Gary Allen's Blog, page 17

A Study in Contrasts

Last weekend, we were in NYC—and, being little more than peripatetic gullets, we wanted to experience some of the unique dining opportunities Gastropolis had to offer. Such visits always remind me of ravening wolves descending upon a village.On Saturday night, we went to Eataly, the rightfully ballyhooed emporium of Italian gourmandise. Even before opening the door, it was obvious that every cubic inch of that palace of the palate was filled with people—an awe-stricken gawk-jawed Eatalian swarm. There was certainly much to inspire their awe: shelf after never-ending shelf of exquisite comestibles; display cases filled with meats, fish, cheeses, pastries, and breads—of a fineness never to be seen in suburban supermarkets; ample opportunities to sample the output of several kitchens (assuming—admittedly a rather large assumption—that one could find an empty seat to occupy); books; cleanly-designed cookware; perfect fruits and vegetables; rare olive oils and ancient vinegars; pasta in shapes and sizes to dazzle the imagination; plus souvenirs to prove that one has made it to the promised land. The bounty—displayed in spanking new splendor, seemed never-ending. At table, the food and service were faultless. That itself was a managerial miracle, considering the frantic ambiance of the place—an odd amalgamation of first day of vacation season at Disneyworld, the seventh game of a subway World Series, and the tossing of the first Christian to the lions at the Coliseum.The next morning, we schlepped down to Houston Street, for a late breakfast at a New York landmark. For those who’ve never been to Yonah Shimmel, the place is tiny (twenty people would probably over-crowd the place… and would barely leave room for a few of their colossal knishes). I suspect they’ve never changed their recipes for egg creams, knishes, half-sours, and coleslaw—even slightly— in over a century. In place of the polished faux rusticity of Eataly, Yonah Shimmel sports fifty-year old formica, a thick coat of red enamel that tried (and failed) to rejuvenate the even older battered chair-rails, and several generations’ of faded celebrity photos and autographs, valentines from notable noshers of the past.
Restaurants like Yonah Shimmel are fast-disappearing, victims of rising rents, changing demographics, real estate prices, and fickle tastes. They’re being replaced by high-rise condos and the mega-glitz of places like Eataly. Don’t get me wrong—I thoroughly enjoyed eating at both places. However, while I felt restored (not to mention stuffed) on Houston Street, Eataly’s unabashed excess left me with a kind of metaphorical emptiness, a slight tristesse of embarrassment. Perhaps that was not a bad thing; after too much self-indulgence, a little class-conscious guilt can be just the right digestif.

Food Sites for May 2015

The Hudson Valley’s first violets of the year.

‘tis May, almost, and we’re about to go on a big road-trip—one of our favorite things. There will be a lot of eating, audio books, eating, gawking at scenery, eating, taking thousands of photos, and possibly some more eating. Because we won’t have much internet access,  June’s issue will likely be late and probably a little scrawny. You may, however, count yourself lucky if you are not among the few unfortunates who will be subjected to the traditional post-vacation soporific slide show.

My latest addition to Reaktion Books’ Edible series, Sausage: A Global History , (all about our favorite mystery meat) is complete, edited, indexed, and in their spring catalog. It will be released in September—along with Brian Yarvin’s Lamb: A Global History (between us, we’ll cover much of the succulent entrée category). Our next book, on preserved foods, has passed through its second edit and is current lounging on a desk somewhere in Greater London (it’s publication is a year or so away—so you'll have plenty of time to digest all that sausage and lamb).

Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served,  directly—but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically. 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 are—like road-trips themselves—a mixed bag, a traveler’s pot-luck:

“When you come to a fork in the road, it’s time to eat.” Bob DelGrosso 

“I don’t think the road to heaven is paved with bean curd.” David Shaw 

 “He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected.” Samuel Johnson 

“Las Vegas is Everyman’s cut-rate Babylon. Not far away there is, or was, a roadside lunch counter and over it a sign proclaiming in three words that a Roman emperor’s orgy is now a democratic institution... ‘Topless Pizza Lunch.’” Alistair Cooke

