I love Portlandia. It is a smart, satirical series that never fails to have me in stitches. It resonates with my inner desire to be trendy enough for mockery on a national television scale. When I saw The Portlandia Cookbook out from Randomhouse, I knew immediately that I wanted to check it out.
Let's start with the good: this is a spot on companion cookbook in every single way. One of the things Portlandia does so well is defining characters that are consistent enough for the viewer to feel connected , but still capable of doing or saying things out of left field to keep it interesting. In other words, no character ruts. Every page of the cookbook has photos and snippets and stories from those characters, expanding off of bits you know from the show. This often [read: on every page] resulted in double laughs - one as I remembered watching the story they referenced and one as I followed them taking it one step farther. The book is really well laid out. The photography and typeface are striking and visually appealing. I'm a huge fan of the color scheme, the quirky drawings, and the "cut-and-paste" photoshopping. All in all, a fun book to flip through and chuckle over.
Now for the bad: I don't see myself attempting any of the recipes presented. I appreciate how well the recipes match up with stories from the show, but I also think that detracts from the reproducibility. I think in order to really review a cookbook well you should try at least one recipe, but all of these seemed a little too labor intensive for me and called for ingredients that I don't typically use. I'm a pretty adventurous gal in the kitchen, but I like to have some confidence that new recipes and ingredients will be worth the time and effort put into them. My personal impression was that this book's time and effort outweighed the potential of the recipes. (Unless I'm going to a really awesome Portlandia themed party and can convince a certain someone to embody Kath and Dave. Then, 100% worth it.)
If you're looking for a cookbook, look elsewhere. But if you're a Portlandia fan looking for a fun addition to your bookshelf and one that will make you smile over and over again, this is it!
Just so ya know, I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
Let's start with the good: this is a spot on companion cookbook in every single way. One of the things Portlandia does so well is defining characters that are consistent enough for the viewer to feel connected , but still capable of doing or saying things out of left field to keep it interesting. In other words, no character ruts. Every page of the cookbook has photos and snippets and stories from those characters, expanding off of bits you know from the show. This often [read: on every page] resulted in double laughs - one as I remembered watching the story they referenced and one as I followed them taking it one step farther. The book is really well laid out. The photography and typeface are striking and visually appealing. I'm a huge fan of the color scheme, the quirky drawings, and the "cut-and-paste" photoshopping. All in all, a fun book to flip through and chuckle over.
Now for the bad: I don't see myself attempting any of the recipes presented. I appreciate how well the recipes match up with stories from the show, but I also think that detracts from the reproducibility. I think in order to really review a cookbook well you should try at least one recipe, but all of these seemed a little too labor intensive for me and called for ingredients that I don't typically use. I'm a pretty adventurous gal in the kitchen, but I like to have some confidence that new recipes and ingredients will be worth the time and effort put into them. My personal impression was that this book's time and effort outweighed the potential of the recipes. (Unless I'm going to a really awesome Portlandia themed party and can convince a certain someone to embody Kath and Dave. Then, 100% worth it.)
If you're looking for a cookbook, look elsewhere. But if you're a Portlandia fan looking for a fun addition to your bookshelf and one that will make you smile over and over again, this is it!
Just so ya know, I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
HAPPPY BIRRTHDAAAYY!!!
ReplyDeleteTHANKS, JEFE!!!!
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