Domesticity: A Gastronomic Interpretation of Love

I remember being in High School and the Dining In section was the first one I'd turn to when that months issue of GQ came out. I LOVED his writing style, and was so amazed at his frank and open love of Miss F. If you have the means, get a hold of this book. The recipes are worth the purchase alone, but even without them, the individual stories of love in the truest sense, and in all flavors, make this a wonderful addition to hearth and home. The best part, is that the stories lend themselves to reading in short bits...a great way to spend a few minutes each night or each week connecting with love.

When GQ Magazine asked fiction writer Bob Shacochis to become their "Dining In" columnist, he replied that he wasn't a food writer. Fine, said the editor, write about anything you want, only tag a recipe onto the end of it. This 1994 collection is culled from 5 years of that marvelous "prose stew" of love and good eating, laughter and tears, food and its emotional connections. Shacochis is funny, savage, opinionated, volatile. He has no patience for whining or pomposity. If you don't like dogs or meat, you don't want to know him. Miss. F., his common-law wife since the early 70s, is the center of the book, the one for whom all the great food is created. We get glimpses of the early, tentative days, when housekeeping routines jostled and clashed and Miss F. actually had the temerity to interfere with the cooking. But most of the book is as current as a diary with nostalgic excursions to their beloved Outer Banks (Miss F.'s Champagne Scallops, Grilled Tuna Hatteras Style), tension-filled days in Sardinia leavened by Grilled Oysters, and dinner parties great and awful. Shacochis relives the time Miss F. forced a pate-laden cracker into his mouth. "I didn't feel titillated, nor nauseated, nor vulgar. Instead I felt the strangest desire for the best wine I could get my hands on, something elegant in taste to compliment the unique pungency of the pate." And he appends his recipe for Herb Pate which includes bacon, pork and veal. We follow Miss F.'s teeth-gritting progress in law school. He works in the house, she works out of it and he is very earnest about this. After all, this is a man who travels with his garlic press. "Suppose I were to tell you that last month I slapped Miss F. because she wouldn't come to dinner when she was called." Miss F., miserable, was entrenched in law books. He didn't, of course, lay a hand on her but instead embarked on a campaign of grilled lamb chops and steamed asparagus, pork tenderloin and black beans. What finally worked (after the exam) was Earth, Fin and Fire Chowder, a mouth watering concoction of clams, scallops, shrimp, black beans and cream. The first section of the book brims with good cheer and affection. The second is a different kettle of fish. He and Miss F. spent a miserable year in Italy and he documents her depression with dark ferocity. The humor has a bitter bite. From this section comes Miss F's Prisoner of Woe Soup with chicken and sausage, several rich, rich pasta recipes and a sinful Tivoli Torte which takes forever to make. They come through the crisis in Section Three. They get a new dog and Miss F. graduates law school (Steamed Blue Crabs) and turns 40 (Apalachee Bouillabaisse with oysters, clams, shrimp, snapper, lobster, and stone-crab). These essays display an exuberance tempered with recent pain. "Domesticity" is a window into the soul of a marriage and a terrific cookbook for the serious meat eater.

I can?t believe I?m only the 2nd person to review this book! Bob Shacochis was an instructor at a writing conference I attended about 5 yrs ago in Santa Fe. He was sexy, charming, dangerous, engaging, a great reader/teacher ? and I bought this book because the woman I was sharing a room with had the major hots for him and was too shy to buy it and ask for him to sign it herself.It?s absolutely wonderful, laugh out lout funny, provocative, and the recipes sound totally yummy.When asked to write a regular food column by GQ magazine, Shacochis was told he could write ?anything as long as you tag a recipe onto the end.'' He wrote wickedly honest autobiographical anecdotes on his life with his Miss F, his ?common-law wife of 17 yrs.? Shacochis equates food with sex in outrageous examples that I don?t want to quote for fear of spoiling the pleasure for new readers. Do NOT buy this if you?re looking for a cookbook. Many of the recipes are written like essays, and Shacochis clearly assumes a certain comfort in his readers with not only the kitchen but also the BBQ, the hibachi, the Coleman stove, the open fire on a beach, and strange little kitchen gadgets in Italy. But whatever. This is one thoroughly enjoyable book. Even if you never intend to use a single recipe from within its pages, buy it just for the joy of reading parts of it aloud to your spouse in bed at night. Who knows? It may lead to more than the intention to cook up some gumbo.

Culled from his columns for GQ magazine, this collection deals with many kinds of appetite, though it all starts with food: 75 recipes intertwined with Shacochis' ruminations on love, life, and the style with which one should conduct both. Insightful & hilarious, this book will whet your palate & provide the recipes which will quench your hunger, all the while entertaining you with cautionary tales of the author's own wayward slouchings toward the title state: Domesticity with his soul-mate, Miss F. From meatloaf to ceviche, from artful teasings to true, commingled love, let Shocochis be your guide. You'll at least get a memorable meal out of it