Gary Allen's Blog, page 11

Food Sites for September 2018

It’s corn season in the Hudson Valley.
We weren’t able to come up anything sufficiently corny to open this month’s updates (at least none that we haven’t posted before) so, we’ll just dive into update itself.
Our odd little food story, “Wheeling,” has been performed aloud (fortunately by real actors, not the author). You’ll find it among the podcast episodes at The Strange Recital’s site.  
The first draft of a novel (Future Tense: The Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past) has been completed and is out for comments from a few selected victims. Eventually, we’ll have to start thinking about what to do with it, publicationwise. Meanwhile, we’ll just let it ferment. Since we can’t bear to be without a writing project, we’ve been editing a collection of Dr Sanscravat’s scurrilous scribbles and begun sketching out the beginnings of yet another novel. 
An update from the non-fiction section: our latest book, Sauces Reconsidered: Àpres Escoffier, has passed through copy-editing and is off to the typesetter... it’s scheduled for release in December or January!
As Montesquieu said so pithily (and no, we haven’t begun typing with a lisp): “An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.”
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a LOT of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Something about maize inspires nostalgic quotes (these are from On the Table’s culinary quote collection):

Hunger makes you restless. You dream about food—not just any food, but perfect food, the best food, magical meals, famous and awe-inspiring, the one piece of meat, the exact taste of buttery corn, tomatoes so ripe they split and sweeten the air, beans so crisp they snap between the teeth, gravy like mother’s milk singing to your bloodstream. Dorothy Allison 

In the light of what Proust wrote with so mild a stimulus, it is the world’s loss that he did not have a heartier appetite. On a dozen Gardiner's Island oysters, a bowl of clam chowder, a peck of steamers, some bay scallops, three sauteed soft-shelled crabs, a few ears of fresh picked corn, a thin swordfish steak of generous area, a pair of lobsters, and a Long Island Duck, he might have written a masterpiece. A.J. Liebling

Nothing rekindles my spirits, gives comfort to my heart and mind, more than a visit to Mississippi... and to be regaled as I often have been, with a platter of fried chicken, field peas, collard greens, fresh corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes with French dressing... and to top it all off with a wedge of freshly baked pecan pie. Craig Claiborne

Gary
September, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Jonell Galloway & Cara De Silva), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
12 German Sausages, From Brilliant to Wonderful(Jennifer Mcgavin takes the mystery out these meats at The Spruce Eats)
Archaeologists Discover Bread that Predates Agriculture by 4,000 Years(Heritage Daily reports on evidence—found by archaeologists of the University of Copenhagen—of Jordanian bread that is over fourteen thousand years old)
At Home at the Table(Amelia Pape’s tribute to Chez Panisse at Terroir Review)
Brief History of the Humble Indian Pickle, A(Culture Trip’s Kshitija P explores the past of these iconic dishes to ancient Persia)
Do You Eat Dog?(Soleil Ho, at Taste, on xenophobic racism in the very question)
Eater’s Digest(“a short and useful history of restaurant reviews,” from Carly DeFilippo, at Life & Thyme)
Enslaved Chefs Who Invented Southern Hospitality, The(Kelley Fanto Deetz, at zócalo: “By forgetting enslaved cooks’ pain to soothe our own, we erase the pride and the achievements of countless brilliant cooks who nourished a nation “)
Farming Invented Twice in the Middle East, Genomes Study Reveals(Ewen Callaway writes, for Scientific American, about recent archaeological DNA evidence collected in the Fertile Crescent)
FDA Outlook on Plant-Based ‘Milk’ Is Bleak: “An Almond Doesn’t Lactate”(Emma Betuel, at Inverse, on the dairy industry’s efforts to keep the official definitions of their products as narrow as possible)
Found: Evidence of Italy’s Oldest Olive Oil(Anne Ewbank, at Gastro Obscura, on recent analysis of a four-thousand-year-old jar from Sicily)
From Russia with Borscht(you can’t beet Alexander Lee’s article in History Today)
Hermeneutics of Mayo Haters, The(Dwight Furrow, at Edible Arts, on the disappearance of a once ubiquitous condiment)
Mediating Cultural Encounters at Sea: Dining in the Modern Cruise Industry(Shayan S. Lallani’s article in the Journal of Tourism History 9, follows historical and sociological developments in the cruise industry though the foods it serves)
New Worlder (there’s a lot more cooking in these two continents than just in America and Mexico)
Nourish(PBS TV series on traditional southern cooking, with scientist/cook Dr. Howard Conyers)
Plant Breeder Who Minted a New World of Flavor, The(Samantha Nobles-Block’s Gastro Obscura bio of inveterate taste-tinkerer Jim Westerfield)
Prehistoric People Started to Spread Domesticated Bananas Across the World 6,000 Years Ago(Chris Hunt and Rathnasiri Premathilake discuss the evidence at The Conversation)
Scientific Reason Why Some People Hate Cheese, The(according to Maxine Builder, at Extra Crispy, the answer is not in their stars... it’s in their genes)
Sugartime(Ruby Tandoh on several of the complex issues of sweetness, at Eater)
Vindication of Cheese, Butter, and Full-Fat Milk, The(James Hamblin pours on the butterfat in The Atlantic)
Weird New Fruits Could Hit Aisles Soon Thanks to Gene-Editing(Nicola Davis reports, in The Guardian, on some of the unusual things starting to happen in the GMO world)

