Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris

by A.J. Liebling

Book Overview

New Yorker staff writer A.J. Liebling recalls his Parisian apprenticeship in the fine art of eating in this charming memoir, Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris.

"There would come a time when, if I had compared my life to a cake, the sojourns in Paris would have presented the chocolate filling. The intervening layers were plain sponge."

In his nostalgic review of his Rabelaisian initiation into life's finer pleasures, Liebling celebrates the richness and variety of French food, fondly recalling great meals and memorable wines. He writes with awe and a touch of envy of his friend and mentor Yves Mirande, "one of the last great gastronomes of France," who would dispatch a lunch of "raw Bayonne ham and fresh figs, a hot sausage in crust, spindles of filleted pike in a rich rose sauce Nantua, a leg of lamb larded with anchovies, artichokes on a pedestal of foie gras, and four or five kinds of cheese, with a good bottle of Bordeaux and one of Champagne"--all before beginning to contemplate dinner.

In A.J. Liebling, a great writer and a great eater became one, for he offers readers a rare and bountiful feast in this delectable book.

With an introduction by James Salter, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of A Sport and a Pastime

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 086547236X
• ISBN13: 9780865472365
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: North Point Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Makes you long for the good old days...

This is a fantastic book, but if you've never cracked The New Yorker open before, you might not like the style. Very in the moment and tongue in cheek, Liebling is a master wordsmith leaving no offense done to him by the onset of modernity unheckled. Some of the greatest tidbits come when he derrides the famous Michelin Star rating system for French restaurants, now a standard that chefs have literally killed themselves over - Liebling reminds you that its just a rating from a TIRE manufacturer and that he feels it marked the decline of real French cooking. I read passages of this book out loud to friends and family, most notably the ones dealing with the immense amounts of food, and always got a laugh. This is not a book dealing with the upper crust of French high society, but rather a street wise, in the guts little tome that entertains and educates - though sadly, it is unlikely one can find the Paris that Liebling describes anymore.

feast

Much of Between the Meals, as the title suggests, is about what happens between meals, though the meals are always there in the background. When Liebling talks about friendship and love, he is superb; when he describes his apprenticeship in eating, however, he is incomparable. Others (a few) may write as well; others may have as sensitive a palate, but no serious writer can match Liebling's perverse determination in the pursuit of culinary pleasure and gigantic appetite. This is the finest book on eating ever written by an American. Being a Francophile, Liebling was mistaken in asserting that France is superior to China in its culinary art. He forgot that he was describing the--as he puts it-- "late silver" age of French cuisine, the 1920s, during which most people in China were starving. Today, of course, France is probably in the Bronze age; and the Chinese have just recovered from famines. But that mistake aside, this book is thoroughly satisfying, highly recommended for those,i.e. all of us, who must accept mediocre cooking everyday.

charming exposition of the good life in Paris

This slim volume exudes charm and decadence. It is perfectly written, and evocative of a bygone era, when one could move to Paris without money and experiment with the finest wines and cuisine. Entertaining, obsessive, delightful

paris and food - what more do you want

A wonderful book. Something to savor. A book that I could not part with. A book you can go back to read a chapter again. I was so happy to find someone else had taken time to write a review

Mouth Watering

This hilarious gastronomic coming-of-age is set in Paris, where Liebling was a student in the 1920s, and where he did what any sensualist in Paris does: spends all his dad's money on food (and let's not forget the cognac and wine). His descriptions of the oddball people he meets are original and sharp. You can't read this book and not want to eat, you can't read it and not laugh