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| Photo: courtesy of the Instituto Francés |
Last week I had the pleasure of presenting the newly released book
A Comer y A Beber (Editorial Sins Entido) by Swiss illustrator and food enthusiast
Guillaume Long.
I am ashamed to say, however, that after a hectic week of food, food and more food presentations at
Madrid Fusión, all I can think
of to say right now is, "It is a great book, you should buy it"; but at the time, like the studious gal nervous for her first book presentation that I am, I prepared a list of some of the highlights from this fantastic gastronomic-comic.
Here are just a few of them:
- This book made me very hungry and also made me want to go to the market and then start cooking.
- It is not just a comic book about food, or a cookbook with illustrations. It is also a dictionary of food terms, an encyclopedia of interesting facts about things like vegetables abd regional cuisines, an autobiography, a guide for where to eat in what city and an emotional roller coaster of Guillaume's culinary triumphs and defeats.
- It has a back page that you can tear out and hang up in your kitchen showing fruits and vegetables classified by season. It would be very useful if your husband would let you tear out pages from comic books.
- Guillaume loves making lists: lists of ingredients, recipes, behavioral tips, advice, etc. His lists are not always about wonderful, fabulous things. Sometimes he also makes lists of things he doesn't like. I also love to make lists, usually when I'm procrastinating. I wonder if Guillaume ever procrastinates?
- Despite the meticulous quality of his recipes and instructions, I can relate to how excited and over zealous he can get in the kitchen or when dining out. I have also been known to declare something, "the best in the whole wide world", or "the best I've ever had in my entire life", several times in one meal. I also understand what he means when he talks about how one amazing dish in a restaurant has the power to make everything else about the experience more wonderful (the waiter is suddenly nice, the wine is suddenly better, the cockroach is suddenly a pet, etc.)
In short, this book is a perfect kitchen or travel companion that I would never want to damage with sauce or stuff into my suitcase. Be sure to check out the source of this wonderful content on Guillaume's
blog on the online version of Le Monde.
(uncomfortable pause)
Oh dear, I did just check it out, and the latest entry is apparently what Guillaume took away gastronomically from
Madrid. What he doesn't realize is that I have hard photographic evidence of him eating more delicious things while here.
Actually, it seems I don't have any evidence after all, other than this photo of him in
El Abuelo drawing, not eating, with a whole bunch of shrimp peels on the floor behind him.
Maybe it was my fault. We did make him draw us all postcards...
A Comer y A Beber
by Guillaume Long
Editorial Sins Eentido
