Going with the Grain : A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Life
by Susan Seligson
List Price:
Our Price: $4.94
You Save: $8.06 (62%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.63 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Susan SeligsonEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-05-18
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 240
Book Reviews of Going with the Grain : A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Life
Book Review: Insensitive and offensive
Summary: 2 Stars
The book is not so much about bread itself but about the author's experiences in various cultures around the world, all connected by the common theme of bread baking. But that is not what bothered me. In fact she is privileged to have many fascinating cultural experiences which could have made for informative and entertaining reading. Unfortunately this was overshadowed for me by her constant stream of critical and demeaning comments about those who were kind enough to be her hosts. She refers more than once to the native food as "slop" and at one point suggests that her host is "in our room sniffing our underwear" while she and her companion are out exploring. Perhaps such comments are intended to be funny but I found them rude and tasteless. I envied the author's experiences but felt sorry for those who showed kindness to her only to be humiliated by her graceless criticism.
Summary of Going with the Grain : A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Life
"My lifelong love affair with bread has less to do with crust, crumb, and the vagaries of sourdough cultures and more to do with bread as a reflection of people's varied beliefs, daily lives, and blood memories....Bread tells the most essential human stories."
So begins Susan Seligson's personal and often humorous journey to discover the secrets of the baker's trade and the place bread has in the lives of those who consume it. Part travelogue, part cultural history, with a handful of recipes thrown in for good measure, it is an exploration of the customs, traditions, and rituals around the creating and eating of this most basic and enduring form of sustenance.
Bread is the stuff of life. Governments have been overthrown and religious rituals created because of it. Fry bread, matzo, ksra, nan, baguette: all are as resonant of their specific culture as any artifact. In Going with the Grain, Seligson wanders the streets of the Casbah in F?s, Morocco, to unlock the secrets of the thousand-year-old communal bakeries there. In Saratoga Springs, New York, she finds a bread maker so committed to making the ultimate loaf, he built a unique sixty-ton hearth and uses only certified biodynamically grown wheat. Seligson knelt in the Jordanian desert beside a woman turning flat breads over glowing embers and plumbed the mysteries of Wonder Bread in an aseptic American factory.
As satisfying as a slice of good bread with butter, Going with the Grain is for the armchair traveler and armchair baker alike.
In Going with the Grain Susan Seligson, "wandering bread lover" and well-published journalist, takes us on a trip around the world. The one thing that these far-flung locations and cultures share--from the Jordanian desert to Saratoga Springs, New York to Shanagarry, Ireland--is bread. Each chapter is a short story in itself. Most of them tell the tale of a well-traveled soul, filled with wanderlust and obsessed with bread. The staple of every culture she visits, the breads come in every size, color, shape, texture, and flavor imaginable, but the real stories lie in the making and baking. Some of her destinations have absolutely no other attraction except the bread and its baker, but the richest among them offer much more than that. Seligson is curious and energetic, open-minded and funny--a combination that makes for interesting reading. Explore the magical Brijendra's kitchen in New Delhi; learn the almost confidential recipe for the United States Army's bread (patent 5059432, with a three-year shelf life); and meet Huntsville, Alabama native Aunt Eunice, famous for her Country Biscuits (recipe included). If you love to eat (and not just bread) and love to travel, Seligson is an entertaining companion. --Leora Y. Bloom
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheesesby Ricki Carroll
Storey Publishing, LLC; Published: 2002-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.45
Price in other shops:
Hungry Planet: What the World Eatsby Peter Menzel
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2007-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.65
Price in other shops:
Going with the Grain : A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Lifeby Susan Seligson
Published: 2004-05-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.35
Price in other shops:
Foods of the Maya: A Taste of the Yucat?nby Nancy Gerlach, Jeffrey Gerlach
University of New Mexico Press; Published: 2002-04-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.57
Price in other shops:
Quick Vegetarian Pleasures : More than 175 Fast, Delicious, and Healthy Meatless Recipesby Jeanne Lemlin
Published: 1992-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.83
Price in other shops:
Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Recipes and Techniques of a World-Class Cuisineby Rick Bayless
Scribner; Published: 1996-10-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
The New Vegetarian Epicure : Menus--with 325 all-new recipes--for family and friendsby ANNA THOMAS
Alfred A. Knopf Publisher; Published: 1996-05-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops:
The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Breadby Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2001-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.07
Price in other shops:
American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizzaby Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2003-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.45
Price in other shops:
Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary FlavorTen Speed Press; Published: 2007-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.94
Price in other shops:
Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, the Way It Is Made, and the People Who Make Itby Steven Kaplan
Duke University Press; Published: 2006-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.75
Price in other shops:
Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade Naturalistby Daniel B. Botkin
Published: 2004-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.26
Price in other shops:
Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy Historyby H.E. Jacob
Skyhorse Publishing; Published: 2007-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.87
Price in other shops: