
Fossil's senior citizen,
Round and round it goes.
(Kind of like the recent post about Joni Mitchell's song The Circle Game.)
I put this in there because it is so me. I have many nests like this. They also have cocktail recipes like Quicksand Cocktail.
I added this picture because it is one of many gorgeous photos in the book; this one of crystals which I like to collect. One of the recipes is Crystal Shrimp Dumplings which really are clear. From Lunar Pear Clafoutis (which does look like a pock-marked moon) to a Butterflied Chicken Diorama recipe, I kid you not, this book should have been aboard the Voyager. So full of essays and the aforementioned topics and recipes. On the last page of the book is a beautiful essay that begins:
Book Forgive Everything
First there's stellar wind. A single star, like the pale hair of a girl. The dim universe plucked with light...
This gorgeous, original book is out there.
22 comments:
This is my sort of thing, as well. My mind is always wandering, drifting....
Well Donna, those are certainly different offerings and I can't say I'll be in any rush to fix them in my traditional kitchen - love the photos though. Meanwhile, off to make two more soups today - we're still stuck in the cottage due to the ice storm - roasted cauliflower, and leek and potato, both comfort foods and needed in this cold, perhaps alongside a crunchy grilled cheese on rosemary bread, yum!
Hugs - Mary
From what we see on our news Donna - you are all in need of comfort food over there at present. Lovely book and pics.
Oh My Goodness, are we twins ? I love this book !
I have always been a bit scattered but since the brain hypoxia I am a lot more scattered !
Let me tell you it is a pain in the a** dealing with this !
Daughter just drove from Tucson to Michigan and just missed the snow storms. Plus the roads were cleared. Great luck for her.
Thank You for this great post.
cheers, parsnip
My father would have seen, loved and bought this book, then opened it on my kitchen table for me to love and make something.
OK that is one seriously groovy book! It's inspiring in such a creative, unique way. I love my cookbook but rarely use them ... they're just so beautiful to look at. But this? This is a whole other level. love it.
I hope you bought it!!
I can't wait to read it all. I have never seen anything like it.
Original to say the least. Glad you still have the power on to cook.
Not here Pat, that goodness. Windy, but in the fifties which I'll take in the winter. It is the most original book I've seen in a long time. Not really a book, but a magazine/book.
I love it too Parsnip and can't wait to read it. Hypoxia? Sounds bad, but hope not. That was lucky for your daughter. Our weather has been good compared to the northeast.
Joanne, it is so original. Noma, in the Netherlands, (number 1 restaurant in the world), has nothing on these contributors. Can you imagine eating with them and the table talk?
That's it Lucinda. It is another level.
I did Monique. Even if I don't make any of the recipes, I can't wait to read it. Like Lucinda said, it is cuisine on another level, kind of like Noma in the Netherlands. I'll show more about it. Maybe at least attempt one of the cocktails.
Donna, may I say that your own Gather is the one that will continue to ring most true with me.
I have also seen the other Gather at B&N and have spent time, after finding my reading glasses deep at the bottom of my large tote bag, reading bits and pieces of that Gather's beautiful pages. I know what you mean about its treasure chest of topics and images.
Still. Your Gather is the one.
xo
What an amazing book ..... do you think that the recipes are really difficult ? I'd love to present some of those at a dinner party .... I'd really be the hostess with the mostest !!!! XXXX
Oh Frances, how sweet can you be? Thank you. Does it come out on a regular basis? I thought maybe it was a one time thing. If so, I shall be on the lookout for it.
Jacqueline, I think some are doable. Possibly, one might even be able to accomplish the aquarium. When I get time to sit down and go through it, I'll see which one looks like a mortal can do it. I have never seen anything like it. No chicken fried steaks in this one (that is a southern US mainstay in restaurants.) I'd love to see you attempt it. I think talent runs in your family and it would be worth a try.
I have been accused of living in a museum, I collect natural history. I think I have found the perfect beneficiary of all my collections.
We have much in common Doc. I think my grandkids will love all my treasures.
Wow - what a fantastic magazine I wonder how long it took to gather all that material which is just so unusual. Sounds ideal for a person with your interests - I look forward to seeing your aquarium pudding!
Elaine, it is a keeper and a treasure in itself. Magpie me. I keep and find lots of neat stuff. To me anyway.
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