GaryMay, 2015
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 of you who have suggested sites—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 frankly 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 ----
eatfeed
(“Food porn for the intellectual cook;” podcasts for people like us… who care, perhaps too much, about food)

Food Babe Blogger Is Full of Shit, The
(a real scientist, Yvette d’Entremont, looks at the kind of pseudoscience that often appears in food blogs)

Food: The Newest Celebrity
(Megan Garber, in The Atlantic, on the kind of porn whose “…subjects are often actual pieces of meat…”)

How Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking
(reflecting on flavor and history, from NPR)

Inside Louis’ Lunch, the 120-Year-Old Birthplace of the Hamburger
(Erin DeJesus on the historic New Haven eatery)

Interlibrary Snacking
(some food history from The New York Academy of Medicine)

Introduction of Chili Peppers to India, The
(Laura Kelley, the Silk Road Gourmet, traces their earliest appearance in written recipes)

Marlena Spieler
(a food writer & broadcaster’s site)

My Obsession: The Laurel Family
(Deborah Madison on the Lauraceae, with special attention to bay leaves and avocados)

Smoke: Why We Love It, for Cooking and Eating
(Jim Shahin waxes rhapsodic—and a little scientific—in The Washington Post)

Stupid Wine Journalism
(food and wine journalists beware—Dwight Furrow is paying attention)

Thai Food Glossary
(just a small part of Clay Irving’s huge recipe site)

Trash Food
(Chris Offutt on class, suspicion, guilt—in part revealed by what’s on our plates)

Why the Beef? Empire and Cuisine
(an essay by Rachel Laudan)

Writing Food History
(an outlined overview of the various directions the field can take, by Peter Scholliers)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) site for writers/bloggers ----
How to Shine Blogging for a Single Reader!


---- yet another blog ----
Brian Yarvin


---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

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 support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 

It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper) (Kindle)
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)PRE-ORDER
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 #175 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 (c) 2015 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for April 2015

Is this news or crass hucksterism? Your call.

Despite what one poet had to say about the cruelness of April, this one promises to be especially kind around here. First, of course is that our wicked witch of a winter will be “really most sincerely dead.” Where’s the cruelty in that, Mr. Eliot?

This April, moreover, has even more good news for us. We were interviewed for an HBO special, Thought Crimes , which will premiere at the Tribeca Film festival this month. OUP is about to release The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, which includes our lengthy article, “Insects.” OK, the news, so far is kinda’ creepy (and occasionally crawly)—but there is some tastier news.

My latest addition to Reaktion Books’ Edible series, Sausage: A Global History , (all about our favorite mystery meat) is complete, edited, indexed, and on its way to press. It is already listed online and will be included in Reaktion’s spring catalog (and at stand 6A109 of the London Book Fair, April 14-16).

Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served,  directly—but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically. 
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. While this newsletter is mostly about food, food history, food science, food writing—let’s face it, it’s about filling our faces and thinking about the process, before, during, and after the fact.

This month’s quotes from On the Table’s culinary quote collection are entirely self-serving. Well, mostly self-serving...

A highbrow is the kind of person who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso. Alan Patrick Herbert 

What? Sunday morning in an English family and no sausages? God bless my soul, what’s the world coming to? Dorothy Sayers 

Doctor, do you think it could have been the sausage? last words of Paul Claudel

GaryApril, 2015

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 of you who have suggested sites—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. There’re You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.



---- the new sites ----
Basic Fare: Club Sandwiches
(Jan Whitaker dishes on the popular double-decker standby)
at NYC’s New School)

Celebrating a Hawaian Lu’au
(Jeanelle Kam and Rachel Laudan serve a detailed description of the preparation of this traditional feast)

Early Vegetarian Restaurants
(Jan Whitaker on some pre-hippie—that is, doomed—attempts at meatlessness)

Food & Food Preparation: Bread, Biscuit, Waffles & Wafers
(a slide show of eighteenth-century baking images and items)

Food and Back Migration: The Cornish Pasty Plot Thickens
(Rachel Laudan knocks the stuffing out another food fallacy)

FRENCH BREAD HISTORY: Gallo-Roman Bread
(more from bread historian Jim Chevallier)

History and Ritual of Brunch, The: with Farha Ternikar
(a video lecture, sponsored by Culinary Historians of New York and the Food Studies Program)

How the Apothecary Gave Birth to the Modern Cocktail Movement
(Warren Bobrow takes a cordial look at mixology in his Eater article)

How the Tudors Invented Breakfast
(Ian Mortimer in BBC History Magazine)

(Claire Chambers on London’s curry houses)

Listening, Tasting, Reading, Touching: Interdisciplinary Histories of American Food
(four scholars take on the “inherent interdisciplinarity of food history;” at the American Historical Association’s annual meeting)

Taste-Based Medicine
(India Mandelkern looks at the connection between gastronomic and medical practices in various cultures)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) site for writers/bloggers ----
Branding as a Writer, Rebranding as a Foodwriter


---- yet more blogs ----
Code of Eatics, A

Insatiable



---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

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 support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 

It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper)(Kindle)
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)
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 #174 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 (c) 2015 by Gary Allen.

Foodsites for March 2015

March is pretty much devoid of holidays, unless you count the First Day of Spring (which is usually a let-down for folks who have endured months of the kind of weather we’re seeing right now). We long for balmy days, sauntering through budding forests, stooping to pluck the occasional ramp or morel, or watching a dry fly drifting toward an especially cooperative brookie, while wildflowers nod on mossy banks, and soft breezes carry melodious birdsong. 

March provides none of that. 

What we do have is a window view of a snow-topped bird-feeder (surrounded by juncos, cardinals, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, and sparrows—so many greedy bickering sparrows), a warm house, soon to be filled with smell of slow-cooked foods suitable for the season, and the chance to forestall the onerous shoveling of snow by producing this newsletter.

Regular subscribers to this newsletter receive them from our blog, Just Served, directly—but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically. 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 quotation is not from On the Table’s culinary quote collection but, we feel, is more along the lines of venting:

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, damm, sing Goddamm.  

Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.  - Ezra Pound

GaryMarch, 2015

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed (as has my virtual friend, Elatia Harris)—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those of you who have suggested sites: 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 ----
5 Things to Look for Next Time You Buy a Cookbook 
(Emily Contois, at Zester Daily, on Nika Hazelton’s advice; it was good in 1963, and it still is)

American Food, Whatever That Is
(interview with Jonathan Gold and Robert Sietsema, on food and food writing)

Cherry Bombe
(biennial magazine on women and food)

Country Housewife ’ s Family Companion, The
(facsimile edition of William Ellis’ 1750 book)

Diner Journal
(independent ad-free food magazine)

Early English Books Online: Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP)
(searchable database of many old texts)

EARLY ENGLISH BREAD: Barm or sourdough?
(Jim Chevallier’s efforts to thresh out the truth about Medieval British baking)

Euell Gibbons: The Father of Modern Wild Foods 
(a short biography by John Kallas; see also John McPhee’s New Yorker profile of Gibbons)

Food and Romance: The Tissue of Little Things
(Dwight Furrow, writing at the intersection of the two primary hungers)

HANNAH GLASSE: Stolen Identity During the Eighteenth Century
(food writers might have a hard time today, but Victoria Rumble explains that it was once worse…)

How the Sense of Taste Has Shaped Who We Are
(“…John McQuaid on the science and history of flavor;” in Scientific American)

Mysteries of Chili Heat, The: Why People Love the Pain
(John McQuaid summarizes the latest scientific evidence, in Salon)

Regional Chinese Cooking
(Joe DiStefano’s series at Serious Eats:
More Than Ma La: A Deeper Introduction to Sichuan Cuisine
Secrets of Cantonese Cooking, The: America's First Chinese Cuisine
Song of Spice and Fire, A: The Real Deal With Hunan Cuisine)

Science of Saturated Fat, The: A Big Fat Surprise About Nutrition?
(Nina Teicholz, in The Independent, with good news for butter lovers)

Short Stack
(publisher of small single-subject cookbooks)

Toast
(e-zine; “a celebration of food & ideas”)

What Americans Can Learn from Other Food Cultures
(Amy Choi, via TED)

What Gives Wine its Color?
(Eleanor Shannon provides a brief introduction to the subject)

Why Lyon is Food Capital of the World
(Bill Buford, in The Guardian)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Curse of Modern Food Writing, The: The Dearth of Pleasure

Essay Expert, The

How Food Journalism Got as Stale as Day-Old Bread

It’s All About Trust and Ethics in Food Blogging


---- yet more blogs ----
China South of the Clouds

eat this poem 

Les Leftovers

Maureen B. Fant: Discovering Italy through its Food 

Science Meets Food


---- one changed URL ----
Red Cook


---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

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 support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 

It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper) (Kindle)
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)
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 #173 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 (c) 2015 by Gary Allen.

Foodsites for February 2015

Right now, it might feel about as far from Spring as can be imagined, but we’re about to put all of our faith in the prognostications of rodent in Pennsylvania. 

February, an otherwise dismal month, attempts to be relieved by several holidays.

In the US we have President’s Day (which used to be two holidays, until the powers-that-be decided that two holidays constituted entirely too much fun). As a child I remember that Washington’s Birthday was always celebrated with a homemade cherry pie, but today it just seems to be an excuse for sales of all sorts of items we don’t actually need.

The other two holidays (the ones that don’t provide days off) celebrate—appropriately enough—possibly unrequited longing: Valentine’s Day and Groundhog Day. The folks who invented the calendar must have realized how depressing February can be—otherwise, why would they have made it the shortest month?

Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served, directly—but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically. 

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. 

In honor of Groundhog Day (when, each year, we substitute desperate hope for bitter experience), we’ll extract something about Marmota monax from On the Table’s culinary quote collection: 

As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented. Henry David Thoreau

GaryFebruary 2015
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed (as has my virtual friend, Karen Resta)—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those of you who have suggested sites—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 ----
American Menu, The
(historic musings from menu collector Henry B. Voigt)

Behind the Recipe -- Jeri Quinzio
(food history from the author of Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making)

Books, Food & History 
(site of the University of Amsterdam’s Special Collection on the History of Food)

Brief History of the French Baguette, A
(the classic French loaf is not as ancient as we might think…)

Cook in Colonial Africa, A
(Cynthia Bertelsen, on what it was like for tropical cooks to prepare typical British meals)

Cookbook of Unknown Ladies, The
(“Curious recipes and hidden histories from Westminster City Archives”)

Eat Your History: A Shared Table
(food history from down under)

Forgotten Cuisines of America
(Robert Sietsema’s exploration of the eclectic roots of American food, in Gourmet: 
Part 1: The Barrier Islands of South Carolina
Part 2: The Hmong
Part 3: Silicon Valley
Part 4: Tex-Mex
Part 5: Tex-Mex
Part 6: German-American)

Historic Cooking School
(Rena Goff on cookbooks—with many links to free e-versions, historic kitchens, and food museums)

Historic Foodie, The
(site of Martin & Victoria Rumble; foodwriting, bookselling, and historic recreating in the Appalachians)

Homo Gastronomicus
(thinking about eating, mostly British eating)

How Coffee Fueled the Civil War
(not your typical war story; from War History Online)

How I Became a Food Historian 
(Rachel Laudan tells all…)

Hushpuppy Nation 
(American food, southern style)

La Cocina Histórica
(exploring the collection of Mexican cookbooks at The University of Texas at San Antonio)

On Food and History 
(Lynn Nelson on food news, historic cookbooks, films that feature food, and suchlike tasty topics)

On MSG and Chinese Restaurant Syndrome
(Harold McGee puts another food fallacy to rest)

On the Idea of Novelty in Cuisine: A Brief Historical Insight 
(Bénédict Beaugé, in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science)

Short History of the Dining Room, A (Part 1)
(Christine Baumgarthuber’s article in The New Inquiry)

Tiny Bubbles: Where Food Met Science, Medicine, and Religion
(Rachel Laudan effervesces about the mostly Western fascination with aerated food and drink)

Why Black Eyed Peas? Why Greens?
(Michael W. Twitty on some southern staple foods; at Afroculinaria)

Why the Kitchen Computing Dream of the 80s Never Caught On
(Maureen Ryan on a bit of techie nostalgia for something that never really happened)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Amazon Is Not the Reader’s Friend, Says Debate Audience

Confusion Among Bloggers on Disclosing Compensation

Has Your Content Been Stolen? A Lawyer’s Guide To Defending Your Online Content

Mark Strand: Living Gorgeously

Questions from a Recipe Copy Editor

What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades


---- yet another blog ----
Opusculum


---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

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 support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 

It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper), (Kindle)
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)
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 #172 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 (c) 2015 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for January 2015

Not what it looks like outside our door right now… but it’s only a matter of time.