---- changed URLs ----
CIA Menu Collection
Taste of History with Joyce White, A

---- inspirational (or otherwise useful or amusing) sites for writers/bloggers ----
American Entrée, The: A Menu Misnomer?
Country’s First Cookbook-Inspired Café Just Opened in Austin, The
Crowdsourcing Pleasures and Perils
How to Write a Book Without Losing Your Mind
“That Guy Who Won That Thing”: What Jonathan Gold Meant for Food Writing
This Bookstore is Stuffed with Just One Thing: Cookbooks
Why is Wine Talk Considered Pretentious?
Your Images Got Stolen—How to do a DMCA Takedown Notice

---- yet another blog ----
Flavors of Diaspora

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 

Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)(Kindle)(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)(Kindle)

The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)(Kindle)

Human Cuisine
(Paper)(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)(Kindle)

Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)(Kindle)

Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #215 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for August 2018

It’s tomato time in the Hudson Valley.
It’s also the dog days... and, for us, that means hot dogs. Speaking about what to put on one’s hot dog comes perilously close to bringing up religion and politics in mixed company... so we won’t go there. However, we’re going to be in Chicago soon, and will definitely side with locals on that issue.
The only thing worse would be to bring up the subject of pizza...
Last month, a little drinking story, “Tour Parisien,” found its way onto our blog. Another story, about someone with a different kind of appetite, “Across a Crowded Room,” showed up at the same place. Apparently, we’ve been in a fictitious mood of late (a disclaimer: the stories are definitely not autobiographical). We’ve also completed the first draft of our novel (it’s not autobiographical either, ’though it does contain some elements that might be recognizable as somewhat Dr Sanscravatish).
This, however, is not fiction: our latest book, Sauces Reconsidered: Àpres Escoffier, is finally in production... it’s scheduled for release in December or January!
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Some juicy quotes (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection):

Vegetarians are people who cannot hear tomatoes screaming.—Joseph Campbell 

It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.—Lewis Grizzard 

The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can’t eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as “progress,” doesn't spread.—Andy Rooney 

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.—Peter Kay

Gary
August, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Dianne Jacob), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Animal Domestication—Table of Dates and Places(K. Kris Hirst’s article at Thought & Co.)
Catering(Jan Whitaker’s article on race, gender, and the connections between restaurants and more peripatetic forms of foodservice)
Food(The Washington Post’s food section)
How to Steal 50 Million Bees(a not-so-sweet surprise from Josh Dean at Bloomberg News)
Is There Such a Thing as “American” Food?(Ruth Tobias reports on a Slow Food panel that discussed an issue that hasn’t been resolved since Sidney Mintz first raised it)
Justice Among the Jell-O Recipes: The Feminist History of Food Journalism(Suzanne Cope writes, in the LA Review of Books, about the progressive ideals that emerged from food journalism in the days before men even considered doing it)
Pasta Project, The(regional types and recipes)
Plant Domestication—Table of Dates and Places of Human Farming Advances(K. Kris Hirst’s article at Thought & Co.)
Queer Food Is Hiding in Plain Sight(sometimes discrete, sometimes flamboyantly obvious; Kyle Fitzpatrick dishes on dishes for Eater)

---- inspirational (or otherwise useful or amusing) sites for writers/bloggers ----
5 Podcasts for Food Editors to Gobble Up
Amazing Stock Photography
Baby Wife
Is Copy Editing Necessary?
Meet the 26-Year-Old James Beard Award Winner Reinventing Food Writing
Pitching and Moaning: A Guide to Submitting Your Writing
Someone Stole My Pictures Online. Now What? Here are Some Options
Writing for Blogs versus Writing Online Articles
Writing Wisdom from Anne Carson: “It is Very Fun to Delete Stuff”

---- yet another blog ----
Korsha Wilson

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 
Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
 (Kindle)
Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #214 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.

