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Learn to COOK - Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food: An Opinionated History and More Than 100 Legendary Recipes
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List Price: $27.50
Our Price: $13.74
Your Save: $ 13.76 ( 50% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9781584796770
ISBN: 1584796774
Label: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
Manufacturer: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2008-03-01
Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
Studio: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
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Editorial Reviews:
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Arthur Schwartz is the Big Apple’s official foodie-about-town, a fellow who has fork-and-knived his way through the five boroughs. He knows his knish from his kasha, his bok choy from his bruschetta, his falafel from his frittata. And in Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food, which won the IACP Award for Cookbook of the Year in 2005, he shared his gastronomic expertise, chronicling the city’s culinary history from its Dutch colonial start to its current status as the multicultural food capital of the world. The affordable new paperback edition is chock-full of the same fascinating lore, along with 160 recipes for American classics that either originated or were perfected in New York: Manhattan Clam Chowder, Eggs Benedict, Lindy’s cheesecake.
Throughout the book, Schwartz’s text is transporting, taking readers back to Delmonico’s, the Colony, and the Horn & Hardart Automats. Whether revealing how an obscure dish known as Omelet Surprise was transformed into the decidedly chichi dessert Baked Alaska; investigating why some Jewish restaurants came to be known as Roumanian steakhouses; or instructing readers on the way to bake a molten chocolate minicake worthy of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food is the ideal dining companion.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Trip Back in Time
Comment: Undoubtedly, this book took me back to the New York of my childhood. I grew up on Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Greek food and Corned Beef and Cabbage. My ethnicity is none of those, but I treasure this book and all the memories it brought me. The recipes were magnificent! Thanks for the very nostalgic walk and knowing I can taste a little of New York no matter where I am!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Quintessential New York - History of NYC food and NYC
Comment: You needn't have ever boiled water to love this book. What a gift! Thank you, Arthur Schwartz. Not only is this a fabulous, true-voice book for anyone who draws breath and has any interests past the tip of his or her own nose, it is a rarity to find such a soulful history. Schwartz somehow manages to make you feel you were there when it all happened -- where it continues to happen. (And I was not fortunate to live in the City). And the recipes are quintessential.
This book should be considered collectible as one of the finest examples of this unique genre. It is 'Pruniers' a thousand times over. You won't read it once and shelve this book; you will reread passages and quotes, so wonderfully complemented by Chris Callis' photographs and all the archival images, and take a little trip into New York City and the world.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Cool knowledge for foodies
Comment: New York City Food is a cool combination of a food history of the greatest city in the world combined with recipes for those of us who hate the fact that we can't get to NYC often enough! It's NOT a restaurant guide, so careful not to try to use it as such. But it's a great read and can help you navigate the Apple's neighborhoods on your next trip. Thanks to this book, I found the "holy grail" of half-done pickles on the lower east side on my last trip!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nicely Done
Comment: This is a great book, written by someone with impeccable credentials ... former chief food columnist for the New York Times, and a NYC born and bred native.
The author delves deeply into the history of NYC, and then works his way forwards to the present era - but he spends most of his time and energy covering the topic from the gilded age of the 1890's through the late 1980's. Between those dates he overviews all the most well known and influential restaurants of the day, along with information on who the movers and shakers were, what was served, and how they influenced the trends of the day. The author also includes about 100 classic recipes, from a wide variety of sources, directly relating to the names that he covers.
The author does the job credit - the historical information is meticulous, the recipes authentic (and he even included a recipe index in the back), and the book is well organized and well packed with classic photos and anecdotes, and plenty of New Vork verve and originality.
Want to know the origins of Steak Diane" ? Porterhouse Steak ? Lobster Newberg ? NYC Pizza ? It's all in there.
Just a few minor nits, in no particular (there are really just my own notes, to serve as a memory jog for eventually writing a letter of feedback to the author).
* Seafood (chapt 2): This chapter was already obsolete at the time it was first published. There are no photos of the Fulton Fish Market (gasp), nor is there any significant coverage of it's recent relocation to uptown. That section DEFINITELY needs update and expansion, both text, photos, and recipes.
* Porterhouse: very interesting and nicely done, but it could be expanded a tad to better clarify the distinction (in modern usage) between the Porterhouse, T-Bone, and Sirloin steaks. Many people are confused by those terms, and usage varies from region to region & country to country, so it's important to clarify the New York usage of those terms. The first two (as I'm sure you already know) are cut from opposite ends of the same "short loin" primal, and the third is from the sirloin primal just behind (rumpward) of that.
* Pictures: the pic of a bagel with lox & cream cheese in the front matter should have been repeated on p.119.
* Italian: the Italian section, at 24 pgs, is only given half the page count as the section on Jewish, at 44 pgs. Understandable I suppose, given that the author is Jewish, but it could use some expansion in a future edition ... the section on pizza, for instance, lacks a recipe, and sausage & peppers is given short shrift. Both can be made easily at home, from scratch, either with or without fancy tools & casings.
* Other nations: the sections on more recent contributions by immigrants from other nations could all be expanded by at least a page each, and include a recipe or two ... Japanese (ex: Nobu), Korean (the name of a top restaurant I went to in Queens escapes me ATM), etc.
* Restaurants: Loved all the historial info, but a few of the blurbs end a bit abruptly, without mention of whether or not they were still open at the time of this book's publication.
* Recipe Index: I wish that more authors remembered to include them. Minor editorial nit - it should have started on a new page, and been clearly differentiated from the main index with a header of some sort.
Customer Rating:
Summary: IF U LUV NY
Comment: Everybody knows about Junior's cheesecake, Mama Leone's, Ebbinger's Bakery, Lundy's (not Lindy's) the Stork Club, 21, etc., But this books brings it all together in a wonderful compendium of insights into the history of great dining in the restaurant capital of the world. No place on earth offers the variety and quality in both Haute Cuisine and everday fare as does NYC. Mr. Schwartz, unlike some actually recognizes that there is more than one borough in NYC and finds the best of the best in all of them. There are beautiful recipes, amusing stories, wonderful pictures in a book that really captures the spirit of the many places it describes.
If U LUV NY and U LUV NY DINING, then you have to have this book.
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