Craig Claiborne's A Feast Made for Laughter: A Memoir with Recipes

This is Claiborne's look back at his life, starting with his childhood in the South and touching on his professional life with a big emphasis on the food he has eaten, and the feasts he has thrown and it concludes with a section of recipes.

It was an OK book. Although he starts out pretty frankly, by the time he gets to his adult life the frankness disappears and we find out nearly nothing about his private life, although he does mention the time he was arrested for driving drunk and that he developed high blood pressure and had to modify his diet because of it. But other than that we find out nothing about who he loved as an adult or anything about his family, other than that he broke off relations with his mother because he felt she was smothering him.
But if you like reading about food, you'll love it. I frankly became very tired of reading what seemed like endless lists of menus of food eaten at meals he enjoyed. After wading through several, I just started skipping them altogether.
At the back of the book he also has a long list of cookbooks and books on food that he recommends and along with a list of those he wrote himself that adds up to over 100 books. And included, as I said before, are 100 of his favorite recipes like Chiffonade of Lobster Chez Denis, Cotes de veau belles des bois, Salade gourmande, Tripes lyonnaise, Pigs' Feet Sainte-Menhould, Lemon Lotus Ice Cream, Coquilles Saint-Jacques, Coulibiac of Salmon. He has a recipe for Stuffed Cabbage, or as he calls it Chou vert farci, that has 29 ingredients and 16 steps to prepare. A bit overwhelming, for me. I think I copied down maybe 5 of his recipes. The others seemed too complicated, had uncommon or hard to find ingredients, or had ingredients that I don't eat, like tripe, which I have never seen in a store here, and which I wouldn't want to eat even if it was available. For example, his Brandade de morue or mousse of salt cod. First of all: mousse of salt cod? It just sounds nasty. Second, salt cod? I have no idea what that is, except I know it involves cod fish. But I am sure I have never seen salt cod for sale here. I doubt I would eat it even if it was available for I fear it would be like lutefisk, which is totally gross and disgusting.
One good thing about his recipes, though. I finally found out what a scotch egg is. It's a big meatball with a hard boiled egg in the center. Which seems like an strange thing to do with a meatball and an egg, but what do I know. I am not a foodie.