The egg is a paradox-both alive and not alive-and a symbol as old as culture itself. In this wide-ranging and delightful journey through its natural and cultural history, Lizzie Stark explores the egg's deep meanings, innumerable uses and metabolic importance through a dozen dazzling specimens.
From Mali to Finland, mythologies around the globe have invested the egg with powers of regeneration and fecundity, often ascribing the origin of the world to a cosmic egg. An oracle to Romans, fought over by Gold Rush gangs, used as the foundation of the Clown Egg Registry and blasted into space, the egg has taken on larger proportions than, say, the ovum of an ostrich.
It has starred in global dishes from the Korean comfort food ttukbaegi gyeranjjim to the less regaled yet iconic soft-boiled egg. Stark writes a biography of French-born chef Jacques Pepin through his egg creations, and weaves in her personal experiences, like attempting to make the perfect omelette or trying her hand at pysanky-the Ukrainian art of egg decoration. She also explores her fraught relationship to the eggs in her body due to a familial link to cancer, and shares her delight in becoming a mother.
Filled with colourful characters and fascinating morsels, Egg is playful, informative and guarantees that you'll never take this delicate ovoid for granted again.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Covers just about every aspect of the egg: biology, symbolism, health, medicine, art, culture, cultivation and, of course, cookery... Even the practical uses of eggshells are described in the book's lively pages." -- The New York Times "Fun, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable, this book explores the humble egg from angles you never imagined." -- Luxury London "Crack this book like an egg and suck up 200 pages of Lizzie Stark delightfulness! Here is early career Jacques Pepin making sous vide eggs at Howard Johnson's! Gender-shifting chickens! Greedy eggers! Maniacal collectors! Egg is eclectic and funny, informative and endlessly surprising... Like the egg itself, this book is a perfect miraculous, package." -- Mary Roach, bestselling author of Fuzz
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Klebebindung
Maße
Höhe: 209 mm
Breite: 140 mm
Dicke: 14 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-324-07447-2 (9781324074472)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Lizzie Stark is a participation designer and the author of Pandora's DNA and Leaving Mundania. Her writing has been featured in publications such as the Washington Post, Daily Beast, io9, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She lives in Massachusetts.
