After a tumultuous January, I’m now back to regular blogging, hoping to make up for lost time and eventually clear the blogging backlog, which is now down to twenty books, including those from January!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a foodie review (I really enjoy foodie books!), so today’s review covers two delightful foodie books I enjoyed last year: Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found by Bill Keaggy and The Breakfast Cereal Gourmet by David Hoffman (books 132-133 for 2009).

Both are fully illustrated foodie books that were awesome bargain bin finds, each of them roughly P70 (less than US$1.50).

Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found by Bill Keaggy, is a visual showcase of grocery list specimens from all over the world. The collection is the result of several years’ worth of scrounging discarded lists from shopping carts, supermarket floors and parking lots, and even library books.

The chapters are divided into all sorts of categories: funny lists, “badd spellrs,” misplaced apostrophes, lists with doodles, organized lists, hazardous-to-your-health lists, lists from around the globe, and many more. Each list is captioned with Keaggy’s comments (which mainly makes fun of them), and each page contains some grocery-related trivia. There is also a special section in the back that features — get this — recipes that Keaggy developed using items from other people’s lists!

I read this book on a particularly depressing day, and I was laughing so hard from start to finish, and I just couldn’t put it down. I love novelty books featuring ephemera and this is one of the most fascinating I’ve ever seen.

My sister usually does the grocery list –  she’s the promotions manager of a major supermarket here in the Philippines, so this is her turf. She generally shops for the household (since  mom’s been in the US frequently the past couple of years),  and she’s compulsively organized so our grocery lists are often typed out and grouped according to the sections they’re found in the grocery (e.g. perishables: fresh, frozen; dry goods; non-food). I have got to sneak one of her lists one of these days to send to Bill Keaggy!

But I’m a list maker myself, mostly for art supply shopping, to-do tasks, backlogged book reviews (hahaha!) gift giving, and packing for a trip. I’m not an organized person, and I make lists more because I don’t want to forget anything, and because I like  doodling and crossing things off lists.

Before reading this book, I never realized that the lists I make could reveal so much about me, and that makes me a bit paranoidly conscious about them now. I also love the trivia part — you guys know what a sucker I am for trivia, tee hee, and it really contains useful information, such as hmm… adding a couple teaspoons of oil to the water when cooking rice so the grains don’t stick together!

Here, some photos:

the bad speller

write anywhere?

that’s what a peeler looks like

this one could’ve taken listmaking lessons from my sister

from the Philippines!

dinner is served!

Check out more grocery lists at Bill Keaggy’s site: grocerylists.org. And check out the Milk Eggs Vodka story at the milkeggsvodka.com.

The next book in this roundup is The Breakfast Cereal Gourmet, a novelty book about cereal by David Hoffman.

I’m a big fan of cereal — all types (well, except the artificially fruity ones), from sugary cereals to healthy grains — and I’m one of the few people I know who can eat cereal (with milk, in a bowl) outside of breakfast, which can be pretty challenging in a country that’s big on rice meals.

I love this book because it’s a must-have for cereal fans. The cover resembles a cereal box, and inside, it’s full of cereal trivia, vintage cereal box designs and cereal ads, and 31 real-food recipes using different types of cereal, developed by America’s top chefs!

Recipes in this book include corn flake-crusted fish fillets with roasted tomatillo sauce and fried corn; peanut butter- krispy cocoa chewies; tomato gratin with grape nuts topping; Cap’n Crunch crab cakes; crispy rice and milk chocolate Napoleon; and  Lucky Charmed Utah Lamb.

Here’s a look inside:

cereal heaven

krispy choco chewies

Corn Chex ad

collectors items: cereal boxes

cereal ads: the Beverly Hillbillies and Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery

***

My copies: both hardcover

My rating: both 5/5 stars