I seem to have missed most of the eats in this little fast-read. I caught a couple.
*In a diner with an old friend: Lily has a butterscotch milkshake while her friend has a hamburger with everything and fries.
*Christmas day: Lily cooks a meal out of her freezer (most of the dishes she prepared ahead and froze): Turkey, spinach Madeleine, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Lethal Lessons, by Karen Hanson Stuyck
A fluffy mystery.
Our hero, Liz, eats a lot of tex-mex. The novel is set in Houston, Texas.
*Lunch with friend: chicken salad sandwich, with apples, nuts, and curry.
*Lunch with friend in hospital cafeteria: tuna salad sandwich, apple, green jello
*Dinner with co-worker: veal piccata. Co-worker had spaghetti carbonara
*Dinner with friends at restaurant: tostados (by which I think she means tortilla chips), chicken fajitas and small margarita. Friend has large margarita and taco salad, friend's daughter has "multiple entree platter" and coke, plus more chips.
Note: friend's daughter is chubby. Every time we see her eat she is shoveling it in, more than anyone else. Again,the usual assumption that fat people simply eat all the time, more than anyone else.
*Dinner alone at home: wine, then later scrambled eggs, toast with butter and jelly. Describes it as comfort food, as Liz is feeling out of sorts.
Our hero, Liz, eats a lot of tex-mex. The novel is set in Houston, Texas.
*Lunch with friend: chicken salad sandwich, with apples, nuts, and curry.
*Lunch with friend in hospital cafeteria: tuna salad sandwich, apple, green jello
*Dinner with co-worker: veal piccata. Co-worker had spaghetti carbonara
*Dinner with friends at restaurant: tostados (by which I think she means tortilla chips), chicken fajitas and small margarita. Friend has large margarita and taco salad, friend's daughter has "multiple entree platter" and coke, plus more chips.
Note: friend's daughter is chubby. Every time we see her eat she is shoveling it in, more than anyone else. Again,the usual assumption that fat people simply eat all the time, more than anyone else.
*Dinner alone at home: wine, then later scrambled eggs, toast with butter and jelly. Describes it as comfort food, as Liz is feeling out of sorts.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Remainder, by Tom McCarthy
I don't think I have made it through a single book, since I started this blog, without missing food somewhere in there. In fact, I have made it through entire books before I remembered there was food in them - and they did not make it in here.
So here I am, well into this remarkable, strange book, and I am just now realizing there has been food. So I will start where I am.
The main character is - do we even get a name? A young man, 30, who has had a bad accident. He comes into a large amount of money through a settlement and he is damaged forever. I am not sure he sees it that way, but he certainly acknowledges that basic human activity is nearly beyond him.
Lunch with his consultant and a councilor: Our subject and his consultant eat fish soup, kedgeree and sparkling water. The councilor has venison sausages and red wine.
Kedgeree? I am thinking of some of the horrors I faced while in Ireland. Is there a relation? I have to look it up. Wikipedia says: Kedgeree (or occasionally kitcherie, kitchari or kitchiri) is a dish consisting of flaked fish (usually smoked haddock), boiled rice, eggs and butter. It's a popular dish.
So here I am, well into this remarkable, strange book, and I am just now realizing there has been food. So I will start where I am.
The main character is - do we even get a name? A young man, 30, who has had a bad accident. He comes into a large amount of money through a settlement and he is damaged forever. I am not sure he sees it that way, but he certainly acknowledges that basic human activity is nearly beyond him.
Lunch with his consultant and a councilor: Our subject and his consultant eat fish soup, kedgeree and sparkling water. The councilor has venison sausages and red wine.
Kedgeree? I am thinking of some of the horrors I faced while in Ireland. Is there a relation? I have to look it up. Wikipedia says: Kedgeree (or occasionally kitcherie, kitchari or kitchiri) is a dish consisting of flaked fish (usually smoked haddock), boiled rice, eggs and butter. It's a popular dish.
Friday, March 20, 2009
A Fit of Tempera, by Mary Daheim
A cutesy mystery.
