Cooking from Burma: Rivers of Flavor

Fall is one of my favorite times—the leaves are turning, the back to school buzz starts up, and the newest cookbooks are released. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the Artisan Cookbook Challenge—where a few booksellers across the country cooked through Naomi Duguid’s gorgeous new book, Burma: River of Flavor.

I had never had Burmese food before, but imagined that it might resemble some of the cuisines from Burma’s borders: Thailand, India and China.
Looking through the book, it became clear that while Burmese food shares some characteristics with these other cuisines, it has a unique flavor all of its own.
After much salivating, I narrowed down my choices to items that we could enjoy throughout the week.

Our Menu:
Tender Greens with Crispy Fried Shallots

Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad
Tart-Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce
Easy grilled chicken
Kachin Pounded Beef with Herbs
Lemongrass Pork Sliders
Tapioca-Coconut Delight

Duguid recommends that you make some of the Burma Basics in advance—so I fried up shallots and garlic, distilled the oils, toasted up chickpea flour and made the chile garlic sauce in advance. All of these basics were easy to put together, and keep in the fridge or on the shelf for a few weeks!

We made the Tender Greens with bok choy and spinach. It was a delicious salad that was easy to put together, but had surprising depth of flavor. The greens are quickly blanched in boiling water and drained. They are then chopped and tossed with a number of elements that add crunch and texture: fresh shallots, chopped peanuts, fried shallots and garlic. Then the salad is lightly coated with toasted chickpea flour and dried shrimp powder that add both flavor and unctuousness. Finally, lime juice and shallot oil are massaged into the greens for a light vinaigrette.
The Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad was equally easy: carrots are grated on a box grater, then lightly pounded with lime juice and fish sauce to soften. They’re tossed with crunchy roasted peanuts and fried shallots, coated lightly with the shrimp powder & toasted chickpea flour and tossed with chile, salt and a little fresh mint or coriander. It was sweet and spicy and refreshing all at the same time.

The Easy Grilled Chicken was hands down my sweetie’s favorite. I rubbed bone-in chicken breasts with a flavor mixture made of turmeric, chile powder, minced garlic and ginger, and a little fish sauce. We threw them on a hot grill for about twenty minutes and the end result was fantastic—well seasoned, complex flavor in the breast meat with lightly charred skin. Delicious!
My favorite was the Kachin Pounded Beef—which is simmered with evocative Sichuan pepper, lightly seared and then pounded with a spice mixture that includes chile powder, a bit more toasted Sichuan pepper, ginger, garlic and fresh coriander. The resulting mixture was delicious and aromatic served on jasmine rice, with a little Chile Garlic Sauce to give it heat.

The Lemongrass pork sliders were a fun addition to the meal—the lemongrass, ginger, shallots and garlic add flavor, while jasmine rice binds what is essentially, a Burmese meatball. We ate them with rice and greens, but had fun imagining additional serving suggestions: on a baguette with carrot salad and fresh coriander heaped on top; or in a soup, perfumed with ginger and garlic.

We ended our meal with the Tapioca-Coconut Delight—I cooked pearls of tapioca with sugar and then cooled them. Meanwhile, I whisked together egg yolks with brown sugar and coconut milk that had been thickened with a bit of rice flour. Once this thickened, I poured it over the tapioca layer and cooled again. We served a scoop with fresh peaches for a light finish to our flavorful meal.



Duguid is known for writing thoughtfully researched cookbooks that make foods from far-flung areas accessible to those of us stateside. This book doesn’t disappoint. It’s chock full of information about Burma’s political and cultural history, that adds meaningful background; it includes a handy guide to pairing recipes for both larger meals and weeknight suppers; and lovely photographs of the people and food top off the collection. With a small investment of time, and almost no specialty equipment or special skills required, we were transported to the rivers of flavor that Burma has to offer.
~Stesha

Slicing shallots for Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil

Slicing garlic for Fried Garlic and Garlic Oil

Frying shallots

Tart-Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce

Preparing the greens

 

Mis en place for Tender Green Salad

Tender greens with crispy fried shallots

 

Grating carrots

Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad

Easy grilled chicken

Aromatics for Kachin Beef

Kachin Pounded Beef with Herbs

Aromatics for Lemongrass Sliders

Lemongrass sliders

Tapioca-Coconut Delight with fresh peaches

= ALL THINGS JULIA =

[August 15th celebration of J.C.'s 100th birthday!]

In just a few days time we will be celebrating all things Julia at University Book Store. After the release of the book and movie Julie and Julia - who could not like a movie staring the incomparable Meryl Steep and Stanley Tucci -interest in Ms. Child's books skyrocketed.

I, myself, have started using her and Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Julia*:

I even blogged about it at another of my blogs, if you are interested. So far, I have successfully used three recipes to my utmost satisfaction: Irish soda bread; poundcake; and a very simple biscuit recipe. With my success there I have no doubt that all of her cookbooks are splendid. And I wouldn't deny others the pleasure of buying them for me for, say, Christmas presents (lol.)

