Famished [978-1-941392-14-0]

$24.95



Author : Heather King



ISBN Code : 978-1-941392-14-0
Language : English
Pages number : 172
Format : Paperback

For Heather King, food serves as an emblem of our collective longing for transcendence and communion. Food---ordinary, everyday food---is a sacrament, a mystery, and a source of unending, ever-replenishing joy.   
 
In this highly personal series of essays---each accompanied by a comforting, inspiriting recipe---King shares her story: one of eight kids in a struggling blue-collar New England family; twenty years of hard-core drinking; a turn as a Beverly Hills attorney she quit for the perilous vocation of writing; cancer; divorce; cross-country road trips; unrequited love. 
 
Through the essays pulses her love affair with the city and food of Los Angeles: foraged fruit, farmer's markets, the 99 Cents Only Store produce section, holiday dinners gone terribly awry, then miraculously righted. 
 
Grounded in the notion of the shared meal as the highest form of communion, Famished revels in the discovery that the human condition is not a sickness to be healed but a paradox to be pondered, mystified by, patiently endured, and madly, eternally celebrated.

Acknowledgments
Introduction 
 
1. Our Holy Hunger
Russian black bread
 
2. Existential Nostalgia
Betty Crocker's brownie pudding
 
3. My Old Man
Fall slaw with apples and bacon
 
4. Apprentice
Smoked bluefish pate
 
5. Dream House
Banana buttermilk pancakes
 
6. A Good Appetite
Chicken legs with kumquats, prunes and green olives
 
7. Everyone's So Fat
Zuppa alla canavesana: grilled bread and cabbage soup with crunchy cheese crust
 
8. My Mercifully Short Life as a Lawyer
Pad thai pesto
 
9. Notes on a Soup Kitchen
Flageolets gratin
 
10. Smiles
Chewy chocolate ginger cookies
 
11. Langer's Pastrami and My Friend Joan
Asparagus glazed with lemon and soy
 
12. Milvio: Food for a Wake
Jeff Dietrich's bread pudding with whiskey sauce
 
13. K-Town: Lost and Found 
Auberge at ojai's chickpea fritters and frisee
 
14. Done with the Chart
Coconut flan
 
15. Rivers and Tides
Romesco sauce
 
16. Food for the Middle of the Night
Ina's grilled gruyere, red cabbage and apple sandwich
 
17. Appalachian Summer
Deviled eggs
 
18. The Traveler Returns
Zankou chicken
 
19. Goodbye to All That
Pho ga: vietnamese chicken noodle soup 
 
20. Pilgrim Feet
Slow-roasted shoulder of pork
 
21. Fast, Pray, Love
Bulgur and lentil pilaf with caramelized onions
 
22. Reality Food
Red and golden beets with blood oranges, endive and walnuts
 
23. The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes: On Being a Host
Tapenade
 
24. Hard Times/Good Times
Chez panisse sauteed greens
 
25. The Prodigal Daughter and the Banquet Table
Quinoa salad with grilled scallions, favas and dates
 
26. The Driveway Garden: On Being a Guest
Peach kuchen
 
27. Feeding the Birds: The LA River
Rosemary corncakes  

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