|
| 
 enlarge | Authors: Marnie Old, Sam Calagione
Publisher: DK Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $14.33
You Save: $10.67 (43%)
New (31) Used (12) from $13.90
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 15372
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 7.9 x 1
ISBN: 0756633591
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780756633592
ASIN: 0756633591
Publication Date: March 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-10 of 10 | | « PREV | | |
 This beer guys says "Good read" April 24, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Well, I'm a beer guy, and my girlfriend's a wine person, but we both appreciate the other person's beverage of choice. So I was intrigued by the premise of this book, sort of a good natured battle of the sexes over wine and beer.
The book starts off with a brief, accessible primer on beer and wine, and how to taste and appreciate the various qualities of each beverage. I found this section pretty helpful and informative, and never felt like I was reading something "dumbed down" for my benefit.
The main section of the book covers various food categories, like cheese, vegetables, fish, spicy foods, meats, and fruit desserts. Then for each food category, there's an intro on how to pair wine with this food item with specific wine pairings for food within the categroy. Then, there's an intro on beer pairings for the food category, with specific beer choices for the same food items within the category to contrast with the wine choices. Each food category ends with a wisecracking conclusion between Sam and Marnie about why they think either beer or wine is better for their particular pairings.
I found this format and the content worked well, and helped to define the various strengths and weaknesses of each beverage in pairing with foods. Paring wine, instead of beer, with spicy foods seems like a losing battle, and some of the beer pairings with food traditionally served with wine seemed to be an awful stretch. There's a lot here I could use next time at a restaurant or serving food at home. Sometimes the witty banter between Sam and Marnie was entertaining, sometimes it just cames across as a tired Venus and Mars act.
Part of the strength of the book is also a bit of its weakness. Sam and Marnie know so much about their respective beverages that some of their specific beverage choices are probably not going to be readily available for a lot of readers. I'd love to try lobster with Marnie Old's choice of Domaine Matrot Meursault, a white Burgandy from France, but I'm not sure I'm going to find that very easily. Her secondary choice for lobster, Tasmanian Sparkling Wine, hardly seems like something I could find at my local liquor store, either. Perhaps I shouldn't just pick on Marnie, since there were plenty of beer choices that I'm going to have a lot of difficulty finding. But I would have to say if Marnie is trying to make wine more accessible to beer people, she could start with making a few less exotic wine choices in her pairing recommendations. Most of Sam's first or second pairing choices seemed more readily available.
But the good news is that both authors give the reader plenty to work with, and indeed, they do seem to succeed in getting beer fans to appreciate wine more, and wine people to understand beer. Will I be hosting my own wine vs. beer party, as the authors are so helpful to describe at the end of the book? Well, maybe.
I'd give this 3 1/2 stars, which rounds up to four stars.
 Fantastic Book! April 16, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I would highly recommend this wine and beer book! It's beautifully done and is so user friendly. I love how they give suggesitions for both wine and beer pairings with the same foods and suggest turning it into a battle with your friends!
 Virtually unreadable...literally. A waste of an otherwise good idea. April 10, 2008
9 out of 20 found this review helpful
It makes me sad to give this book a two-star review. The concept is great, the authors are, well, authoritative, and the subject matter is compelling and potentially very useful. I've enjoyed previous titles by Sam Calagione ("Extreme Brewing" and "Brewing Up a Business") and I am a big fan of this innovative brewer and skillful writer. But unfortunately for readers of this book, the folks at DK must have hired out the design of "He Said Beer, She Said Wine" to amateurs because I have not in recent memory seen a book with such staggeringly bad typography and design. This book has the aesthetic of a church newsletter designed in PrintShop, circa 1985.
The first thing you'll notice is the extensive use of sans serif type (which is inherently hard to read), even in the body text. That's a no-no. The designer then makes it worse by picking seemingly random typesizes and weights to distract (not draw) the eye. It's the equivalent of a MySpace page as designed by a preteen.
