Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery
by James Lileks (Crown )
We asked our resident Food Critic, Alfred E. Arnaud, to review this book, but he was suffering from a case of food poisoning and was unavailable for comment. (Still, we sent him a copy and wish him a speedy recovery.) This lavishly illustrated guide to the "Golden Age of American Cookery" (how's that for an oxymoron?) shines its garish Kleig light on what passed for gas, or rather, snacks, as well as full course meals, from the 1930s through the fab 50's. There's a touch of heartburn—not to mention indigestion—on nearly every page. Indeed, the book's dust jacket might have been a vomit-bag for those with weak stomachs.
To say that food photography has come a long way since the good old days depicted here is a grotesque understatement. The surreal color-shifts (or is it the fault of rotten advertising photographers?) turn vaguely nauseating "creations" into a kind of culinary Nightmare on Elm Street.
Oh, give me your tired "Scalloped Ham 'n Potatoes" yearning to be free... your "Meat Upside-Down Cake," your "Horsey Road-Apple Heap." And, by the way, what's for dessert? Beef-flavored gelatin? I'll take a rain-check.
I don't know if James Lileks knows this, but he has produced a very successful diet book. GASTROANOMALIES will also, inadvertently, help spread the vegetarian cause.
Browse on an empty-stomach and enjoy some hearty belly-laughs. Read on a full-stomach and live to regret it.
If Julia Childs were alive today...she'd be dead.