January is named for the Roman god of doorways, and has two faces—one for looking forward and one for looking back. Janus seems quite appropriate for those of us who write about food, especially food historians. We’re always trying new things, but thinking about them in the context of the past. On the other hand, for those of us who have also raised children, the Roman god Edusa might deserve some supplication. She was responsible for getting the young ones to eat their veggies (and anything else they might reject untasted).

Despite the fact that feasting might have lost some of its appeal after all our holiday meals, this issue is—once again—over-stuffed. If it’s any consolation, the updates newsletters are always 100% calorie, cholesterol, gluten, and trans-fat free.

Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served, directly—but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically. 

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.

It’s a media tradition—around this time—to revisit major events of the past year. Bowing to peer pressure, On the Table’s culinary quote collection serves up it’s own leftover dish:

I was trying new green vegetables on my dog, Mabon. So, with all this talk that you could hardly survive without eating kale three times a day, I decided to try a little bit. I stir-fried it and put three little clumps in his dish. And he sniffed each clump, picked each one up and put it over there, and there, and there—and walked away. I was proud of him. Good boy! Judith Jones

GaryJanuary 2015

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed (as has my friend Cynthia Bertelsen)—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those of you who have suggested sites—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 ----
American Food History Project, The
(a series of exhibits at the Smithsonian; podcasts and videos)

Beyond Casserole: Mapping Out The Country’s Funeral Food Traditions
(regional variations on preferred comfort[ing] foods)

Bibliography of Sub-Saharan African Cookery Books
(link to downloadable Word document)

Boiling Fish
(Leanne Ogasawara on scent, memory, Marseilles, and the making of bouillabaisse; in 3 Quarks Daily)

Bread in the Middle Ages
(history, and a couple of recipes)

California Taco Trail, The: How Mexican Food Conquered America
(Carolina Miranda’s report on NPR)

Cara De Silva
(website of one very busy food journalist/historian/public speaker/editor/teacher)

Chef Leticia
(website & blog of expatriate Brazilian chef and cookbook author, Leticia Moreinos Schwartz)

Dobby’s Signature
(recipes from Nigeria)

Feats of Clay: The Role of the Qvevri in Georgian Winemaking
(Doug Wregg’s article about a traditional method of fermenting wine—in the Caucasus, where wine was first made—but is not at all like wine production anywhere else)

Food Borne Illness Prevention
(comprehensive list of links to pathogens and their medical implications, as well as federal and local regulations and standards for controlling them)

Graduate Association for Food Studies, The
(from Boston University’s Gastronomy Program and Harvard University, with far-flung faculty advisors from across the spectrum of food scholarship)

Grape Collective
(wine magazine)

History Cook, The: Food of Christmas Past
(a day in the kitchen with Ivan Day)

Human Ancestors Were Consuming Alcohol 10 Million Years Ago
(Carl Engelking, on genetic clues about our ability to metabolize booze, in Discover)

Hungry African, A
(African recipe site)

Italian Deli Meats
(“a journey through flavor, renewed nutritional quality and health benefits of a symbol of Italian culinary art;” PDF)

Meat Fermentation at the Crossroads of Innovation and Tradition: A Historical Outlook
(report by Frédéric Leroy, Anneke Geyzen, Maarten Janssens, Luc De Vuyst, and Peter Scholliers in Trends in Food Science & Technology)

Mzansi Style Cuisine
(modern South African recipes)

PAXIMADIA: Barley Biscuits’ Past and Present
(a traditional food of Crete)

Preserving Tradition: Appalachian Food Storybank Collects Tales of Mountain Meals
(“…a project of the Heritage Food Committee of Slow Foods Asheville,” North Carolina)

