This is a funny book, although sometimes the humor is just a bit too vulgar for me. I love Lilek's website - The Gallery of Regrettable Food. There's been times I've gotten on that website late at night and literally cried, I was laughing so hard. It's been a sure fire cheer-me-up. This is, so far, the only Lilek's book I've actually read. It's in the same vein as the website, but as I said before, sometimes the humor is just a little tasteless. Then again, I can definitely see his analogies looking at these 60 year old photographs of foodstuffs - if they actually are food.

Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery

It was a time of innocence, nuclear families, traditional values . . . and BAD FOOD.<br /><br />In an era where cooks wanted to put their best foot forward, there was no end to the creative, cost-efficient, and cream-based dishes that disgraced the family dinner table, the cocktail party, or the neighborhood BBQ. Recipes involving ingredients like ground meat, bananas, and cottage cheese sound innocent enough—unless you mix them all together in a strange attempt to cover every food group at once.<br /><br />In Gastroanomalies, James Lileks gathers another remarkable assortment of dishes that once inspired cooks to brave new heights but now inspire sour stomachs and thoughts of “how did I survive?” Highlighted with excerpts from bizarre cookbooks (like Joan Crawford shilling for Bisquick), dubious images (is it meat or chocolate ice cream?), ads heralding the latest in kitchen technology (how about a bacon-egger?), and Lileks’s acerbic, off-the-wall commentary (“Put your ear close, and you can actually hear the meat screaming in terror”), Gastroanomalies is an irresistible retro documentation of a bygone era when artisanal cheese and vegetables lightly steamed (not boiled to mush) were still light-years away. Gastroanomalies will have foodies, baby boomers, and lovers of kitsch in stitches.

A humorous critique of bizarre mid-20th century American recipes and culinary trends.

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Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery

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