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What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes
Stories and Recipes
RENOWNED VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK AUTHOR Deborah Madison set out to learn what people chew on when there isn't anyone else around. The responses are surprising-and we aren't just talking take-out or leftovers. This is food-gone-wild in its most elemental form.
In a conversational tone, What We Eat When We Eat Alone explores the joys and sorrows of eating solo...more
RENOWNED VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK AUTHOR Deborah Madison set out to learn what people chew on when there isn't anyone else around. The responses are surprising-and we aren't just talking take-out or leftovers. This is food-gone-wild in its most elemental form.
In a conversational tone, What We Eat When We Eat Alone explores the joys and sorrows of eating solo...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
May 1st 2009
by Gibbs Smith
(first published January 3rd 2009)
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Ok, I may be in the minority on thinking this book was "amazing" but it was such a joy to read and gave me much time to self-reflect on the solitary meals of my own life that it I can't really keep from marking it highly. (Is it that that I reflect on solitary meals...hmmm)
I found myself nodding in agreement, laughing at shared experiences, and generally feeling part of a club, a "solo diner club" if you will. While my days of solo eating are less frequent, they do exist on a regular basis and I...more
I found myself nodding in agreement, laughing at shared experiences, and generally feeling part of a club, a "solo diner club" if you will. While my days of solo eating are less frequent, they do exist on a regular basis and I...more
This book was surprisingly entertaining. The two foodie authors, when on food related trips with other industry professionals, were in the habit of breaking the ice asking people what they liked to eat when they were having a meal alone. While some responded predictably (chefs preparing scallops or risotto for a solo meal, or ranchers with a "beef-beef-beef" menu) other responses were surprising. For instance, a sizeable portion of people, even well-known chefs or organic farmers, find comfort i...more
This book was ... ok. The premise was interesting and the illustrations were good, but it was kind of elitist in its approach to the things people eat when they eat alone. For example, the author expressed disappointment in how many people said they eat cold cereal when they are alone, and seemed almost embarrassed when their friends talked about the processed foods they liked (the redo of the 7-11 version of "Frito Pie" is almost laughable in its complexity.)
The author also spends a lot of time...more
The author also spends a lot of time...more
Jul 29, 2011
Catherine Woodman
added it
I read this book because I have had a 30 year love affair with Deborah Madison, going back to her Tassahara days (she and Ed Brown taught me how to make bread, and how to shape bread--they started my college years off on an incredibly good foot)--culminating with Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, one of the all time best cookbooks ever. This book is not great--it is a book about how people eat when they eat and cook for themselves when they are alone--it is really a book of musings about people h...more
I was hoping for some off-the-wall, interesting, original recipes and/or thoughts from this book. I've already read "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant", another book on individual eating patterns, and enjoyed some of the funny essays in that book.