Roosevelt Family Built a New York Coffee Chain 50 Years Before Starbucks, The
(Jancee Dunn’s article in the Smithsonian Magazine)

Shrooming in Late Capitalism: The Way of the Truffle
(a personal account, and some history, of Tuber melanosporum & magnatum – with a soupcon of lesser-known truffle genera: Terfezia & Tirmania)

Special Sauce for Measuring Food Trends: The Fried Calamari Index
(Neil Irwin on the way certain foods rise from obscurity to cult status, then become so familiar that they are no longer mentioned in The New York Times)

Suzy Homemaker, a Slice of Life from the 1960s
(Judith Gradwohl’s article, on a Smithsonian exhibit that uses a domestic toy to revisit a turbulent moment in our domestic history)

Taste of Tanzania
(Miriam Kinunda’s site about Swahili food and culture)

Viennese Delights: Remarks on the History of Food and Sociability in Eighteenth-Century Central Europe
(David Do Paço’s paper, published as part of the Max Weber Programme  of the European University Institute)

Visit to the Kitchen of Legendary Cookbook Editor Judith Jones, A
(Charlotte Druckman’s article in The Wall Street Journal)

Why Kant Was Wrong About Food
(Dwight Furrow provides philosophical justification for our intellectual fascination with the things we stuff in our mouths)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Caught Between Gefilte Fish and Campbell’s Soup

Self-Publishing is Self-Correcting

Working for Free Has Value at Each Stage of a Career


---- yet more blogs ----
Adventures in Bread Making

Amuse-Bouches, Intermèdes et Mignardises

Chef Afrik

Come. Con. Ella.

Daily Dish

Emiko Davies

Food Lover’s Feast, A

foodgeekology

It Takes a Kitchen

Life in the Food Lane

My Darling Lemon Thyme

My Mission: Tastes of SF

Salad for President

Science and Food 


---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

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 support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 

It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.


The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Paper), (Kindle)
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)
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 #171 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 (c) 2015 by Gary Allen.

A Huck Finn Moment, Recalled

I first met Pete Seeger at Whiz Bang Quick City II (a four-day experimental architecture event held outside of Phoenicia, NY) in 1972. At the time, I was part of Big Foot Foam, a small team of folks using sprayed urethane foam to build energy-efficient homes. Pete was intrigued by the tiny floating foam shelter I had made, on the spot, in which I slept—mid-pond—on that long weekend. He told me that he had an idea for a vessel that could travel up and down the Hudson using no power other than its currents and tides. Sailors would simply go with the flow, while it was moved in their desired direction, and drop anchor when it did not. He said it could be built like a large raft, using discarded oil drums filled with urethane foam.


Top left: My small frog-like home-from-home, migrating to the pond.

Pete was so charmingly free of technological savvy that I didn’t have the heart to tell him about the environmental hazards of the petrochemicals used to make urethane foam, nor that the used oil drums would work perfectly well for his raft—all by themselves.

References to Whiz Bang Quick City II “A Temporary City Celebrates Cooperation and Creativity.” Mother Earth News, July/August 1972.
O’Corozine, Rich. “Off the Map.” Home Hudson Valley, May 14, 2012.

Flashback

Some forty-five years ago, I—along with some five hundred thousand of my closest friends—attended a remarkable party on a farm in New York’s Sullivan County. Some time later, in reminiscing about that momentous blow-out, I wrote the following account:



By the Time I got to WoodstockOn the first of “four days of peace, love and music,” we packed ourselves into a Dodge Dart and drove from New Paltz to Bethel. OK, somewhere near Bethel—we got to within nine miles of the festival. After an immobile hour or two, my Dart-borne companions were ready to turn back.Not about to miss this historical event, I climbed out, hoisted a sleeping bag onto my shoulder, and started walking past the endless line of stopped cars. After walking forever in the August heat—when I was perhaps half-way to the festival site—heaven smiled on this weary traveler. It began to rain—no mere sprinkle, but a hippie-soaking downpour.Imagine the scene: thousands upon thousands of wet, tired, hippies (many with wet tired dogs) along a twenty-mile-long parking lot. Somewhere in the middle of this fragrant jamboree, a tall skinny guy, wearing white bellbottoms, a shiny purple rayon shirt (with puffy sleeves—good lord, what was I thinking?), trudged along, somewhat stooped under the weight of a water-logged sleeping bag.Did this pony-tailed guy give up? No freakin’ way!Not then, at least—the next morning was a different story.I had spent the night cuddling up, beside someone I should never have been with, in that very wet sleeping bag. Did I mention that it was lined with some cheesy yellow-dyed flannel—and that, at the first sign of moisture, it released that yellow dye all over the enclosed hippies? Did I mention that the sleeping bag was, itself, half submerged in the re-hydrated fecal matter of generations of Max Yasgur’s dairy cows?Enough was enough. I shuffled back down that same highway, and—when I reached some traffic that was moving—hitched a ride to New Paltz.The white bell-bottoms—stained by god-knows-what-all was living in the mud of peace, love and music—were never white again.  No amount of bleach was to have any effect on them. I had to dye them a nearly fluorescent shade of magenta.What can I say—It was 1969, and it seemed like a good thing to do at the time.




This week-end, I revisited the site of those events. The times they’ve been a-changing there. The long dirt road from the highway to Max Yasgur’s farm has grown into a paved two-lane road. A fancy museum and performance space now perches atop the hill. Inside, a gift shop overflows with peace, love, and trinkets—both cheap and not-so-cheap.



The museum’s exhibits did a great job of putting the weekend’s events in historical perspective—but that, of course, is one of the things that museums are supposed to do. They attempt to contextualize a collection of images and objects in order to help us imagine what it was like to be among them when they were current.
Unfortunately, museums can never really succeed because the moments they try to describe were filled with countless other things and sensations: things that are uncollectable, sensations that were taken for granted in the moment, but distinguish actual life from dioramas. No doubt, all historical museums are up against similar problems in trying to recreate the je ne sai qua of temps perdu.
Certainly, the Museum at Bethel Woods showed ample photos and film of healthy young people joyously frolicking in mud… but do museum-goers smell that mud? Do they feel it oozing between their toes? Do they feel the grit of drying mud—in their hair, their ears, their very eyelashes—upon waking, before they even realize where they are? Can it help them to envision being deeply uncomfortable, but simultaneously oblivious to their discomforts because they were trivial compared the bizarre joy of rising amidst half a million equally uncomfortable but ecstatic friends? Do the photos capture the profound funkiness of half a million unwashed and mostly unwashable bodies, bodies that were more closely packed than in any time in human history? Might there have been a moment, onstage, when Ravi Shankar said to himself, “Odd… this smells a bit like the India I tried to leave behind when I came to the West?”
Revisiting that oh-so-clean homage to a moment in our history, with its glass cases filled with sanctified detritus of half-century-old everyday hippie life, and carefully re-created versions of things that were abandoned ages ago, I am reminded that, while we might—occasionally—find a spot where we were once, nothing about the spot will be the same. That the moments we remember, or even imagine we remember, are not what we believe them to have been. Inexplicably, words from a Kenneth Rexroth poem—in which he envisioned an amorous moment shared by Antony and Cleopatra—form in my head:

…taking off

 Their clothes of lace and velvet 

 And gold brocade and climbing

 Naked into bed together

 Lice in their stinking perfumed

 Armpits, the bed full of bugs.

_________________

On the way home, we stopped at a nearby restaurant, where our twenty-something waitress asked us if we had been to the festival. When I answered in the affirmative, she followed with, “Do you remember anything?”
Now I don’t know, for a fact, that her question implied a suspicion of illicit activities at the festival. Perhaps she merely assumed that I was suffering from senile dementia. Either way, it was a damned good question.

Food Sites for December 2014

A wintry feast of apples for wildlife—in one of the many orchards near New Paltz, New York.

With December, residents of the northern hemisphere enter winter. It’s the season for rich desserts and hearty foods, slow-cooked dishes that ooze calories and luscious saturated fats and make us forget there will ever be a time when we might consider wearing something more revealing than a down parka. 