Tour Parisien

Oh dear, I’m not sure exactly when it was—sometime back in the mid-sixties, I suppose—while I was on location, shooting a film in France. I played a middle-aged society matron, traveling on a tramp steamer that was stranded for a few days in some de classé French port. The very idea was preposterous, of course, but this was before Hollywood had discovered cinema verité, or even, it seems, the notion that a plot needed to make some sort of sense.Nonetheless, there we were, ensconced in a Paris that was still quintessentially French. Why were we in Paris, when our film was set in an unnamed seaport? Who knows? No doubt—entre nous, mon cherie—the director required the sort of amenities that simply could not be found in a working-class town. A decent hotel, preferably free of the usual vermin; restaurants that served something better than the sort of things merchant sailors might eat while on shore-leave; le shopping—you know: haut monde, civilization. Whatever his reasons, we were in Paris, and had to make the best of it.That meant shooting early in the morning, to capture the moody half-light, and to avoid the crowds of tourists that somehow appeared, apre-midi, everyday. It was hell, naturellement, getting up that ungodly hour—but one does what one must for the sake of her art. It was a job, and—frankly—paying jobs don’t come along that often for those of use who can no longer pretend to be ingénues.While walking from my hotel to our location, along the Boulevard Saint-Germain, I caught a glimpse of myself, reflected in a store window. That visage seemed to be just a bit wan, even faded—and could do with a little pick-me-up. Un café—and just a soupçon of Pernod—seemed just the thing. I was right, of course, and—once refreshed—the morning’s shoot went off without a hitch. Having completed my day’s labors, all two hours of them, I was left with the question of what to do with the time before dinner and the viewing of the dailies. I was a bit thirsty, so I thought I’d look around for a Tab (we girls must watch our figures, you know), and possibly take in some of the sights, possibly absorb a bit of local color.Heading back up the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in the general direction of the Latin Quarter, I stopped to chat with Aristide—the maitre d’ of a little restaurant where I’d been having my dinners (at least when I wasn’t required to dine with my colleagues from the film). The restaurant, naturellement, was not yet open—and Aristide was relaxing with Le Figaro, le tabac, and un armagnac. Filthy French habits, of course, but when in France… so I sat beside him, with my own tumbler of brandy. I noticed that his tight black boots sat on the chair beside him, while his black-stockinged toes rejoiced in liberté under the tiny table. He grumbled about the rich American tourists who were ruining his beloved neighborhood—missing entirely the quintessential irony of the situation: the fact that American dollars paid his salary, or that his only listener, an American woman (not wealthy, but certainly not impoverished, either), was sharing his table. It would have been tres gauche to remind him of the obvious truth—that Americans had saved the derrieres of the French in not one, but two world wars—not that I would ever be so tactless. No, we chatted amiably of this and that, and after saying our au revoirs, I went on my way. I chanced to glance back, and there he was—still muttering in his little cloud of Gauloise-blue smoke, his bootless toes gesturing emphatically to an audience of pigeons. Quel drôle!Along the way, I saw a couple of boulangers at a nickel-topped bar—their work, like mine, done for the day—enjoying some garlicky parslied moules with a tall bottle of wine from the Loire. This seemed like an eminently sensible thing to do, so I joined them. Well, I didn’t actually join them—as they ignored my presence completely (apparently they weren’t admirateurs du cinemá, and didn’t recognize me)—but I did stand at the bar beside them. This was just as well, since Aristide had provided more than enough conversation for a while—allowing me to devote my full attention to the crisp, slightly floral, wine.After that, I was feeling just a tad… not drunk, mind you… but somewhat more “malleable” than is expected in a distinguished woman of my age. The prudence that comes with experience suggested that some caffeine might be in order. So I wandered about a bit, until I found a place to get some coffee—and a bite or two of patisserie (reasoning that the brasserie’s plate of mussels had done little to absorb the alcohol in that bottle of Sevre et Maine).An espresso—and a couple of Napoleons—later, and I had nearly restored my usual dignity, but I found that it was mixed with a certain savoire-vivre, an almost celebratory mood. A mood that called for champagne. 

Fortunately, Paris is the sort of town where champagne is readily available. Thinking to myself, “How singularly à propos,” I ordered a magnum of La Grande Dame. Given my festive mood, I suppose it didn’t occur to me that there was no one with whom to share that immense black bottle. Once opened, of course, it would only go flat—a terrible thing to happen to such wonderful champagne—so I drank it.For some reason, the details of what happened afterwards are somewhat hazy. Someone must have recognized me for the celebrity I was, and—realizing that there was only one American film crew in Paris—delivered me back to our location. This was doubly fortunate, for not only did this spare me from any public embarrassment that might have resulted from my tour Parisien, but the film’s commissary was the only place in Paris where one could find a can of Tab.