This book did not have the depth of "Eggplant", nor did it give any startling revelations. Men eat more steaks and burgers, women eat more salads, as a general rule. Lots and lots of southwestern recipes, which was kind of intriguing. Maybe those ty...more
This book did not have the depth of "Eggplant", nor did it give any startling revelations. Men eat more steaks and burgers, women eat more salads, as a general rule. Lots and lots of southwestern recipes, which was kind of intriguing. Maybe those ty...more
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Another dissapointing book. I love Deborah Madison's cookbooks, and hoped that this book would include some really good recipes that were new to me, and that were particularly suited to making for yourself. I found that there was nothing really unexpected in the better tasting meals. There were plenty of funny confessional stories about eating cottage cheese & ketchup or ice cream for dinner. Here's what was a surprise: the men made a lot nicer meals for themselves than the women. And they a...more
I love Deborah Madison's cookbooks and recipes, but this little book was a disappointment. Basically Madison and her husband, Patrick McFarlin, asked a bunch of people what they eat when they're on their own and wrote it down. Despite the anecdotal nature of their research, the repeatedly made unwarranted generalizations about the eating habits of men and women. Plus the food described was not particularly interesting, and the chapters and descriptions were somewhat repetitive. Then, inexplicabl...more
I was particularly interested in this title as a frequent (almost constant!) solo diner...some nights I'm a popcorn and beer person, some nights I cook a big pot of something that will last all week, and at least once a week I make myself a really nice meal. I know other solo diners who are astounded that I cook for MYSELF...Who else do they think will be cooking for me, or whom better should I cook for? I'm astounded by the people who eat in restaurants rather than cook for themselves, or worse...more
2 likes · like · see review
This book was nice visually, but it wasn't really that cohesive. It was basically a lot of random anecdotes about what people eat when they eat along--from people who eat really odd things, to people who eat whatever they can purchase in a liquor store, to people who do strange things with leftovers. There is a lot of color in the book and a bunch of recipes, but I am only copying one. I thought about copying an avocado and grapefruit salad, but I felt that would not be productive, since, I, in...more
The title of this book was the first thing to grab my eye, as eating alone whether at home or in a restaurant is always a delight, perhaps because it doesn't happen that often. Madison presents many eccentric eaters and both haphazard and gifted cooks in this beautifully bound work published by Gibbs Smith. Dozens of stories tell of private culinary pleasures enjoyed in solitude - food favorites that no one should ever know of, long remembered childhood tastings, and exquitely crafted meals both...more
This was a gift - and a lovely one at that!
I think if one were to buy this thinking it's a cookbook, they would be disappointed. Likewise if it was purchased as a food memoir. Actually, it is a combination of the two.
The author sets out to discover what people eat when they're alone. Often the answers to this question are surprising. Many times the most accomplished cooks, when left to themselves, would indulge in something simple like sardines on toast or yogurt over roasted potatoes.
It made...more
I think if one were to buy this thinking it's a cookbook, they would be disappointed. Likewise if it was purchased as a food memoir. Actually, it is a combination of the two.
The author sets out to discover what people eat when they're alone. Often the answers to this question are surprising. Many times the most accomplished cooks, when left to themselves, would indulge in something simple like sardines on toast or yogurt over roasted potatoes.
It made...more
I have "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" and I use it all the time, so I was really looking forward to this book. However it was a gender role train wreck. Evidently women cook all the time and men really know how to "batch" it. (Who knew that bachelor conjugated as "batch.")
Sadly the recipes in this book did seem enjoyable. And I would like to own this book for that reason, but the kitchen gender stereotypes really irked me. So back to the library this book goes and I don't think it will be on...more
Sadly the recipes in this book did seem enjoyable. And I would like to own this book for that reason, but the kitchen gender stereotypes really irked me. So back to the library this book goes and I don't think it will be on...more
I put What We Eat When We Eat Alone on my tbr list after reading about it on Omnivoracious a few years ago. I liked the idea of finding out what other people eat when they eat alone. It's kind of like snooping.
What We Eat When We Eat Alone reminded me a lot of The Everlasting Meal. Rather than just a collection of recipes, When We Eat When We Eat Alone combines stories about food and eating with recipes. Just like The Everlasting Meal, When We Eat When We Eat Alone gave me a lot of ideas and a r...more
What We Eat When We Eat Alone reminded me a lot of The Everlasting Meal. Rather than just a collection of recipes, When We Eat When We Eat Alone combines stories about food and eating with recipes. Just like The Everlasting Meal, When We Eat When We Eat Alone gave me a lot of ideas and a r...more
This was a fun book to read about other people's solo experiences of cooking . . . and dining alone. You'd think my great curiosity for how other people live their lives would have divined me to studies in anthropology, but it did not. I loved getting a look in the kitchen of my fellow single cooks and what concoctions they were mixing up, and the efforts they were putting in for just themselves. I appreciated the like feelings they had for it not only being okay to dine alone, but to appreciate...more
There's not quite enough talking to be a memoir but far too much to be a cookbook. It lands somewhere in between. Many of the antidotes here are recipes of foodies. That might be a good thing.
