PDF Garlic and Sapphires The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise eBook Ruth Reichl

Product details File Size 687 KB Print Length 364 pages Publisher Penguin Books; Reprint edition (March 28, 2006) Publication Date March 28, 2006 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B000P0JGM8

Garlic and Sapphires The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise eBook Ruth Reichl Reviews

• Be sure to purchase the newer version, the 2006 edition, with the DVD. It has the darker orange recipe titles, unlike the light yellow text of the original 2004 edition which was difficult to see.
  
  The "look inside this book" feature on this webpage still shows the light-yellow text sample pages, but it also states you will get the newer book version when ordering it. The samples also show the entire index, if you want to see what recipes are in the book. It's an awesome list.
  
  I really enjoyed the DVD, which has four cooking demonstrations of recipes from the book. The experts give detailed tips on what to watch for, as well as techniques, at different stages of the process.
  
  Given the size and scope of the book, it's unfortunate that photos couldn't be included. The illustrations, used as fillers of blank spaces between recipes, weren't helpful in any way (simple line drawings of eggs, milk bottles, herbs, etc.). A detailed drawing of how the dish will turn out, or a small photo, would have been more useful.
  
  There were many beautiful photographs accompanying the recipes in the Gourmet magazines; they could have easily been put into the DVD. Wouldn't that have been great?
• While I, by far, am not a wine or food expert, I loved her stories. In this book ,she goes in disguise to critique the restaurants she will be writing about. Many are quite funny ( in all 3 books) and leave you with a smile or laughing out loud even if you are alone while reading.. I found that reading "Growing up at the table" and "Comfort me with Apples (her first 2 books) were necessary to really appreciate "Garlic and Sapphires" She includes many recipes from restaurants and people she learned from. The lists of ingredients are quite long and the instructions are very detailed making them easy to follow. If you are into fancy cooking, it is a great plus.
• Ruth is such a great author, she writes in such a wonderfully rich and vivid way that I feel as if I am right there with her! I picked up this book because of the disguising part- it intrigued me how you can fool people simply by changing your appearance. Food doesn’t interest me at all- I don’t cook and I don’t enjoy particularly either to eat. Food is just nourishment for me. So I thought those parts where she describes the meals and restaurants would be boring to me. Aha was I wrong! With her vivid prose Ruth can make anything interesting to anybody! Absolutely loved this book and went on to read the rest of her books- and haven’t been disappointed. Meet my new favorite author, Ruth Reichl! You won’t regret picking up this book- or any of her books.
• I had never read anything by this author, and my only attempt at an audio book was not good, but this book was STERLING, both in the subject matter, the narrator (the author herself), and just the writing. I did love the fact that she mixed the "hoity" with we "common folk", because most of us would have distained the hoity....and got some pleasure out of the other. The fancy recipes are lost on me, since I don't cook, but I DO EAT, and some of those lovely foods and wines could almost be tasted in my mouth as I read and felt her very words as she read them to me. At first I only "pampered myself" with this book, while I was walking the treadmill. There were times when I laughed out loud, when she was using her mother's old "gaudy" breastplate necklaces, knuckle finger rings as disguises (which so reminded me of my own deceased mother's jewelry). But there were empathetic times when her little boy wanted her to BE one of the characters she was portraying, rather than herself. I have to admit that as I neared the end of this book, I DRAGGED it out, because I didn't want it to end...and I have felt bereft of a good book without it. I've looked all over on other audiobooks for a replacement, and though I don't particularly WANT to read another book about FOOD, I guess I'm going to have to order another one of Ruth's earlier books because I truly MISS having her in my life and ears! Thanks for a good read!
• I read this book because I've always been fascinated by "undercover" reviewers and the differences in services restaurants render when a reviewer is known or unknown. A friend and I have each, at different times when dining alone, been mistaken for reviewers, with somewhat hilarious (to us) results. That part of the book was very edifying, but what caught me completely by surprise was that the author's writing was so wonderfully descriptive and her enjoyment of each dish so enthralling that I ended up absolutely salivating to try the items reviewed. I am, to be charitable, not an adventurous eater, so sanity resurfaced after a short while, but what an absolute thrill to be so enraptured by a whole new world of tastes, textures, and flavors. I did retain the newly acquired curiosity to separate out each flavor and texture in even the most mundane of foods, and this has added to my enjoyment of eating. You will truly never look at food in the same way again. Great book!!!
• A surprisingly entertaining book. Of course, a newspaper writer should be a good writer, period, but it just didn't occur to me until I got into this. A friend recommended the book and I'm glad she did. There is humor and pathos in this memoir. The writing about the restaurants made me feel like I was sitting right at the table with Ruth (or whomever she was disguised as at the time.) I'm glad the book wasn't just a compilation of restaurant reviews- that would get tedious. Reichl has a real talent for descriptive, humorous, introspective writing. She wrote a couple other books and I will have to have a go at those, as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dining out or reading restaurant reviews. We have a great restaurant reviewer at our local paper and I was thinking he must have had some of the same experiences as this author had. It really makes you appreciate the craft.