A16: Food & Wine

 

I collect cookbooks and worked as a cookbook buyer briefly, enjoying every moment.  However, if you are wary about investing in them, have you ever tried your local library?  My little library in Alameda has a surprising number of old and new cookbooks, including a few food literature books.  My last haul included Ruth Riechl's Garlic & Sapphires, Marco Pierre White's The Devil in the Kitchen, and A16: Food & Wine.

I love the idea of a cookbook having a huge section on wine before you even get to the recipes.  I like interesting, flavorful, and light recipes even more.  Get this cookbook.

I've had two meals at A16 before, both good.  The restaurant itself has a crazy controlled madness to it, not too different from Au Pied de Cochon in Montréal.  An octopus recipe caught my eye - where can I find a whole octopus that's uncooked?  It's proving surprisingly difficult to find here, maybe because they are quite large and I can see fishmongers not really wanting to carry an unpopular product that takes a lot of space.  But I'm determined!

Last night, I made Short Ribs alla Genovese, which were a hit.  Not only do you get tender meat and sauce, but plenty of sweet braised onions that will go into a French onion soup tonight.  I loved the fact that even though the recipe didn't call for stock, it was flavorful and easy, especially served with creamy polenta and broccoli.

Get this cookbook!

After resisting Myspace and Facebook, I randomly find myself now on Twitter.  Let's see where this goes!

Bon Appétit!