I tend to think of eating alone food to be things you can concoct out of leftover ingredients from other meals, not something you'd shop for in advance, but these recipes tend to call for things that the average cook wouldn't have on hand reliably, like prosciutto, or freshly grated parmesan cheese, or (for...more
I tend to think of eating alone food to be things you can concoct out of leftover ingredients from other meals, not something you'd shop for in advance, but these recipes tend to call for things that the average cook wouldn't have on hand reliably, like prosciutto, or freshly grated parmesan cheese, or (for...more
This book has an interesting premise (or what I thought was the premise), and that is, we feed ourselves very differently when we are alone than when we are dining with others. It starts out with a story about how one of the authors attended a class where each student wrote down what they ate over the course of the week. The students were not to put their names or any other information on the page; then the instructor shuffled the pages and passed them back out to someone else in the class. From...more
Uh. Well, I could do without the "men are like X; women are like Y" business throughout. Also, is this book organized? At all? The subject matter is divided into chapters, but none seem to have more than a very vague purpose except the last, which focuses, oddly, on "seductive food." Wasn't this a book about eating alone? What is going on here?
I think the real issue is that Deborah Madison writes cookbooks, not books of essays or stories, and the consequent lack of structure just makes this less...more
I think the real issue is that Deborah Madison writes cookbooks, not books of essays or stories, and the consequent lack of structure just makes this less...more
All of my books on hold at the library came in at the same time. Good thing I have been sick and couldn't do anything else. And, also, good thing this little book is light and frothy and fun and a fast read. I actually thought this was going to be a diet book of some kind that encouraged the single eater to be more congnizant of their eating habits when they are alone. But, NO! It is way more fun than that. The authors seek advice just in conversations, and not very scientifically, from people w...more
I enjoyed it, especially because I've now added sardines on toast to my food repertoire since reading the book. (I love sardines on toast! Sardines packed in olive oil mixed up with some mayonnaise, and sliced tomatoes on top. Mmm! Am looking forward to trying it with some balsamic vinegar.)
Personally, I cook pretty much the same way alone as I did when I lived with a partner, and as I did when cooking with roommates. I tend to cook for 4, as I like leftovers, and depend on them for lunches thro...more
Personally, I cook pretty much the same way alone as I did when I lived with a partner, and as I did when cooking with roommates. I tend to cook for 4, as I like leftovers, and depend on them for lunches thro...more
Unlike Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, this is really just about the food. And because it's what people in a very particular circle eat, there's not a lot of variety to the recipes. But they do sound tasty and almost all sound very quick/easy/affordable. A remarkable amount of blue cheese appears. As a bonus, it looks like doubling a solo recipe to feed two is significantly easier than starting with a recipe for 4-6 and cutting it down. You have to be willing to take all the sweeping gene...more
I read this in one sitting. It’s interesting. I love the topic and the recipes are good. Makes me think about what I eat when I am left to my own devices.
When I am alone I eat boxed macaroni and cheese with peas and tuna. Sometimes I eat fried egg sandwiches with avocado or goat cheese, crackers, cherry tomatoes, and dark chocolate. Other times I eat vegetable tofu stir fry with Sriracha hot sauce and lots of sticky Jasmine rice.
When I am alone I eat boxed macaroni and cheese with peas and tuna. Sometimes I eat fried egg sandwiches with avocado or goat cheese, crackers, cherry tomatoes, and dark chocolate. Other times I eat vegetable tofu stir fry with Sriracha hot sauce and lots of sticky Jasmine rice.
I loved the illustrations in this book, and there were bright spots here and there. The title sums it up pretty well, but I'm not convinced that the majority of Americans rummage up a bit of fresh chervil to garnish their solo dinners with. Let's hear it for cold cereal!
But I do love reading about food. And I really liked this quote: "The food we offer might well lead to marriage, which shows how powerful cooking for another can be."
