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Bear Stew #10
Tasty Manbytes Served Steaming Hot by Ron Suresha
Hey good-lookin'! Whatchya got cookin'? How 'bout cookin' something good for me. . . ?
It doesn't get much better for most of us than the idea of hanging out with hairy bikers on a culinary exploration throughout Europe. Being unable to get BBC2, however, I am forced to imagine the utter wooflicious of their new show,
The Hairy Bikers Cookbook: two big, hairy, bearded, well-fed, "good buddy" bikers riding all around Europe eating, joking, dissing other TV chefs, and every so often, actually rolling up the sleeves on their thick, furry arms and cooking something. According to the BBC Website, Simon and Dave aren't professional chefs, but they are life-long food lovers. Simon King is a big, blonde-bearded biker from Newcastle, where he lives with his partner and three children. His passion for food was encouraged from an early age by his father, whoÕd bring back exotic ingredients from his voyages with the Royal Navy. Simon's biking bud, David Myers, was born and bred in Barrow-in-Furness and worked as a furnaceman in a steelworks to finance his Master's degree in fine arts before joining the BBC as a make-up artist specializing in prosthetics. Dave and Si met through work on the set of a TV drama and ever since they've been revving up their hogs and riding off to far-flung corners of the globe in search of authentic culinary and cultural experiences. Together they rode to Perugia looking for the perfect mushroom omelet, and to Namibia in search of the worldÕs best barbeque. (If you donÕt know where these places are, guys, look 'em up.) Now, with a film crew behind them, they ride the length of Portugal to further expand their culinary horizons. I tell ya, these woofters can come cook my dinner any time! In any case, IÕm looking forward to getting my hands on a hard copy of the book.
ItÕs not just because the name of this AmBear column is a tasty dish that we take interest in bear-authored cookbooks. Your furry-chested correspondent is the self-published author of a recipˇ book entitled Mugs o' Joy: Delightful Hot Drinkables (long ago out of print but will perhaps see a new edition in 2005). During hibernation, past the Winter Solstice, the bracing New England climate seems to activate natural bearish domestic urges. You just want to forget everything else and hunker down with a big furry guy of oneÕs choice and cook up a storm to match the blustery weather outside. So hereÕs an old cold-weather recipˇ for Gogl-Mogl, dusted off for devoted readers, guaranteed to warm the cockles of your heart. ItÕs quick Scandinavian relief from winter doldrums or post-inaugural blues, a fast hot eggnog for one: Beat one egg, add a generous dollop of honey, a jigger of Jack Daniels, and pour into a big mug. Fill with very hot steamed milk, stir well, and suck it down. Ahhhh. Things ain't so damned bad, after all . . .
ItÕs such a delight having several cookbooks by bears, for bears, and about bearmen.
The very first Bear Stew mentioned PJ Gray and Stan Hunter's book, Bear Cookin', which mostly I enjoyed but found lacking in vegetarian sensibility. Since then, IÕve been in touch with PJ, a really sweet guy who has promised that he and Stan have reconsidered many aspects of putting together recipˇs for their sequel, Bear Cookin' 2, forthcoming this year from Harrington Park Press. Here at Bear Stew, we are salivating over it already in anticipation.
Meanwhile, lucky me to receive from LiveJournal San Francisco bearguys Steve Freitag and Jack Garceau a copy of The Bears' Cookbook, the coupleÕs fun spiral-bound collection of food fabulosity. In its sixth printing in six years, the book revels in its creative multitude of options, such as the choice of three alternate covers:
Wild WestŠstyle type treatment: "Jack and Steve's Heart-poundin', Blood-curdlin' He-Man Adventure Cookbook, featurin' two-fisted kitchen action! And such manly ingredients as: Meat! Cheese! Eggs! Cream! Butter! Š not for the weak-livered. Guaranteed to put hair on your chest."
More straightforward bookcover style, with three author photos: "Who Wants a Skinny Santa? Hearty recipes for folks who like to eat as much as do Steve Freitag and Jack Garceau"
And of course, the graphic comicbook cover treatment: "Ursi Comics: The Bears' Cookbook, No. 1, Dec. 15¢. Big Appetite? Not as big as these guys!" Jack's thought balloon: "I'm hungry Š just snap the darn picture so we can go eat!" Steve's thought balloon: "I don't get it Š is this a cookbook or a comic book?"
Sad to say, Jack and Steve's cookbook Š which includes a number of tasty vege-bear-ian dishes Š is not available for sale. You'll have to, as I did, use your manly charms to get the authors to give you a copy.
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Until next time, grrrfolks!
This column, Bear Stew #10, first appeared in American Bear magazine #66, April-May 2005.
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