Hogan, Lou Rand. The Gay Cookbook. Los Angeles: Sherbourne Press, 1965.
Here’s an interesting cookbook loaned to me by my friend, Paul. This is a crazy book, combining the kitsch of 60’s cooking in all its urbanity and every gay stereotype known to humankind. I haven’t been able to find much about it yet, but it seems to have been done as high camp. Case in point is “swish steak.” The cover alone is worth the price of admission.
De Knight, Freda. The Ebony Cookbook. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1973.
This is one of my favorite retro cookbooks. The 1973 version is not easy to find, and I was lucky to have paid only 5 bucks for it at Half-Price Books in Berkeley, one of my favorite places to buy old cookbooks – second only to library book sales.
There are some great biscuit and quickbread recipes here, as well as all the comfort food standards, like chicken and dumplings. This is my go-to book when I want to make an easy, delicious, frosted cake on a whim, since there are numerous recipes that won’t have you turning your kitchen upside down.
If you love African-American cooking (and who doesn’t?), this is a must because the recipes are the real deal.
There have been numerous Wing Stop restaurants opening up in my neck of the woods in the last couple of years, and now there is finally one in El Cerrito (340 El Cerrito Plaza). Wing Stop is not great, but it’s pretty good in terms of tamping down my inner Buffalo wing demon now and then. The wings are small and pricey, and sometimes the pricing strategy makes no sense, but they are made to order and nice and hot when you take them outta there. The strips are also good, and you can get them “sauced” just like the wings. I can speak for the original hot and lemon pepper flavors – both of which are very good. The mild flavor is just too mild, and the rest, meh, just not my thing.
Wing Stop’s fries are made from real potatoes with the peel on, and a regular order is very big, with the large being enough for several people if they are also eating wings.
I am really happy about this addition to the neighborhood, even if it is a chain. I hope they have not overexpanded and wind up being here awhile.
I finally bit the bullet and am moving the blog part of Akitachow.com to WordPress. This should be interesting. Editing the thing to not look like crap will be a challenge, but I’m tired of spending so much time on the technical part of blogging rather than the creative.
Here’s a shot of my mother next to our big-ass TV/stereo in about 1965, just for the fun of it.