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Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery
by James Lileks
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Crown (2007-11-27)
ISBN: 0307383075
EAN: 9780307383075
Dewy Decimal #: 641.50207
Hardcover: 176 pages
Release Date: 2007-11-27
SKU: 08030509
Condition: Like New Like New
Comments: Hardcover. Like new cover and text. Like new dust jacket with very minor shelfwear. Near Fine condition. Beautiful book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
It was a time of innocence, nuclear families, traditional values . . . and BAD FOOD.
In an era where cooks wanted to put their best foot forward, there was no end to the creative, cost-efficient, and cream-based dishes that disgraced the family dinner table, the cocktail party, or the neighborhood BBQ. Recipes involving ingredients like ground meat, bananas, and cottage cheese sound innocent enough—unless you mix them all together in a strange attempt to cover every food group at once.
In Gastroanomalies, James Lileks gathers another remarkable assortment of dishes that once inspired cooks to brave new heights but now inspire sour stomachs and thoughts of “how did I survive?” Highlighted with excerpts from bizarre cookbooks (like Joan Crawford shilling for Bisquick), dubious images (is it meat or chocolate ice cream?), ads heralding the latest in kitchen technology (how about a bacon-egger?), and Lileks’s acerbic, off-the-wall commentary (“Put your ear close, and you can actually hear the meat screaming in terror”), Gastroanomalies is an irresistible retro documentation of a bygone era when artisanal cheese and vegetables lightly steamed (not boiled to mush) were still light-years away. Gastroanomalies will have foodies, baby boomers, and lovers of kitsch in stitches.
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Customer Reviews
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Gastroanomalies
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-05-17
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Overweight? Contemplating costly, possibly painful surgical procedures?
Wait! Consider the James Lileks food aversion technique. After reading
GASTROANOMALIES and it's companion volume GALLERY OF REGRETTABLE FOODS you'll find yourself saying things like..."No thanks. No, really. I couldn't eat another bite."
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What is that on your Plate?
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-05-03
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you have ever looked at your mom's old cookbooks and thought to your self - "what is that? and why would you eat it?" - this is the book for you. Mr. Lileks has found a way to make meatloaf "laugh out loud" funny. He really has a way of making even the most common things hilarious. I bought it for my sister who is a chef. She thought it was a scream!!
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Okay
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-03-29
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Mildly amusing. It's easy to write satire about things that are of that age -- but in fact most of the food would be pretty good, none of it would be worse than the same sort of stuff published in a thousand magazines published every day -- and I wouldn't mind having one of those pink refrigerators. (Warning: I actually own a pink electric stove of the early 60's. It's great.)
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Frequently hysterical, often crude
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-02-28
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is one of those books that just takes a certain sense of humor. I've got it, regrettably my wife, for whom I bought this book, does not.
James Lilieks' descriptions of the illustrations from the age of casseroles and weird food are typical of his dry, biting humor that is seen throughout his other works. Unfortunately, there is also some toilet humor involved, which may make you want to think twice about who you are getting this for, be it yourself or someone else.
Basically, I suspect you are either going to love this book (if you already enjoy James Lileks, you will), or you're going to go, "why did I buy this?"
Either way, James won't take any prisoners along the way and not even Jell-O (tm) escapes his pen.
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LAUGH TILL YOU CRY!!!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-01-27
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
James Lileks is FANTASTIC. Hands down, bar none, point blank and period. (insert more gushing here). I ordered his Interior Desecrations book, and laughed until I was breathless and wet with tears. So I bought EVERYTHING else he had on Amazon. Gastroanomalies pokes fun at the recipes and other culinary abominations from the 50s and 60s. His sense of humor is sarcastic and reminds me of Dennis Miller and Bill Maher and Eddie Izzard all put together, and mocking recipes and interior design choices from the American past. You WILL love his books if you love hanging out with that friend who always has a snarky comment about weird things you see when you hang out.
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