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![Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine [ARC] by Edward Lee](https://cdn.thestorygraph.com/d6qj6airt8s5edhde5k61bnsobpm)
207 reviews for:
Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine [ARC]
Edward Lee
3.94 AVERAGE
207 reviews for:
Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine [ARC]
Edward Lee
3.94 AVERAGE
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee was an awesome pleasure to read! I absolutely loved everything about this book! It was real. It was human. Culturally enriching. Diverse. Powerful. Expansive. Brilliantly well balanced. My mouth watered. Constantly. I honestly feel as though I've just gleaned some tightly held cooking secrets while having a pretty dope catch up conversation with my friend.
Lee's anecdotal realness throughout his exploratory search across America for traditional cuisines, provided insight, emotions, a bit of nostalgia and a blasted hankering for every single thing this man had the notion to eat. Buttermilk Graffiti was a really really satisfying read...and I haven't even tried any recipes yet!
This was read with a happy heart from cover to cover and I savored every single word!
I think, too, once you try the recipes in this book, it will probably elevate you from an instablogging foodie to a cook with some mild culinary distinction. Once we embrace (try) the new flavor profiles and become creative with the new to us exotic ingredients list, tweaking each recipe to suit our own palates. It's cool to think of recipes originating from a kitchen half way across the globe, generations ago, but are available here and now to become part of my own kitchen culture. It's cool to think of the way traditions can begin...not just what it takes to continue, carry on or build on one.
This book made me want to lay down some roots, boy. This was solid.
Huge thank you to Artisan Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Lee's anecdotal realness throughout his exploratory search across America for traditional cuisines, provided insight, emotions, a bit of nostalgia and a blasted hankering for every single thing this man had the notion to eat. Buttermilk Graffiti was a really really satisfying read...and I haven't even tried any recipes yet!
This was read with a happy heart from cover to cover and I savored every single word!
I think, too, once you try the recipes in this book, it will probably elevate you from an instablogging foodie to a cook with some mild culinary distinction. Once we embrace (try) the new flavor profiles and become creative with the new to us exotic ingredients list, tweaking each recipe to suit our own palates. It's cool to think of recipes originating from a kitchen half way across the globe, generations ago, but are available here and now to become part of my own kitchen culture. It's cool to think of the way traditions can begin...not just what it takes to continue, carry on or build on one.
This book made me want to lay down some roots, boy. This was solid.
Huge thank you to Artisan Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Buttermilk Graffiti isn't really a cookbook--it's more of a collection of Edward Lee's thoughts and travels throughout America to trace the roots, people and history of various cuisines and food. It is thought-provoking, philosophical and a sentimental book written by someone very clearly passionate about food.
Wow. What a delightful book. I doubt I will make a single one of the recipes included. By the story that Edward Lee tells about the journey of how American food has some to be is intriguing. It reminds me of how I can so love one person’s apple pie and yet totally love another’s just as much. And yet each came to be by the fabric of their own lives cultures and experiences. I especially loved the tale about the cornbread at the end. It was a wonderful journey. It has inspired me to make some of my own favorites and really reminisce about how my own food path has some to be. Refreshing delightful read.
This was the 2024 Community Read through the library, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have picked it up but I did find it interesting
Phenomenal book with a lot of amazing stories, all beautifully told by Lee. I loved how he included parts of history and culture alongside the food he describes.
"No one's gonna come to your aid. You're all alone. You either fight like hell or you get your ass kicked. First time a kid gets his head knocked in, you see if he's got any haht. The ones that don't, they go down and they stay down. You see a kid get back up and fight, that's haht.”
I feel like it’s not fair for me to be rating this because it was for an English class…but I’m doing it anyway.
This book was boring as shit.
It was fine at first but then I discovered my hatred for non-fiction is real.
I feel like it’s not fair for me to be rating this because it was for an English class…but I’m doing it anyway.
This book was boring as shit.
It was fine at first but then I discovered my hatred for non-fiction is real.
I'm on a reading hot streak lately it seems.... this is a tight collection, exploring how the foods of different cultures change and blend across time and geography. Lee's voice is strong and the recipes he contributes look fantastic and original. My new benchmark for culinary writing.
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is a really cool dive into the cultural and culinary histories of a bunch of cities across the US. It's really sweet and personal in places and has an eye on how diversity makes us really special. There's a lot of exploration on the nature of traditional foods and culture and how much is lost in a different country. The writing itself wasn't my favorite and I remember not seeing why some things were included, but it's become something I recommend to my friends who enjoy food or travel writing.
Buttermilk Graffiti is Edward Lee's effort to "give a voice to the people who seldom get one". The opening chapter was on beignets in New Orleans (Cafe du Monde) and as much as I love reading about fried dough, it felt like your typical collection of essays on American food (ok, except maybe for the fact that Lee was introduced to the beignet by a hooker who used to frequent the NYC diner he worked in).
But I read on and learned about Cambodian food in Lowell, Massachusetts (Cambodians make up 40 percent of the population of Lowell and there are more Cambodian restaurants in Lowell than in NYC); Peruvian food in Paterson NJ (home to the largest concentration of Peruvian restaurants in the country); slaw dogs in West Virginia; Shapiro's, which Lee considers "the best Jewish deli" in Indianapolis of all places; Uighur food in Brighten Beach, Brooklyn, as new immigrants from Central Asia have settled in the area; Nigerian cuisine and the Nigerian diaspora in Houston (home to the largest population of Nigerians in the US, estimated at around 150K); Middle Eastern food in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Muslim community in the US; the Old Ballard Liquor Company - an aquavit distillery in Seattle; making Moroccan smen, butter that is washed with water and herbs and left to ferment.
I loved reading about the places and people Lee encountered but truth be told, I didn't love Lee's writing that much. There was something about his voice which just didn't draw me in as much as other food writers like, say, Bourdain or Ruth Reichl. I think I also felt a mix of awe and revulsion at the amount he could pack away on one of his eating trips. Yet, reading this book made me want to go on a road trip in the US right away and visit all those places he wrote about; the last time I felt this way was after reading Charles Kurault's America over a decade ago. Three and a half stars.
But I read on and learned about Cambodian food in Lowell, Massachusetts (Cambodians make up 40 percent of the population of Lowell and there are more Cambodian restaurants in Lowell than in NYC); Peruvian food in Paterson NJ (home to the largest concentration of Peruvian restaurants in the country); slaw dogs in West Virginia; Shapiro's, which Lee considers "the best Jewish deli" in Indianapolis of all places; Uighur food in Brighten Beach, Brooklyn, as new immigrants from Central Asia have settled in the area; Nigerian cuisine and the Nigerian diaspora in Houston (home to the largest population of Nigerians in the US, estimated at around 150K); Middle Eastern food in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Muslim community in the US; the Old Ballard Liquor Company - an aquavit distillery in Seattle; making Moroccan smen, butter that is washed with water and herbs and left to ferment.
I loved reading about the places and people Lee encountered but truth be told, I didn't love Lee's writing that much. There was something about his voice which just didn't draw me in as much as other food writers like, say, Bourdain or Ruth Reichl. I think I also felt a mix of awe and revulsion at the amount he could pack away on one of his eating trips. Yet, reading this book made me want to go on a road trip in the US right away and visit all those places he wrote about; the last time I felt this way was after reading Charles Kurault's America over a decade ago. Three and a half stars.