Tender At The Bone - Growing Up At The Table
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 11/21/2016
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 11/21/2016 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Goodwill shop. I'd enjoyed Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires, and this looks to be more life-and-food writing.
Later: Very enjoyable book - I really like her writing style. She does note up front that "everything here is true, but may not be entirely factual", because "the most important thing in life is a good story". That does make me wonder which bits were exaggerated - the descriptions of her mother's consistently and often literally toxic cooking seem over the top at times - but mainly I just went with the flow and enjoyed the narrative.
In childhood, she learned to cook GOOD food from her aunt Birdie and Birdie's cook Alice, in whose company she found some relief from her mother's mental and emotional problems. There are hints about her father's first wife, of whom nobody in the family will speak at all; young Ruth keeps trying to learn more about her, imagining all sorts of scenarios, but it isn't until late in the book when she learns the truth.
In one traumatic scene, her mother abruptly announces she's taking her to Montreal "for the weekend" - and promptly deposits her in a French-language girls' school there and leaves her. Yeesh! It turns out that this will have dividends for Ruth - she learns fluent French, makes friends, and discovers the wonderful food-related options in the area - but initially the "abandoned by my mother" anguish was all too real. (The book is mostly light-hearted but Ruth's mother is clearly troubled, and their relationship consists of many such shocks and disappointments, though few were as significant as that one.)
As Ruth grows up she makes other friends, discovering that she can reach across racial and class lines with cooking, though this doesn't solve ALL the problems in relationships. She finds work at a troubled restaurant, and while the owner doesn't realize that he's driving his business into the ground, the senior waiter and waitress are each highly skilled and teach Ruth some valuable lessons about restaurant work.
As the years pass, she travels, spends time in a California commune, works for a collectively-owned restaurant, learns to forage from dumpsters (!)... and eventually finds her way to a career in food-writing. But the bare details don't convey the marvelous experience of following along in her memoir - I thoroughly enjoyed the book!
The book includes recipes, many of them quite tempting. The Swallow restaurant's "Pork and Tomatillo Stew" is one I'm planning to try.
Later: Very enjoyable book - I really like her writing style. She does note up front that "everything here is true, but may not be entirely factual", because "the most important thing in life is a good story". That does make me wonder which bits were exaggerated - the descriptions of her mother's consistently and often literally toxic cooking seem over the top at times - but mainly I just went with the flow and enjoyed the narrative.
In childhood, she learned to cook GOOD food from her aunt Birdie and Birdie's cook Alice, in whose company she found some relief from her mother's mental and emotional problems. There are hints about her father's first wife, of whom nobody in the family will speak at all; young Ruth keeps trying to learn more about her, imagining all sorts of scenarios, but it isn't until late in the book when she learns the truth.
In one traumatic scene, her mother abruptly announces she's taking her to Montreal "for the weekend" - and promptly deposits her in a French-language girls' school there and leaves her. Yeesh! It turns out that this will have dividends for Ruth - she learns fluent French, makes friends, and discovers the wonderful food-related options in the area - but initially the "abandoned by my mother" anguish was all too real. (The book is mostly light-hearted but Ruth's mother is clearly troubled, and their relationship consists of many such shocks and disappointments, though few were as significant as that one.)
As Ruth grows up she makes other friends, discovering that she can reach across racial and class lines with cooking, though this doesn't solve ALL the problems in relationships. She finds work at a troubled restaurant, and while the owner doesn't realize that he's driving his business into the ground, the senior waiter and waitress are each highly skilled and teach Ruth some valuable lessons about restaurant work.
As the years pass, she travels, spends time in a California commune, works for a collectively-owned restaurant, learns to forage from dumpsters (!)... and eventually finds her way to a career in food-writing. But the bare details don't convey the marvelous experience of following along in her memoir - I thoroughly enjoyed the book!
The book includes recipes, many of them quite tempting. The Swallow restaurant's "Pork and Tomatillo Stew" is one I'm planning to try.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Green Lawn Cemetery in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, March 5, 2017
GoryDetails at Green Lawn Cemetery in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, March 5, 2017
Released 7 yrs ago (3/5/2017 UTC) at Green Lawn Cemetery in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book, bagged against the elements, at the base of a tree near the cemetery wall about halfway up Cemetery Road. Hope the finder enjoys it![See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2017 Wine+Food release challenge. ***