Across a Crowded Room

He knows his love for Simonetta is forbidden, but that just makes it that much more enticing. For one thing her husband is Marco Vespucci—who, like the wasps provide his family name, could be expected to fly into a rage at the mere thought of a rival. For another, she’d been dead for over five hundred years.Still, from the first moment he laid eyes upon her, in the tourist-filled rooms in the Ufizzi, he knew he could never love another. Every year he eschewed all other pleasures, in order to save enough money for just one more flight from Philadelphia to Florence. It was worth any sacrifice, just to get the briefest glimpse of her, either floating demurely on her scallop shell, or wandering through the enchanted forest that had become, for both of them, eternal Spring.His love was pure—not like the brief fling he’d had with Myrna Loy. That was a mere flirtation, nothing like the reverence he feels for his Simonetta. Even in dreams, where she often appears naked, she chastely covers most of her body. He never sees more than one of her tiny, perfectly-formed breasts—and that inspires not lust but adoration.No, his other romances—with sparkling Myrna, sultry Clara Bow, sweet Lillian Gish, and even the divine Audrey Hepburn—were as nothing to him now. He had once been smitten with a photo of the dark-eyed twenty-year-old Alice Liddell, taken by Lewis Carroll, but—in time—that, too, faded before the luminous Simonetta Vespucci.Thoughts of her occupy his every waking thought. He knows that he is not alone in loving her. Sandro Botticelli and Giuliano d’ Medici loved her too, but he rejoices in the fact that they’re both safely dead. It does trouble him to think that other men’s eyes, livingeyes, can linger over her fair features. Especially vexing are the leers of Italian men, men who—as everyone knows—are over-sexed and rudely insensitive to the finer feelings of the women they ogle.Her eyes haunt him. Their heavy lids suggest that she has just risen from her bed, as if to meet her lover, the lover he longs to be. Her focus is somewhere in the distance, not at him, to a place where a particularly delicious memory lingers, like a whiff of not-quite forgotten perfume. The sweet tangle of her strawberry-colored hair holds him more securely than any chain.No living beauty—let alone his former imaginary sweethearts—can hold a candle to her radiance. It’s been years since an actual—live—woman appealed to him. They’re all so physical, with smells, and opinions, and needs. They come and—more frequently—go, leaving no evidence of their passing. But his Simonetta is eternal; she never fails to beguile him with her calm elegance.

Food Sites for July 2018

Summer.
This issue marks the beginning of this newsletter’s eighteenth year. We suppose that means it’s now a grown up... well, more grown up than we are.
Roll Magazine recently posted our little article on Shad.
Last month we submitted the edited text for Après Escoffier: Sauces Reconsidered, (which has now had its title flopped: Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier) and it’s finally in production. We also completed the first draft of a mostly non-food novel (Future Tense: The Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past). It sounds like a lot, but both books had been in the works for a LONG time. Since we can’t bear the non-writing life, we’ve reopened some unfinished books and begun adding to, reworking, and editing them.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Some timely quotes (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection):

We ask very simple questions: What makes you happy? What do you eat? What do you like to cook? And everywhere in the world we go and ask these very simple questions... we tend to get some really astonishing answers. Anthony Bourdain

You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together. Anthony Bourdain

I don’t have much patience for people who are self-conscious about the act of eating, and it irritates me when someone denies themselves the pleasure of a bloody hunk of steak or a pungent French cheese because of some outdated nonsense about what's appropriate or attractive. Anthony Bourdain

In college, I think I probably positioned myself as an aspiring writer, meaning I dressed sort of extravagantly and adopted all the semi-Byronic affectations, as if I were writing, although I wasn’t actually doing any writing. Anthony Bourdain

