Mark Rotella
 Mark Rotella is the author of "Stolen Figs and Other Adventures in Calabria," published by FSG/North Point in 2003. His book on the great Italian American singers of popular song will be published by FSG/North Point in 2008. Most recently, he wrote the introduction to the 2006 reissue of Carlo Levi's classic "Christ Stopped at Eboli." User Stats
Advertisement
Notes From the BookroomRecent PostsA Lunch at EscaJune 14, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) I'm a Florida boy at heart, which means a hot, muggy day like Tuesday makes me want to sit back
Recent PostsA Foodie AdventureMay 11, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Morocco. Countries of the Muslim world? Predominantly. Destinations for serious foodies? If you’re adventurous. Subjects of recent cookbooks? They’re on their way. Late last year, Claudia Roden came out with a gorgeous book called Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey & Lebanon. Just by flipping through the book you can almost taste each meal: Moroccan Chickpea and Lentil Soup; Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives; Turkish Lamb Stew with Eggplant Sauce and Roasted Quinces; or Squabs Stuffed with Date and Almond Paste. Coming out this August from Morrow is Anissa Helou’s Savory Baking from the Mediterranean. While Helou focuses on the breads of southern Europe, she dips into Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria...Read More Recent PostsThe 1950s According to David HalberstamApril 26, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) For several weeks now--more like a couple months--I've been reading David Halberstam's 800-page book of that misunderstood decade, The 1950s. I take in about a chapter a night, after putting my son to sleep.  He has effortlessly taken me through the decade of martinis and Eisenhower, beginning with the bombs of Oppenheimer and Teller, through McCarthyism and Hoover's FBI. While Ford was amping their assembly line in Detroit, Levitt was doing the same with houses on Long Island. It was the decade of kitchen appliances intended to make a woman's job easier and Ozzie and Harriet...Read More
Recent PostsMove over Mommy, It's Daddy TimeApril 13, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) I've been noticing, coming in on the heels of the many mommy memoirs, several narratives by fathers--daddy chronicles. And I don't think it's just that as a newish first-time father I'm paying more attention to these books. Perhaps we might be entering the era of the stay-at-home-dad-as-writer.
Recent PostsBooks to read while you're waiting for the wavesMarch 29, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0) It's still too cold for me to surf, I know (I only have a 3/4 suit, and my Florida blood is still too thin for Mid-Atlantic waters in spring). But I still check out surfline.com every now and then to see the surf at 90th street in Rockaway, or at Bradley Beach down the Jersey Shore. For Bradley Beach: "Light winds with a slight chop. Small short period wind waves." Nada. But just as summer grilling and barbecuing books keep me dreaming until the summer heat arrives, books on surfing keep me occupied. There's a beautiful coffee-table book coming out from Gibbs Smith called Greg Noll: The Art of the Surfboard. It's got all the longboard designs from the prison-shorts, big-wave surfer. And coming out from Bloomsbury in June is a book on the Ken Bradshaw/Mark Foo rivalry called Steali...Read More
|
|||||||
As for the food--it was an amazing buffet of the grilled, the fried, and the raw. Whole stripedbass was served with a delicate salsa verde. Alongside of t...