Mortar and Pestle Kit or Paris Cafe Cookbook

Mortar and Pestle Kit

Author: Gabrielle Tolliver

In earlier times, a sign with a mortar and pestle image marked the location of the town’s apothecary. Today this age-old, two-part tool still comes in handy for grinding spices, making pesto, concocting herbal remedies and potpourris, and other hands-on tasks. The kit includes a nostalgic book of herbal potions as well as a miniature mortar and pestle.

Books about: Operations Strategy or Guide to Meetings

Paris Cafe Cookbook: Rendezvous and Recipes from 50 Best Cafes

Author: Dan Young

Author Daniel Young brings home to American cooks the charm, culture, and food of the fifty best Paris cafe's. Unlike the bistro, the cafe' is a place where you can sit for as long as you like with only a drink -- but the food is so tempting, you'll want to order more than just a cafe' au lait. Here are more than 150 recipes for classics like Coq au Vin and Boeuf Bourguignon, which satisfy cravings for hearty comfort food. Many French favorites such as Pommes Dauphine (Croquettes of Pureed Potatoes) are surprisingly simple and can be prepared in under thirty minutes. Desserts like tarte tatin and chocolate-hazelnut-filled crepes are quintessential French treats and wonderfully easy to make.

Sure to transport even armchair travelers, The Paris Cafe' Cookbook presents stories of rendezvous and routines from the author's travels to cafe's from Ma Bourgogne, situated in the oldest square in Paris, to the Web Bar, a new cyber cafe'. Evocative black-and-white photographs and colorful illustrations accompany the essays and recipes, making this cookbook a delightful gift for food lovers and Francophiles.

Entertainment Weekly

Young does such a beautiful job evoking his favorite Parisian brasseries and redolent food that you can almost hear the butter sizzling.

Houston Chronicle

Paris's cafes and bistros are at the heart of that romantic city's personality and appeal. Young infuses both insight and wit into 50 "people-percolating properties." Among dozens of recipes, he tells how to re-create the Clown Bar's mussels and zucchini salad, Cafe Very's salmon with coconut milk, Le Cafe Marly's tomato and goat cheese cake and Cafe Cannibale's bricks (paper-thin sheets of pastry) with raisins, cucumbers and onions.This hard-cover volume is a keeper.

Hartford Courant

Young.a blatant cafe romantic.writes with a breezy "being there" style that immediately endears the reader to the city's cafes, both legendary and unsung. In addition to his wry observations about cafe culture, Young provides recipes that give American cooks a good taste of contemporary and classic bistro fare.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Offers a richly detailed look at the French capital's cafe culture. As virtual transport for daydreaming Francophiles, c'est magnifique!

New Times Los Angeles

Not only irresistible but essential.It's a worthy descendant of the classic cookbooks Paris Cuisine by James Beard and Alexander Watt (1952) and Watt's Paris Bistro Cookery (1957) and a worthy companion to A Moveable Feast, the essential Hemingway book about his Paris years. You'll find recipes from Hemingway's favorites, Aux Deux Magots and the Brasserie Lipp, as well as Jean-Paul Sartre's and Simone de Beauvoir's inevitable hangout the Cafe de Flore. The recipes comprise "classic French food at its most practical, whether for dishes that can be cooked quickly (croque monsieur, omelettes), in advance (pot-au-feu, roast leg of lamb) or not at all (salmon tartar, composed salads). Even if I didn't enjoy perusing the recipes, I would cherish the book for its evocative black-and-white photographs by Sophie Elmosnino and witty little color drawings by Camille Joste.

Publishers Weekly

Young, a New York City restaurant critic and food commentator, collects recipes from the City of Lights' best-known haunts in this serviceable cookbook. In a slightly smug introduction, Young explains why he--a New Yorker--is qualified to select the best of Paris (he's more open to the city's charm) and suggests that although the dishes he's selected are high in fat, the small portions (along with cigarettes and alcohol) aid Parisians in staying slim. Appetizers include an Onion Tart from Brasserie de l'ile St.-Louis and Mussels and Zucchini Salad with Spicy Mayonnaise from the Clown Bar. The Decadent Mashed Potatoes from Le Cafe Marly live up to their name with 1 1/4 cups butter plus one cup cream. Desserts are the strongest category here: Lemon Tart with Prune Compote from L' te en Pente Douce is pleasantly tangy, while Le Vaudeville's Gratin of Fresh Figs with a Red Wine Sabayon is simple yet original. Descriptions and histories of the cafes themselves are light and fun: despite its name, Cafe Cannibale was created as a place where women could gather without falling prey to cruising men, and the famous clientele at the Cafe de Flore has included Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. The owner called the latter his worst customer ever because he could make one drink last so long.