The sidebars are a mess. This information should enhance the main text, not distract. However, within a single sidebar might be 5-6 different types/weights--along with various loud, clumsy visual elements. This serves to clutter up useful info behind a garish design, one which screams for unneeded attention. The effect is chaos, not clarity.
Finally (and most disappointingly for a DK book), the photos are clumsily selected, sized, and laid out. Every gimmick in the amateur designer's photo arsenal was used on this title.
The bottom line is that the overall tone of this book is jarring and much of the pleasure of reading it is lost thanks to a poor design.
That's really a shock since this title is published by DK. After all, one of the hallmarks of their books is design elegance. Yes, DK typically packs a lot of information on every page, but that fact only serves to make you appreciate how good their book designers are (or were). This title was either handed to an inexperienced intern, or worse, hired out to the low bidder. I cannot imagine that it meets the usual high DK standards in any way and it is a grave disservice to the authors who obviously put a lot of work into the concept and text. What a shame for them and for potential readers.
He said Great, She said Delightful April 9, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
He Said Beer, She Said Wine succeeds on so many levels. Marnie and Sam provide the precise point and counterpoint, to keep the reader interested and provide a valuable reference.
First, the book is a delight to read. The prose is engaging and the banter is delightful. Right from the opening sentence, "Sam and I have known each other for a long time..." you know you're in for an enjoyable read.
Second, the book is very attractive and engaging. The photography is outstanding, clear, informative and fun. The layout of the book is easy to understand and use. It's like a wine and beer encyclopedia that's fun to use. You'll find yourself picking up this book over and over.
Third, the serious part of the book which is the descriptions of various wines and beers is more fun than serious should be. Seriously! Each style of wine and beer is described in clear and consistent terms. There are chapters on how to taste wine, and how to taste beer. Novice or expert will enjoy reading how the various flavors embody and enhance both wine and beer, and how similar the two actually are.
Finally, I must praise the Rules of Thumb. Where would we be in Western Civilization without Rules of Thumb? When matching wine and beer with food this book excels itself with tips that are to the point, on target and easy to apply. For example, on the consideration of wine or beer with cheese Marnie notes that cheese contains salt and fat both of which are wine-friendly components given wines acidic nature, and Sam counters with amazingly tart beers certainly up to the task such as Belgian Lambics and American Wheats.
You choose. In the end everyone is a winner with He Said Beer, She Said Wine. "You Choose" is a challenge to host a dinner party in which both wine and beer are selected and served with the notion of discovering which combinations you prefer. In the end it's a personal decision to choose a wine or beer to accompany food.
This book serves as both guide, reference and entertainment to help you make the choices that are right for you.
Ten thumbs up.
These pages are making me thirsty! March 24, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I've just picked up this book and have some first thoughts.
It's a fun idea. Sam and Marnie obviously know their respective fields of beer and wine, and their banter over the better beverage is often pretty funny, and pretty on the mark as far as the he said, she said, back and forth. There's also a friendly spirit of competition in the writing, as if they're both out to win converts to their beloved drink. Both experts seem to truly enjoy the complexities of their beverages, but always with their flavors specifically paired to food; from first course to dessert. This book will take away a lot of guesswork for novices, and, with its added layers of depth, might surprise a few experts. I found the recipes at the end, with the specific wine and beer selections made by Ms. Old and Mr. Calagione, the most enjoyable part of the book. Here I found several interesting wines I want to try (curious about the bone dry Longval blush, for instance), some surprising food and wine pairings I want to try, (like the Toscana Rosso paired with steamed mussels with red sauce), and some new (at least, to me) beers I want to try, like the Russian River or the Dogfish, for instance.
There are also ideas for setting up your own dinner party, with your own voting over which beverage wins "the great debate", but that's when I had to stop and go get something to drink! They're both sorta can't miss to start with, right? Not all debates can be this fun. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
