Cookbooks - WHY MUST YOU TEMPT ME SO?

So I hit up one of my local Borders after work, coupon in hand, hoping to peruse a Chicago travel book, as I am planning a summer vacation there, but like many other Borders, the store was closing!  It was a rundown madhouse!  Had I known this store in particular was closing, I would have hit it up much earlier.  You know what happens with "EVERYTHING MUST GO" sales?

People like bargains, and so do I.  50%-70% off?  CONSIDER ME SOLD!  Don't you know how much reading costs?!

I know, I know - another cookbook?  I can't help myself.   I would also be lying if I said I thumbed through more than four pages of this $10 discounted book before snatching it up.  Keywords:  food, blog, cookbook. Done.  And I totally judge a book by its cover - and it was so clean and crisp!  And GREEN!

UPDATE:  THUMBED THROUGH SOME MORE PAGES, NOT THAT IMPRESSED : |

I also picked up A Tiger in the Kitchen by Cheryl Lu-Lien.  The one line summary reads as follows: a book about the author's quest to recreate the dishes of her native Singapore during one Lunar Calendar year, as a way to connect food and family with her sense of home.

One of the things I dread the most when I think about losing my parents, other than the obvious, is the losing the sense of Korean culture I have through food.  Who is going to make me kkakdugi?  How will I be able to go home and know that a pot miyeok guk is sitting on the stove?

Cookbooks

I received my first "real" cookbook when I was supposed to be living back at home after college, but mostly living with my boyfriend in his tiny studio.  I had always loved food, but never really invested myself in cooking/baking until I had access to a kitchen that was mine, one that I didn't have to share.  This kitchen that kicked me into high gear was not even mine, and it was an even-tinier-than-the-studio-kitchenette with an electric range.   I still shudder at the thought of those glowing coils, even when I am able to think of the tasty memories Adam and I were able to create there, like the first turkey I ever made in some dollar store disposable roasting pan.

One day, Martha Stewart called out my name in our local Barnes & Noble with her clean, bright cover for Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.  I was a novice and so excited at the thought of owning a legitimate cookbook, and not some $4.00 mega-discounted pasta book, that it was gifted to me at full price, which was a lot for me back then, and even still now.  And I loved it.  Before Adam stopped eating pesto, I used to make this cavatappi with pesto and green beans and potatoes.  Did you know Martha Stewart taught me how to make pesto?  Because she did.

Fast forward four years, two Martha Stewart Living Cookbooks, and one Martha Stewart's Cupcakes later, I'm still in love with cookbooks and refusing to pay full price for them.  I've purchased two in the past week.  While looking for something not-food related at The Strand, I picked up The Best of Bon Appetit, partly because the recipes were simple and manageable, but mostly because of the inscription, dated October 1979:

To George,
May this be the first cookbook you receive for the loft!  See!  Cooking isn't as difficult as it seems!  Love and warm wishes, Bass.

Food on TV

Does anyone remember the name of the first cooking program on tv they remember watching or the chefs that made you think your mom really did not know how to cook?  I only remember the feel.  The chefs were almost never American.  There may have been some instructional voiceovers while they focused on the cooking.  Most importantly, they were in what looked like a real restaurant kitchen.  They were making dishes I can't remember, would probably never make myself and maybe would never even eat.  It was about their skill and the food.  They were chefs!  I was a kid!  I got hooked.

Wikipedia says The Food Network launched on November 1993, when I was ten, but I must have seen some programming on public television before then.  I still hate Emeril Lagasse as much as I did the first time I ever saw him.  Back when The Food Network was about food, and not people who make cupcakes or people who can't cook, Emeril could not be avoided, and he ruined everything.  No, please do not kick it up a notch.  His audience?  They probably stunted any growth I would have had in culinary arts back in the 1990's.  Same with Sandra Lee in the 2000's.

Quality programming I try to catch on the weekends?  America's Test Kitchen. Chuck's Day Off.  I feel the same way about Chuck Hughes that I did about Jamie Oliver in high school.  And that is tingly, ladies and gentlemen.