Gary
July, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Cynthia Bertelsen), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Complete and Slightly Insane History of Gin in England, The(Celine Bossart delivers a droll lesson in Vinepair)
Food in the West: A Timeline, 1700-2001(compiled by students of Western Civilization, at Chicago’s Northwestern University)
How Ketchup Revolutionized how Food is Grown, Processed and Regulated(Amy Bentley pours on the ubiquitous condiment, for The Smithsonian)
How to Stock an Indonesian Pantry(Pat Tanumihardja, at Saveur, on the essential ingredients of Indonesian cuisine))
How to Stock a Keralan Pantry: Black Cardamom, Red Rice, and Lots and Lots of Coconut(Leslie Pariseau, at Saveur, on the defining ingredients of South Indian cooking)
How Wine Colonized the World(a timeline, from Vinepair)
Hungry, Hungry Hippocampus: Why and How We Eat(Shankar Vedantam’s Hidden Brain podcast at NPR... with many insights from Paul Rozin)
Illustrated History of the Picnic Table, An(Martin Hogue sits us down at Places Journal)
Lost Lingo of New York City’s Soda Jerks, The(Natasha Frost slings it across Gastro Obscura’s counter)
Oldest Cookbooks from Libraries Around the World, The(Anne Ewbank, at Gastro Obscura, on some very rare books)
Rise of the Experiential Food Museum, The(Emma Orlow, at Saveur, says “making art out of food is inherently a political act”—and wonders about its implications)
Where Did the Prohibition on Combining Seafood and Cheese Come From?(Dan Nosowitz, on Italian food and notions of what is tradional; at Gastro Obcsura)
Why Everyone Loves Macaroni and Cheese(Gordon Edgar, dishes out “the cheapest protein possible” for Zócalo)
Why not Just Admit it? Flavor is About Pleasure, not Survival(Edible Arts’ Dwight Furrow takes issue with the Rozins’ “flavor principle”)

---- inspirational (or otherwise useful or amusing) sites for writers/bloggers ----
A to Z Food and Cooking Equivalents and Yields
Are Ebooks Dying or Thriving? The Answer is Yes
Evolution of Recipe Writing Style, The
Heidi Robb: Food Stylist
How Cooking Frees My Mind to Think About Writing
Hyperbole for Dinner?
Many Different Faces: Bibliography’s Extended Family
Opinion: The Secret to Being Fully Present
Recipe Conversions for Measurements and Temperatures
You Love Wine Science Until it Detracts from the Magic in Your Glass

---- yet more blogs ----
Locavore
Of Juliet
Planet Cheese
Sub-tropic Cookery

---- changed URL ----
Taste of History with Joyce White, A

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 
Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
 (Kindle)
Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #213 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for June 2018

A simple Gin & Tonic, sipped & savored outdoors; Confirmation that we’ve survived another Winter. 
When Spring finally arrives, its extravagance is always something of a shock—there’s way too much of everything: color, texture, smells, and a cacophony of birdsong. It’s like one of those medieval feasts—hundreds of elaborate dishes, featuring a complete menagerie of animal flesh, a fluttering aviary of prepared larks, geese, and peacocks—each flavored with a dozen herbs and spices, and sweetened with sugar, honey and/or fruit syrups. Dazed diners rush from dish to dish, never actually savoring a single one.
Something we never expected to see: This month, the library of The Culinary Institute of America, at Hyde Park, has a little exhibit of—of all things—cannibalism. In one of the showcases, lo and behold, a copy of Human Cuisine (that little anthology we compiled with Ken Abala). 
We’re about to submit the edited text for Après Escoffier: Sauces Reconsidered—then we wait for the production process to take over. Eventually, copy-editing, final proofs, and indexing. Folks who only read books—but have never troubled themselves to have written any—are blissfully unaware of how long every stage takes.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
June is blessed, so here are two notes about divinity made manifest (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection):

Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did. Dr. William Butler (on strawberries, quoted in Isaac Walton’s The Compleat Angler)  

Although I’ll eat the strawberry when frozen / It’s not the very berry I’d have chosen. / The naughty admen claim with gall divine / That it is better than the genu-ine, / New language they devise to sing its praise, / But only le bon Dieu can coin a fraise. Ogden Nash

Gary
June, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Phyllis Segura), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Ancient Mesopotamia(several of Laura Kelley’s pages dedicated to the world’s oldest cuisine)
Blogger Quietly Preserving Maryland’s Culinary History, The(Kristina Gaddy, for Gastro Obscura, on the work of Kara Mae Harris, at the Maryland Historical Society)
Cookbooks(...in the collection of the National Library of Australia, many with links to online versions)
Crazy Korean Cooking(ingredients, recipes, food & culture)
Dictionary of Middle-English Cooking Terms, A(just the thing when confronted by “schyconys” or “egarduse” on a menu)
Food Tourists Versus Food Pilgrims, and the Cultural Responsibility of Both(Emily Thomas interviews Lucy Long for The Splendid Table)
Map: The Iconic Cheeses of Italy(one or two for each region)
Marseille’s Migrant Cuisine(Tristan Rutherford, in AramcoWorld, on the home of a fusion cuisine that is nearly 3,000 years old)
Picnic Wit(food, drink, literature and art; from picnic maven Walter Levy)
Skeletons, Disease, and the Dinner Table(Cynthia Bertelsen knows there’s more to be extracted from bones than bone broth)
Taste of a Decade: The 1830s(another posting in Jan Whitaker’s excellent Restaurant-ing through History blog)
Tasteless Philosophy(Dwight Furrow, at Edible Arts, on why philosophers tend to ignore taste and smell in their search for eternal truth)
Woman Who Collected More Than 25,000 Menus, The(Michael Waters, for Gastro Obscura, on the Buttolph Collection at The New York Public Library)