There really is so much to love about Julia, and the recently released and critically acclaimed bio by Bob Spitz called Dearie is now on our bestseller list (hence a nice reduced price is available to you n-o-w!), further testament to our love of ALL THINGS JULIA!

So, come and join us in the celebration of her 100th birthday party. We are "hosting a little party to celebrate the woman and the icon. Local food writers will be on hand to share personal stories about Julia and read from her letters. We'll have some French music and of course, some cake. Bring your favorite dish from Julia to share. Bon appetit!" The shindig will be held at our University District location, and your attendance automatically allows you to get up to two hours free parking.

~Jan

aka cookbook shelver

and calendar girl (and yes, the 2013 calendars are pouring in as I write this!)

*Purchased it when it was available for sale as a bargain book. Oooo la la! :P

**Quote from our monthly Reading Allowed publication. We print out this schedule for our patrons and it is also available on-line. Sign-up for the on-line edition when you are next in the store.

BIG SUMMER 

BOOK SALE

(on select new, used & bargain books)

We are in the midst of another great sales event, our BIG SUMMER BOOK SALE! And just for fun I went out onto the sales floor to see what kind of gems might be available at seriously discounted prices. Here's what I found.

A used copy of Queen Victoria's Sketchbook, further reduced for the sale, which is made more interesting for me because I have watched the movie Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, several times. It makes my heart glad to see the watercolors she lovingly sketched of her husband-to-be Edward.

(Please note: The Young Victoria dvd is not on sale per se,

but we do have a few copies available at the regular low price seen above.)

Rogers and Hammerstein's Sound of Music Fingerstyle Guitar Notes and Tab speaks for itself. Right?!

am & pm Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss dvd. The focus seems to be about the breath and not the weight loss, which is more of what I am interested in. Hopefully it will not be too hard for me.

Christiane Northrup, M.D.'s book the Wisdom of Menopause. I have been meaning to get a copy for a while now, and this appears to be the perfect time. What books might it be the perfect time for you to find? Are you curious?

Ethan Canin's the Palace Thief which--when it came out--the New York Times wrote was marvelous ... "a commanding performance" by Mr. Canin. I've been in the mood for short fiction this summer, and so this should do the trick.

I look forward to seeing you here. The sale started at 50% off the prices listed, and will continue until we get all the way down to 90% off. I recommend coming early when the selection is the best.
~Jan
bookseller
calender girl

Hot off the press: a book with a cover that I (we*) love! Plus, what's between the covers, the guts of the book, is just so much fun. Lots of 80's trivia, much-much more than I knew, but that doesn't prevent the reader from imagining what the characters might have to go through to learn and grow in the virtual Oasis universe. I have been waiting for READY PLAYER ONE to come out in paperback so that I can share a GREAT READ, at an affordable price, just in time for summer and beach reading. And now it is here!

http://www4.bookstore.washington.edu/_trade/ShowTitleUBS.taf?ActionArg=Title&ISBN=9780307887443&SKU=&sdb=ALL

If you go to the link just above there's an well-written, informative blurb posted about the book, hence my job is done. Or is it? I will say that I have no problem imagining the future-world that Mr. Cline writes about. And since I've been hearing a lot about world building lately, I will say that, while in the midst of reading, Ernest Cline convinced me that I was a shut-in just like his main man Wade Watts.

This is not a book to go into all the gory details of how miserable life is in this future Earth, rather it is all about how Wade sees the alternative virtual reality and how that helps him make friends with other players looking to find some kind of way out of their lot.

Hopefully I have enticed you to read this book, and that you will like it just as much as I have.
~Jan
aka calendar girl

p.s. It is not too early to be thinking about next year's calendars. We've started to get some 2013 calendars in, and will be shelving them in the next few months.

*Caitlin, book seller extraordinaire at ubs, loves the cover and book too!  :D

GET COOKING!

(bargain cookbook sale!)

I love cookbooks, especially the pretty kind with lots of pictures. As the primary shelver of cookbooks these days, I get to handle and then shelve all the new cookbooks coming in, as well as the classics. And I really like doing that, all except for the fact that I find myself hungry at random times throughout the day: cut to Homer Simpson's drool sound that he makes when he is hungry, "aaaaaauglugh." Lol.

Our bargain cookbook sale is a generous collection* of all sorts of good titles [*click on photo above to see full image], from Dori Greenspan's around my french table - normally $40, with special bargain copies priced at only $19.98 - to the Gourmet Cookie Book (a stunner in the land of cookies!) to Urban Pantry (a helpful DIY book reviewed favorably at Gwyneth Paltrow's newsy blog 'goop' that I've recently discovered) to Mollie Katzen's Salad Recipies stand-up for only $6.98. And much more ...

This sale, per the lovely Natalie, will go on through the month of May!

So, get your cookbooks and GET COOKING! 

~Jan aka calendar girl

Please note: You can order these books from us, versus purchasing them in the store, but please do remember to let us know that it is a sale/bargain copy that you are ordering, otherwise you will be paying the full/new book price. Also, bargain copies do have a generally unobtrusive black mark on them to distinguish them from new ones.