* Dinner at the family cabin: steak fried in butter, sauteed mushrooms, salad, hashbrowns, sugar cookies
* Breakfast in the cabin: buttermilk pancakes, link sausage, fried eggs, orange juice, coffee
* At local eatery: hamburgers, fries, green salad, pepsi
* Dinner in town: prime rib, medium rare for Judith, hamburger steak with mushroom gravy for Renie, both with soup, salad, roll, dessert, coffee
* Dinner at the family cabin: steak fried in butter, sauteed mushrooms, salad, hashbrowns, sugar cookies
* Breakfast in the cabin: buttermilk pancakes, link sausage, fried eggs, orange juice, coffee
* At local eatery: hamburgers, fries, green salad, pepsi
* Dinner in town: prime rib, medium rare for Judith, hamburger steak with mushroom gravy for Renie, both with soup, salad, roll, dessert, coffee
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Indemnity Only, by Sara Paretsky
V. I. Warshawski runs around Chicago, picking up food here and there.
* Lunch at a "quasi-Greek" place: crab salad and glass of chablis
* Lunch at Barb's Bar-B-Q: Fresca and chef's salad. V.I. really wants a burger and fries but worries that if she eats stuff like that she will end up with arm flaps, like an older woman she saw that day.
* Dinner date at a fancy restaurant, after V.I. is beaten up and is carrying the bruises: Senegalese Soup and spinach salad. Bread and butter. Coffee. Large dish of ice cream. With Kahlua.
V.I.'s date has baked oysters and quail. And some kind of gooey torte.
* At Bagel Works deli: two corned beef sandwiches (jumbo corned beef on rye) and a Fresca
* At little coffee shop: cheese omelette, juice, coffee
* At Lotty's place: "a little boiled chicken"
* Dinner with reporter: white wine, mostaccioli, heavy with cheese
Reporter has spaghetti with meatballs
* Dinner with date: poached salmon, salad bar, wine, Ahab's spectacular ice-cream-and-cordial (at this point she is "sick of being virtuous")
V.I. steps on a scale, notes she is down two pounds and wonders, because of "all the starch" she's been eating. Starch, V.I.?? How about fat?? And might I add, very little fiber has shown up in these meals.
* Lunch alone at a steak house: small butt steak, undressed salad, tall gin fizz
* Breakfast alone in a coffee shop: Denver omelette, no potatoes, whole wheat toast, juice.
* Lunch at a "quasi-Greek" place: crab salad and glass of chablis
* Lunch at Barb's Bar-B-Q: Fresca and chef's salad. V.I. really wants a burger and fries but worries that if she eats stuff like that she will end up with arm flaps, like an older woman she saw that day.
* Dinner date at a fancy restaurant, after V.I. is beaten up and is carrying the bruises: Senegalese Soup and spinach salad. Bread and butter. Coffee. Large dish of ice cream. With Kahlua.
V.I.'s date has baked oysters and quail. And some kind of gooey torte.
* At Bagel Works deli: two corned beef sandwiches (jumbo corned beef on rye) and a Fresca
* At little coffee shop: cheese omelette, juice, coffee
* At Lotty's place: "a little boiled chicken"
* Dinner with reporter: white wine, mostaccioli, heavy with cheese
Reporter has spaghetti with meatballs
* Dinner with date: poached salmon, salad bar, wine, Ahab's spectacular ice-cream-and-cordial (at this point she is "sick of being virtuous")
V.I. steps on a scale, notes she is down two pounds and wonders, because of "all the starch" she's been eating. Starch, V.I.?? How about fat?? And might I add, very little fiber has shown up in these meals.
* Lunch alone at a steak house: small butt steak, undressed salad, tall gin fizz
* Breakfast alone in a coffee shop: Denver omelette, no potatoes, whole wheat toast, juice.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Blood Work, by Michael Connelly
I've missed a few books. I might get back to them later.
Star of this one is Terry McCaleb, former FBI agent. He's retired because he had a heart transplant and can't afford the stress and physical activities associated with his FBI career.
