GinnVillas - Travel in America, Europe, South America and australia |
|
|
 | | | |
| Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Lobrano
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $9.00
You Save: $7.00 (44%)
Buy New/Used from $9.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  (20 reviews)
Sales Rank: 19359
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0812976835
Dewey Decimal Number: 647.9544361
EAN: 9780812976830
ASIN: 0812976835
Publication Date: April 15, 2008
Release Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 my guardian food angel May 12, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Although I hadn't had a plan to revisit Paris so soon..this book made me want to jump on the next plane and visit quite a number of the restaurants Mr. Lobrano talks about. I delighted in reading his descriptive ancedotes before getting down to the "in a word" and "don't miss". Anyone can write a basic review of a restaurant. Mr. Lobrano's style and voice made me feel like he was speaking directly to me as an old friend, as if he were handing me his personal notes and steering me to the places the average tourist would most certainly miss. If I couldn't be so lucky to have Mr. Lobrano accompany me to dinner, I would most definitely savor his suggestions as if he were my guardian food angel over my shoulder! His creation in "Hungry For Paris" is a masterpiece.
 don't waste your money May 11, 2008
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
I bought this book for a trip to Paris based on a very positive Washington Post review. I bought it to use as a Parisian restaurant guide; I did not find it very useful at all. It is more like a travel essay than a restaurant guide. If you want to experience Parisian restaurants without actually going there, this book may be for you. But if you are planning a trip to Paris and want a restaurant guide, don't buy this book. The author spends a lot of time describing diners who were at the restaurant while he was there. Also, he includes restaurants whose food he found "good" or merely "better-than-average." I had expected to find reviews of 100 restaurants with excellent food -- after all, there are probably thousands of such restaurants in Paris -- but a lot of the reviews in this guide did not seem to be of restaurants the author recommended. I guess to be fair some of the essays are interesting, but I would have preferred more focus on the restaurants and their food, rather than on the author's experiences in eating at these restaurants.
I loved this book! May 10, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved this book, and recommend it to any food lover who is either planning or dreaming about dining out in Paris.
Alec Lobrano is a superb writer and a well-seasoned gourmand, who shares his love and knowledge of delicious French cuisine and great chefs in his own inimitable style. He takes you on a first-class tour inside the best restaurants in Paris as if you were his dinner companion, and lets you taste and experience, albeit vicariously, its finest French and international cuisines and the perfect wines to enjoy with each sampling. .
This book reads like a autobiographical novel, filled with charming, and often amusing, short stories chronicling this world famous gourmet's earliest memories of "eating anything specifically described as French, - the eclairs my mother bought at the A&P supermarket in Westport, CT,... long soggy pastries shaped like hot dog rolls" and "heat-and-serve" frozen croissants, to the canned Vichyssoise , French toast, and beef burgundy stews she made at home, to his savory descriptions of his first experience at age 11, in a real French restaurant, Le Charles V, on the east side of Manhattan, which made him "rabidly anxious to get at some more French food."
Lobrano chronicles his first trips to France with his family and his adolescent awakening to the gastronomic joys of French cuisine, - and the development of his palate as he "ascended the pyramid of French gastronomy and discovered some spectacular food at its higher altitudes," and finding in the end - or at the top of his list - that "it is bistro food, or rustic cooking with deep roots in the various regional kitchens of France, that remains the blessedly eternal bedrock of the French kitchen."
Like a chef, Lobrano describes the ingredients, the preparations, the cooking and serving of the most favored, and simplest, meals of the French people, and also takes us out to dine at the most expensive, moderate, and least expensive restaurants where good French food is always served. His stories about chefs and French celebrities are written with an elegant style of one who has been invited to all the best parties in Paris.
Hungry for Paris is not just a guide book for dining out in Paris, but a veritable masterpiece on the history and culture of French cuisine,
This is a classic!
Finally, a Paris dining guide that has integrity and is actually a great read May 10, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Paris is an easy mark for all the hacks in the world. I know, I lived in Paris for 20 years, and read countless
"guide books" that were nothing more then re-cycled press releases and re-hashed blurbs stolen from other
guide books. But this author, Alec Lobrano, is the rare combination of a great food and restaurant expert and a great writer. Though it has lots of up to date practical information, this book's real pleasure is as a bed-side literary journey into the heart and soul of Paris' foodie culture. It's the real deal, and I'll bet even Alec's anglophone French readers would agree. Even if you're not planning a trip to Paris, well worth the read for any
Francophile day-dreamer. It leaves me hungry for more, and I'll be looking for Lobrano's next book, no matter what the subject.
Great Book ....It's my guide and I know Paris! May 9, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
You can't help but sense Lobrano's passion about every morsel of food he's eaten, as well as his distain when he's been disappointed. He's one of the lucky ones who have been able to convert a passion into a profession. Lobrano is Gourmet's Magazine's European correspondent and has written for nearly every major food and travel magazine since 1986 when he moved to Paris.
But his love of good food started long before he became a Parisian. Lobrano was a gourmet by nature and critiqued food when he was a child living in Connecticut. His book's introduction recounts his first French meal in Manhattan when Alec before he was shaved. When his parents took him to France when he was in his teens, he returned to the US never imagining that he'd end up in Paris assigned to live, eat and write for a living.
His book, "Hungry For Paris - The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants" guides readers as if they are his close and dear friends. If you intend to eat in Paris, he is the masterful mentor, an insider who will show you not only where to eat but how to approach the meal. He also shares his tips about ordering wine and says there's no sin to ordering the restaurant's house wine. But skip the pre-dinner whiskey. It will only deaden your palate and add euros to your bill.
Alec shares his first-hand expertise about what diners should and shouldn't be looking for when going out. He takes readers by the hand and gives them a fast track course in restaurant mores much in the same way Emily Post might have done. You can hear her admonitions that you shouldn't raise your voice or wave your hands to attract a waiter's attention.
This is a MUST BUY book .. even if you're not Paris bound. It's a great read.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |
|