---- inspirational (or otherwise useful or amusing) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Are We Done Hating Brunch?
Best and Worst Colors for Photographing Food, The
Complete Culinary School Guide, The
Green-Penciling Her Way into Cookbook History
Jonathan Gold Recommends 10 Food-Centric Films
Literistic
This Post about Breathless Online Food Writing Will Give You a Reason to Live
Why Does Every Recipe Have to Be Magic?
Why Menu Translations Go Terribly Wrong

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 
Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
 (Kindle)
Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #212 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for May 2018

Crab tracks on a St. Augustine sand dune.
Spring is a time of rampant expectations, tantalizingly close, yet not quite there... until they gloriously explode into full bloom everywhere. The season for crabs, and morels, and ramps is almost here... and we’re more than ready for them. It’s been an absurdly long winter, and we’re not going to mourn one slushy minute of it.
Anxiously waiting for edits to our new book—Après Escoffier: Sauces Reconsidered—to arrive, and we’re eager to get on with transforming it from a not-entirely-rough draft to something someone might want to read.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
A scribbler’s quote (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection) this month:

God have mercy on the sinner 

Who must write with no dinner, 

No gravy and no grub, 

No pewter and no pub, 

No belly and no bowels, 

Only consonants and vowels. John Crowe Ransom

Gary
May, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Cara De Silva), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We‘re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Borscht Belt, The(Julia Ioffe rediscovers Russia’s lost culinary heritage for The New Yorker)
Brief History of Cheddar Cheese, A(Zoë Björnson, on the Americanization of this classic British cheese, at Eat Sip Trip)
Chef Who Carves Traditional Patterns Into Fruits and Vegetables, The(Anne Ewbank’s profile of chef-artist Takehiro Kishimoto, for Atlas Obscura)
Chewing the Fat(Monte Mathews’ food and travel site)
Cookbooks and Herbals(downloadable e-books from the rare book collections of The Florida State University Libraries)
Cooking with Alexandre Dumas(Valerie Stivers recreates some dishes from The Three Musketeers for The Paris Review)
Don’t Call it Food Waste: Entrepreneurs Turn Surplus Food into Gold(Danielle Beurteaux, at Civil Eats, on experiments in upcycling in Drexel University’s Food Lab)
Greedy Queen, The: Dining in the Time of Victoria(Linda Pelaccio’s interview with author Annie Gray, podcast on Heritage Radio)
Life and Death of Homaro Cantu, The: The Genius Chef Who Wanted to Change the World(Kieran Morris write about “ the most inventive chef in history“ in The Guardian)
Medieval Arabic Recipes and the History of Hummus(Anny Gaul looks at the dip’s fourteenth-century origins, for The Recipe Project)
Molecular Air and Other Tasty Treats to Feature in New Palliative Care Cookbook(Heather Wiseman’s article about chef Peter Morgan-Jones inspires questions about the nature of eating)
National Food & Beverage Foundation(“…a nonprofit educational and cultural organization dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of food, drink and its related culture and folklife in America and the world”)
Song of the Spoon, The(a history of the second-oldest kitchen utensil, from Ana Kinkaid at We Are Chefs)
Texas Food Politics Is Like, Well, Texas Politics(Dwight Furrows mulls over Tex-Mex at Edible Arts)
Traditional Flat Breads Spread from the Fertile Crescent(“production process and history of baking systems,” by Antonella Pasqualone, for Science Direct)
Vintage Menus Show Which Foods Americans Used to Love(Craig Hlavaty’s annotated slideshow for The New Haven Register)

---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
9 Writing Productivity Tips from Food Historian, Ken Albala
A Food Writer Shared a Neat Cooking Tip, but Got a Flood of Hate and Mockery in Return
Food Photography: Composition Using the Golden Triangle
Open Access at The Met


---- yet more blogs ----
Carla Capalbo
Fine Dining Lovers
Hey, You Should Try This Cheese

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 
Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
 (Kindle)
Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #211 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author‘s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for April 2018

As this is being written, maple sugaring season is winding down, and we’re already thinking about morels... far too soon, but such is the nature of Winter’s effects on our mental processes.
However, Winter is writing season (like every other season in our house), so while waiting for edits to our new book—Après Escoffier: Sauces Reconsidered—to arrive, we keep scribbling away on our novel-in-progress. Meantime, Roll Magazine has seen fit to publish another of our old pieces: “A Wine Epiphany on the Cheap.” Also, at Just Served, there’s a little bit of non-food writing this month. A Chimp Off the Old Block recounts some of the darker sides of good dental care.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
This month’s quotes (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection) reveal our longing for a change of seasons:

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each. Grow green with the spring, yellow and ripe with autumn. Henry David Thoreau 

In the vegetable world, there is nothing so innocent, so confiding in its expression, as the small green face of the freshly-shelled spring pea. William Wallace Irwin

Palpating, crackling, splitting on the grill, Boudins whistle louder than blackbirds in April. Paul Harel

Gary
April, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Nancy Harmon Jenkins), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Ancient Recipes(“...recipes that are related to Jewish History during the Biblical, Greek and Roman periods”)
Big Issue, The: Butter(Xanthe Clay slathers it on, at the UK’s National Geographic Food)
Brief History of Coffee, A(Brian Yarvin spills the beans at The Rambling Epicure)
Cookbooks: The Medieval Editions(Farah Yameen, in The Hindu Business Line, on some of the roots of Indian cuisine)
Famous Dishes from Famous Places(the Manhattan Users Guide has posted a few recipes that were New Yorker’s favorites, back in 1939)
Finding a Lost Strain of Rice, and Clues to Slave Cooking(Kim Severson, in The New York Times, on a recently discovered form of rice, in Trinidad, a gift from Thomas Jefferson)
Guide to Flour, A(“flour components,” by Bethany Moncel, at The Spruce)
How 17th-Century Women Replicated the Natural World on the Table(Gastro Obscura’s Samantha Snively on how natural history informed the culinary amusements created by Hannah Woolley, Margaret Cavendish, and others)
Is It “Natural”? Consumers, and Lawyers, Want to Know(Julie Creswell, in The New York Times, on the legal battles over a seemingly simple word)
Kalofagas(“Greek food and Beyond,” from cookbook author Peter Minaki)
Living Larder, A: The Joys of Fermentation(Gabe Ulla, in Saveur, serves up Cortney Burns’s recommendations for new fermenters)
Lost Pies of the South(just desserts, state by state, by Nancie McDermott, at Southern Living)
Neuroscientist Rachel Herz Breaks Down the Science Behind our Food Likes and Dislikes, The(a tasting menu of concepts covered in her book, Why You Eat What You Eat )
Switzerland Makes it Illegal to Boil a Live Lobster(Jason Kottke almost makes one stop ordering lobsters)

---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
40 Photographs That Changed the Way We Eat

---- yet another blog ----
Food & Home
Past Repasts
Simon Thibault


---- and, not specifically about food, but... ----
50 Best Travel Tips from 10 Years of Travel

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 
Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
 (Kindle)
Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #210 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author‘s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.

A Chimp Off the Old Block

Just lying back in the dentist’s barcalounger, listening to music I would never choose on my own, waiting for the novocaine to kick in. The assistant spreads out an arsenal of medieval-looking weapons, while making the sort of small talk meant to relax me before “The Procedure.”
The Procedure, this time, is the removal of an old crown, in order to prepare me for the placement of a new crown, and the subsequent removal of a certain quantity of funds from my checking account. A substantial quantity of funds, but I’ve already braced myself for that particular pain. I have not prepared myself the unknown quantity of physical pain I might experience.
My lips and tongue couldn’t be less responsive if they belonged to someone else. The dentist suggests that I rinse, giving me a chance to demonstrate absolutely zero control of my mouth. Liquids of various descriptions dribble out in all directions… or, at least, in every direction except that of the tiny sink at my left elbow.
In a voice that I hope sounds casual, I ask how difficult it will be to remove a crown that has been cemented firmly in place for two decades. “It’s usually pretty simple. Since there’s a cavity under one edge, it should break loose almost on its own. I’ll cut the crown in half to make it easier to pry off the rest.” That’s pretty reassuring.
He starts sawing through the porcelain. It takes a long time, and my jaw aches from being stretched to its maximum opening. “The porcelain cuts pretty easily,” he says, “the metal underneath is considerably tougher.” I find that considerably less reassuring.
He switches to a different tool, saying that—one time—he went through a dozen #34 tips on one crown. I have a sinking suspicion that he knows that I am no longer in a position to object to anything he wants to do to me. The sawing continues. He stops and tries to pry off a bit of the old crown.
It doesn’t work.
The sawing continues, going back and forth between the tools used for porcelain and the now infamous #34s. He says that he’s had to saw the old crown in eighths. He resumes the prying maneuvers.
It still doesn’t work.
He asks the assistant for “the tapper.”
“The tapper” sounds so much better than “the hammer.” But it is a hammer. It’s accompanied by “the chisel.” For the next half hour, my hyper-extended jaw is twisted sideways from repeated blows. At one point he asks me to keep my eyes closed, because a flying chip of my former crown has landed just below my left eyelid. I’m happy to comply, because—for a moment—I can relax my over-stretched mandibular muscles.
Finally the crown, reduced to a small pile of shrapnel among the dental tools, is no more.
It’s not the conclusion of The Procedure, however. More tools descend into my gaping maw, grinding and scraping, chipping away at whatever had been lurking beneath the old prosthesis. At this point, they insert various devices and substances in order to make molds to be used to manufacture a replacement crown. This means several grateful minutes when my mouth gets to remain closed.

