Series:

Evergreen

2 total works

Cover of Octoberfest
Get a handle on this (oh, you do -- the first book that looks like a beer glass?): The Oktoberfest is the biggest fair in the world. For 16 days in the Fall, there is a greater pursuit of hedonism in Munich than anywhere else in the world. Total pleasure, and all we remember is the lager. But there's more. It goes way back, all the way to 1810 and Crown Prince Ludwig's marriage to Therese. They had a horse race, and that was it. By 1875 they had the alcohol license and there was no looking back. Bavarian self-celebration couldn't have been better, but at least there are toasts in all the tourist languages. Munich in October exists in a kind of consumption ""state of emergency."" If you're going to go, you need to get in training, and this masterly tome is the perfect manual. Brush up on the history, the recipes for wurst, the lederhosen. It really is the perfect kitsch companion to male lack of memory after the event. So much so that next year you won't even need to go. Just open up the book and do it all again in the privacy of your own home.

Cover of Truffle Cookbook
Once the exclusive preserve of the kitchens of kings, now truffles are available to anyone with a pig, a dog, a deep wallet or a highly developed olfactory organ. The nose knows, you see. The golden nose will find the truffle and dine out for months on tales of underground prowess in solving the cultivation mystery of the magical vegetable. Half root, half mushroom, the truffle is crown prince of the underground, and because they give off the same odor as the male hormone testosterone, that's where our trained animal associates come in. They know the score, know what's worth hunting for. It's about priorities, and this volume is absolutely on the same track. Not so much a book as a hymn to the truffle experience, it's all here. Learn how the Romans esteemed the big T, follow its progress across the plates of centuries, gaze at the mouth-moistening pictures, and then put your boots on and start looking. Truffle heaven is here. With all-courses recipes from leading truffle-meister Patrick Jaros, who's worked with Munich superchef Eckhart Witzigmann, you too can be a gourmet god. Forget the Lottery, forget the holy grail, somewhere there are truffles with your name on. The Gold Rush has nothing on this.