He doesn't have his appetite back and doesn't much taste.
On his boat, alone: scrambled egg whites with tabasco sauce and white dry toast.
Another day, alone in his boat: sandwich of white bread with processed cheese and a canned coke.
Star of this one is Terry McCaleb, former FBI agent. He's retired because he had a heart transplant and can't afford the stress and physical activities associated with his FBI career.
He doesn't have his appetite back and doesn't much taste.
On his boat, alone: scrambled egg whites with tabasco sauce and white dry toast.
Another day, alone in his boat: sandwich of white bread with processed cheese and a canned coke.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Shakespeare's Landlord, by Charlaine Harris
At home, lead character Lily Bard fixes herself chicken breast, a roll, broccoli with parmesan.
On a weekend, Lily buys food enough to fix several meals at once and freeze them:
A taco casserole
A stew
Some chicken breast thing
On a weekend, Lily buys food enough to fix several meals at once and freeze them:
A taco casserole
A stew
Some chicken breast thing
Monday, March 2, 2009
Nobody's Fool, by Richard Russo
I have let most of the meals here get away from me. I get so caught up in the behavior and words of the characters that I flat out forget. So I'll take it up with what I remember.
* A thanksgiving dinner prepared by Sully's ex-wife, standard Thanksgiving food, on a paper plate, wrapped in foil. Sully brings it into a bar, has the bartender heat it up in the microwave, and offers it to a friend.
At different times Sully has a hamburger at the local bar ("the Horse"). He doesn't have much appetite, can hardly look at food much of the time.
At one point Sully makes a foolish bet and ends up eating a pickled egg that had landed on the floor. He hates even the sight of pickled eggs and it surprised me that he didn't throw it up.
* A thanksgiving dinner prepared by Sully's ex-wife, standard Thanksgiving food, on a paper plate, wrapped in foil. Sully brings it into a bar, has the bartender heat it up in the microwave, and offers it to a friend.
At different times Sully has a hamburger at the local bar ("the Horse"). He doesn't have much appetite, can hardly look at food much of the time.
At one point Sully makes a foolish bet and ends up eating a pickled egg that had landed on the floor. He hates even the sight of pickled eggs and it surprised me that he didn't throw it up.
The Unbidden Truth, by Kate Wilhelm
For the most part, practical food:
* A meeting in a restaurant does not include a description of the food ordered.
* A dinner at Frank's (father of main character Barbara Holloway):
a layered casserole of freshly-picked vegetables and lamb riblets
* On the road: sandwiches and a thermos of coffee; no description of what is inside the sandwiches
* At a campground, cooked on a camp stove: hamburgers and spicy black beans
* At a campground, cooked on the camp stove: bacon and eggs and coffee
* At a campground, potatoes baked in foil in the fire, steaks cooked on a camp stove, deli slaw, wine. Comments from the chef - Darren - that if Barbara wants her steak well-done he will hang up his chef's hat.
* Reference to a plan to stop at Sisters for soup and salad. I take this as an indication Wilhelm is in her comfort zone, choosing places she personally knows (Sisters).
* Dinner made by a friend: quiche and a roast. Neither is described in greater detail.
* A meeting in a restaurant does not include a description of the food ordered.
* A dinner at Frank's (father of main character Barbara Holloway):
a layered casserole of freshly-picked vegetables and lamb riblets
* On the road: sandwiches and a thermos of coffee; no description of what is inside the sandwiches
* At a campground, cooked on a camp stove: hamburgers and spicy black beans
* At a campground, cooked on the camp stove: bacon and eggs and coffee
* At a campground, potatoes baked in foil in the fire, steaks cooked on a camp stove, deli slaw, wine. Comments from the chef - Darren - that if Barbara wants her steak well-done he will hang up his chef's hat.
* Reference to a plan to stop at Sisters for soup and salad. I take this as an indication Wilhelm is in her comfort zone, choosing places she personally knows (Sisters).
* Dinner made by a friend: quiche and a roast. Neither is described in greater detail.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)