But I do love reading about food. And I really liked this quote: "The food we offer might well lead to marriage, which shows how powerful cooking for another can be."
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This book is unlike other food books I have read. Unlike many books which try to tell you what to eat when you eat alone, or how to feel about it, this book presents to you what different people eat when they cook for themselves. Because of this, it is oddly more useful than many books which do try to tell you what to do. I finally ate sardines on toast. I will write more after I try more of the suggestions.
Good recipes in here from a favorite cookbook author - Deborah Madison. I had thought I'd copy a few of the recipes before returning it to the library, but there are so many keepers I decided to go ahead and buy the book. This is despite the fact that I was irritated by the "eating alone is a rare anomaly" assumption referred to more than once in the course of the book. As someone who eats almost all meals solo, I felt unjustly ignored - altho I suppose that "we" in the title should have clued m...more
Ending was a tiny bit of a let down, but overall I love this book, the informal interviews and statistics. The recipes are interesting, sound good and a few of them are complex while others are simple. Going to buy this book. The writing reminds me of some of the short stories I had to read in Creative Writing class. The writing is sometimes simplistic, but also poetic. Just wonderful.
This is more a musing on eating solo than a cookbook, though there are recipes. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and how many of the recipes appealed to me. Nothing particularly astounding here, but there were some fun observations, charming illustrations, and the bonus cameo appearance of one of my favorite artists, James Turrell. Delightful.
This wasn't really the book I was hoping for. As a quirky, undisciplined collection of what various people do when they are eating along, well--it is. Are some of those entertaining? Sure.
But the recipes are...not inspiring. The vignettes are...flat. Even when they interview someone who is familiar to me (in this case, Laura Calder, author and host of French Cooking at Home, I was left feeling...meh.
I really was hoping for something insightful about how people do in solitary fashion something wh...more
But the recipes are...not inspiring. The vignettes are...flat. Even when they interview someone who is familiar to me (in this case, Laura Calder, author and host of French Cooking at Home, I was left feeling...meh.
I really was hoping for something insightful about how people do in solitary fashion something wh...more
Meh...I'd hoped for a more entertaining and revelatory book about people's secret eating habits. This is more like a really long magazine article with one recitation after another of people's impromptu, informal ideas of what to fix when you're alone. In between chapters there are sections with more formal recipes, which may be helpful to you if you like a lot of meat, seafood, and cheese.
There were a few revelations that did gross me out. One person eats bread dipped in margarita mix, and a cou...more
There were a few revelations that did gross me out. One person eats bread dipped in margarita mix, and a cou...more
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I started reading this book while Geoff was gone for three weeks, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I've loved Deborah Madison for a long time; her "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" is my go-to cookbook.
I got my copy of the book from the library, but I can see buying it to keep for the recipes. This would be a fun book to give as a graduation gift for those heading to college, or anyone who is newly taking on some sort of "single" status. And the recipes could easily be doubled for two, w...more
I got my copy of the book from the library, but I can see buying it to keep for the recipes. This would be a fun book to give as a graduation gift for those heading to college, or anyone who is newly taking on some sort of "single" status. And the recipes could easily be doubled for two, w...more
No stars, because I can't figure out how to rate something that I have a love/hate relationship with.
I liked this. It was fun to think about the nature of people and how we eat.
As for the last chapter: encouraging people to sin with special seductive menus is wicked, and I don't mean "cool". I mean shame on you, Deborah Madison!
I liked this. It was fun to think about the nature of people and how we eat.
As for the last chapter: encouraging people to sin with special seductive menus is wicked, and I don't mean "cool". I mean shame on you, Deborah Madison!
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Deborah Madison is an American chef, writer and cooking teacher. She has been called an expert on vegetarian cooking and her gourmet repertoire showcases fresh garden produce. Her work also highlights Slow Food, local foods and farmers' markets.
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May 20, 2009 11:35am