'Modernist Cuisine' arrives, all 43 pounds of it

Look what came in the mail today: the five-volume (not including a kitchen manual) cookbook "Modernist Cuisine," published by former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It took two of us to get it out of its box -- actually, it came in a box inside a box. I'm already looking at recipes for "tuna and escolar checkerboard" with roasted candlenuts and marinated ogo; shrimp cocktail with passion fruit, braised beets and pressure-cooked sesame seeds; and paella Valenciana with horchata emulsion and soccarat tuile. Fun times ahead. 

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Photo credit: Noelle Carter