 

Rest in Peaceful Slumber Ms. Adrienne Rich.

When I was in my twenties I spent a good amount of time with my nose in a book, trying to figure out who I was and whom I might become. I would especially ferret out books about strong women--in search of meaning and purpose in their lives--in hopes of coming across instructions on how to live a more fully realized life. One woman's words made a great deal of difference to me during that process: Thank you, thank you Ms. Adrienne Rich.

I have (always) loved the titles of her volumes of poetry: from The Dream of a Common Language to A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far to An Atlas of a Difficult World. Can't you just imagine, from those, that she set about to help other women and men (!) circumnavigate the waters of the soul?

I remember when I first spied the poem Transcendental Etude--probably my favorite (from Dream ...)--I felt that I was in the exact same head space, and that made it possible for me to get more in touch with the huge forces at work in my life. "Perhaps there come times when we must take ourselves more seriously or die": those were my marching orders ... to continue to put one foot in front of the other ... daring myself to be authentically large.

The Book Store has several volumes of Ms. Rich's work available online to order. I think that I am going to take another look at her last and latest collection, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, when it comes out in paper. And if you wish you can reserve your copy now. And this is a peek into the poem that bears the title:

"Saw you walking barefoot
taking a long look
at the new moon's eyelid

Later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping
elsewhere

Tonight
I think
no poetry will serve ..."

Adrienne Rich also dealt with politics and poetry, not so much my strong suit, and yet I have admired her for that too. May you rest in peaceful slumber Ms. Rich.

~Jan
the bad poet
aka book seller at UBS

"Someone called us liminal people...We dance the line between humans and gods."

Here's a recommendation to get your summer reading off to a blazing start: The Liminal People by Ayize Jama-Everett. It's a first novel, and it has all the kinetic, hurtling passion of a thousand fresh ideas and a few new takes on classic sci-fi tropes.

On the surface, it's a book about superheroes living amongst us. There's the main character, Taggart, who can transmute his own body and the bodies of others in literally any way he can imagine; give someone asthma, give himself a new face, dissolve cancer before any symptoms appear.
Another character has such a deep emotional bond with animals that she can ask rats to sacrifice themselves for her, and compel dogs to chase a man down and tear him apart. There's a woman with hypnotic pheromones, and a man who can blow up anything with his mind.
These are the liminal people: a subculture of lonely and alienated humans, some of whom are driven mad by their powers while others manage to live relatively normal lives, suppressing any desire to explore their abilities.
If all this sounds suspiciously like an X-Men ripoff, think again. Jama-Everett creates an entirely new atmosphere of mystery and exotic noir, made creepier as every chapter passes and seemingly unanswerable questions arise. There is something almost Lovecraftian about the hints and half-explanations that the characters discover as the story progresses. The origins of their fantastic abilities have one foot planted in evolution, but the other is mired unsteadily in the unknowable murk of old gods and half-forgotten mythology. It's a brutal and unforgiving world to enter, and it ends too quickly at under 200 pages, but it's left wide open for a sequel, for which I will be impatiently waiting.

--Seija

Hand That Pen Over to Me, Poetaster!

I've been writing poetry again. As a first sentence that has an ominous flavor, doesn't it? A little du Maurier-esque. And maybe it's for good reason.
I wrote lots of poetry in college, mostly for assignments; sestinas, villanelles, sonnets, abecedarians, DOUBLE abecedarians, and the occasional non-required formless thing, inevitably scribbled after midnight. I stopped reading poetry on such a regular basis about five years ago, and when I stopped consuming it, the urge to produce it ceased also. Maybe I'm having a bit of a bohemian renaissance, but something triggered the poem-hunger in my brain and now I'm revisiting my old favorites, buying new collections, and pausing to read the poems in The New Yorker (!).
Since April is poetry month, I thought I would share a new favorite by a classic: Sylvia Plath.
Read this one aloud to yourself, I promise you'll get chills.

Elm

I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root;
It is what you fear.
I do not fear it: I have been there.

Is it the sea you hear in me,
Its dissatisfactions?
Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness?

Love is a shadow.
How you lie and cry after it.
Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.

All night I shall gallop thus, impetuously,
Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf,
Echoing, echoing.

Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons?
This is rain now, the big hush.
And this is the fruit of it: tin white, like arsenic.

I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.
Scorched to the root
My red filaments burn and stand, a hand of wires.

Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs.
A wind of such violence
Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek.

The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me
Cruelly, being barren.
Her radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.

I let her go. I let her go
Diminshed and flat, as after radical surgery.
How your bad dreams possess and endow me.

I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.

I am terrified by this dark thing
That sleeps in me;
All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.

Clouds pass and disperse.
Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrevables?
Is it for such I agitate my heart?

I am incapable of more knowledge.
What is this, this face
So murderous in its strangle of branches?--

Its snaky acids kiss.
It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults
That kill, that kill, that kill.


Whoa, Sylvia!
What poets are you reading now? How will you celebrate poetry month?