Comments on: Book Review: Fat of the Land, by Langdon Cook

By: admin

admin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:55:18 +0000

@Rach – I should add that I am a fan of Nigel Slater too. I thoroughly enjoyed Toast which reminded me greatly of the suburbs of Manchester circa 1980 and my own upbringing. I may have expressed myself inexpertly, but I meant to suggest that I liked Slater’s memoir because it largely avoided all the “when I was a lad everything was better…” cliches.

By: denise (chez danisse)

denise (chez danisse) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:20:50 +0000

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions. I’ve been intrigued by this book for a while now.

By: rach

rach — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:23:49 +0000

Good write up Jonny – very good.
I quite liked ‘toast’ though..but then I have a soft spot for Nigel as he used to say hello to me in Neals yard cheese shop (yes yaya London town) he always seemed to be dropping things.
I have ordered ‘Fat of the land’ thanks to this review.

By: jaden

jaden — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:43:04 +0000

I used to live in Hollywood and just down the street was a chicken ‘n waffles place…it was packed EVERY NIGHT….

By: Paz

Paz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:36 +0000

Thanks for sharing this review with us. I’m interested in reading the book now.

Paz

By: Lang

Lang — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:12:41 +0000

At the risk of being gauche (hah, love that word and its haughtiness), I’m gonna jump in here to second Heather’s kudos for Jonny’s perspective. Though FOTL is something of a love letter to the Northwest, my hope is that it will burst through the regional curtain to bring its ideas about food/nature/landscape/recreation/health to a broader market. Yes, razor clams are a PNW specialty–but clamming has a rich history on the East Coast as well, and folks should be pissed about places where the shellfish beds have been polluted or looted into non-existence. Same with Dungeness crabs vs. blue crabs, or salmon vs. stripers. And then there’s a whole bunch of content about wild foods that are found coast to coast: stinging nettles, dandelions, fiddleheads, mushrooms, berries, and so on.

But politics and messages aside, I hope mostly that readers enjoy the storytelling at the heart of these essays. For me, foraging is about spending good times in the outdoors and then enjoying the fruits of my labors around the hearth with friends, eating real food and telling stories. Thanks again to Jonny for his excellent review!

By: admin

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:25:32 +0000

heather – you’re right: the issues of land and resource use, and conservation vs. exploitation were fascinating aspects of this book. Hunting is largely an anathema to me, but i will concede that the hunting lobby has been instrumental in saving large tracts of America’s wilderness from development into sub-divisions.
Peter – what, at first glance, I thought was a clump of fungus/mushrooms under a tree in the park the other weekend, turned out to be several mold-covered dog turds. Lang is strangely quiet about this phenomenon. Funny that, eh?
Tina – don’t let anyone make you feel bad about collecting your own dandelions. You should be the one mocking them for spending hard-earned money buying weeds you can pick for free!

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:03:37 +0000

Also, Heather is a total hippie.

I’m going to buy this as soon as I have the time to actually read it. Probably around holiday time. Nice review.

Are you scouring Prospect Park for wild greens and mushrooms yet?

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:08:04 +0000

Great review, Jonny. I really enjoyed reading another person’s perspective on Lang’s book. His subject matter is one that is perhaps closer to home for me (figuratively and literally), and its political aspects had somewhat escaped me. Most of the reviews on Amazon are from folks who also live in the PacNW, and I think they share a bit of regional pride (read: bias) that your review refreshingly avoids.

By: Núria

Núria — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:54:48 +0000

Thanks! I’ll see if I can find it here or wait until Amazon finally opens in Spain. Can’t wait for that