I wonder if novocaine is responsible for this surge of euphoria, or if it’s just relief subsequent to The Procedure, but I start to feel good. It was the result of neither. I am soothed by the attentions of a couple of members of my own species fussing over me. I am just another primate, an oversized chimp as it were, blissfully having my fur groomed by the rest of his troop.

Of course a chimp doesn't have to pay over a thousand dollars for a bit of sociable lice-picking. So who’s the smarter primate?  

Food Sites for March 2018

A Couple of  Winter Vegetables: Beets and turnips, certainly... but where are the carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes?

Well... we (at least those of us in the more blighted parts of the northern hemisphere) have made it through the first half of winter. We’re relieved to see that the days are getting longer, but we still crave the comfort of roasted foods—foods that warm both home and the heart.
Having completed the first, second and third drafts our new book (Après Escoffier: Sauces Reconsidered), it’s been submitted to Ken Albala, the food book series editor at Rowan and Littlefield. Which means—until the book comes back for final edits & corrections—there’s some breathing space to devote to a novel-in-progress.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
This month’s quote (not, this time, from On the Table’s culinary quote collection) offers a bit of wintry commiseration. Feel free to sing along with Ezra Pound’s “Ancient Music”:

Winter is icummen in, 

Lhude sing Goddamm, 

Raineth drop and staineth slop, 

And how the wind doth ramm!   

         Sing: Goddamm

Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, 

An ague hath my ham. 

Freezeth river, turneth liver,         

        Damn you, sing: Goddamm.

Goddamm, Goddamm, ‘tis why I am, Goddamm,

           So, ’gainst the winter’s balm. 

Sing goddamm, damn, sing goddamm, 

Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM. 

Gary
March, 2018
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out tasty sites (we're looking at you, Jonell Galloway), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Banking on Wild Relatives to Feed the World(Maywa Montenegro, at Gastronomica, reminds us of the biological value of genetic diversity for agriculture in a world challenged by climate change)
Connoisseur’s Guide to Edible Insects, The(how, and why, we should consider biting back)
How Did Salt and Pepper Become the Soulmates of Western Cuisine?(Natalie Jacewicz surveys the tables of the past for NPR’s The Salt)
Hunting for the Ancient Lost Farms of North America(Annalee Newitz, in ars technica, on archaeobotanist Natalie Mueller’s search for native species of lost crops)
It’s Difficult to Talk About Soviet Food(Rachel Sugar, at Taste, purges some notions about Russian foods—many of which survived the Soviet Era)
On Tasting the New(Dwight Furrow, thinking about how we think about food and wine, at Edible Arts)
Origins of Rum and its Place in History, The(Tricia Cohen sails beyond Captains Jack and Jack Sparrow, at ThymeMachine)
Putting Ancient Recipes on the Plate(Jessica Leigh Hester, at Atlas Obscura, on efforts to use experimental archaeology to learn about the foods of the past)
Welcome to Bugs for Dinner(Bill Broadbent is doing his best to spread the gospel of entomophagy)
Why of Cooking, The(Joe Pinsker surveys many of the essential books that reveal the essentials of cooking, for Atlantic)
Why Raw-Milk Cheese Is Celebrated for Flavor and Scrutinized for Safety(Simran Sethi, at The New Food Economy, looks at the history and science behind all sides of this contentious subject)
Wine Food Pairing Guidelines: Taste Is More Important Than Flavor(Dwight Furrow shares the principles at Edible Arts)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Cooking Dumb, Eating Dumb
Freelancer’s Essential Guide to Business and Taxes, The
Mike Geno Paintings of Food
Notes from Home: Recipes, Menus and Cookbooks
Open Letter to Readers of Food Media, An

---- yet another blog ----
Reverse Wine Snob

---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose—ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs: 
Want to help On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it?
It’s easy. Whenever you plan to go shopping on Amazon, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there will earn a commission for this newsletter without adding to your cost (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books).
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(these newsletters merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
 (Kindle)
Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #209 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author‘s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2018 by Gary Allen.