Self-deception can be glorious when served in over-sized portions.

Speaking of over-sized portions, this issue is simply bursting its buttons with tasty new sites for those of us who cogitate (and/or pontificate) about all things gastronomical. Think of it as an extended cocktail hour preparing you for the holiday feasts to come (or a last chance to kick back and relax before the frenzy of festivities consumes us all).

Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served, directly—but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically. In honor of the dinner party season, last month it served up “Too Hungry for Dinner at Hate.” November also saw Dr Sanscravat’s annual Thanksgiving ravings. This time, however, hiding behind the alias “I Am Curious: Orange,” it showed up in Roll Magazine.
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. 

As usual, we assume that too much is never enough, so this month’s issue is piling on additional comments appropriate to the gorging season (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection):

Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody. Samuel Pepys 

FEAST, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness. Ambrose Bierce 

Contemporary societies have lost the sense of the feast but have kept the obscure drive for it. Umberto Eco

GaryDecember, 2014


PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs -- or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed (as has my friend Cynthia Bertelsen) -- please drop us a line.  It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those of you who have suggested sites -- 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 ----
aashpaz
(“a history of Persian food through the ages”)

Afternoon with M.F.K. Fisher, An
(Paul Levy’s article in The Wall Street Journal)

Amazing Ribs.com
(“the science of barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking”)

Apples
(Anna Lovett-Brown on the history and mythology of Malus pumila)

Ben Franklin’s List of 200 Synonyms for “Drunk”: “Moon-Ey’d,” “Hammerish,” “Stew’d” & More (1737) 
(not necessarily more useful than a thesaurus, but definitely more entertaining)

Bread of Affliction, The
(Lindsay Eanet, in McSweeney’s Monthly, on sandwiches)

Community of Lush: Wine, Alcohol, and the Social Bond, The
(Dwight Furrow on what goes on at wine tastings)

Fake-Tongue Illusion, The
(Nicola Twilley on how the perception of foods is altered by our expectations; in the New Yorker)

Food
(blog, recipes, and archive of food programming on PBS – for those outside of the US, that’s our Public Broadcasting Service)

Food and Drink
(food-themed articles selected from Aeon magazine)

Food & Gastronomy: Media and Writing
(eclectic site of Dr. Len Fisher, who studies food, biophysics, and nano-engineering—not necessarily in that order)

Food Stories from Gascony
(southwestern France described by photographer Tim Clinch and writer Kate Hill)

Green Revolution: Curse or Blessing?
(report by Peter B.R. Hazell, posted by the International Food Policy Research Institute)

Happy Apicius
(articles on food and culture from the Bibliothèque Municipale de Dijon; in French)

Image Gallery: Supper Clubs
(Jan Whitaker recalls more restaurants – swanky or not – but mostly perdu)

In Vitro Meat Cookbook, The: Recipes as Design Fiction
(an artistic and philosophical discussion of meat that doesn’t come from animals; a review of a whimsically and graphically lovely book)

Interview with Dwight Furrow, An
(the philosopher talks about his reasons for thinking about food)

Little Food History, A
(Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir on the food of Iceland)

Nietzsche’s Angel Food Cake 
(Rebecca Coffey’s deliciously deicidal recipe, in McSweeney’s)

Pen & Fork
(recipes, cookbook reviews, tips, links)

Shut Up and Eat: A Foodie Repents
(New Yorker article by John Lanchester, author of The Debt to Pleasure)

Symposion Journal
(“...a website devoted to things cultural, aesthetic and intellectual about food”)

Weiser Kitchen, The
(Tami Ganeles-Weiser – anthropologist and chef – creates modern variations on dishes from around the world in her Kosher kitchen)

What’s the Most Ethical Way to Eat Snack Mix?
(Dan Pashman allows several philosophers to weigh in on this... ummm... weighty question)

Why Civilization Rests on that Roast
(Dwight Furrow -- a professor of philosophy who often writes about food and wine, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics -- considers the social meanings of food)

Yesterdish: Rescuing America’s Lost Recipes
(a project that salvages old family recipes, often from spattered index cards, and often comparing them with contemporaneous published recipes)


---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Amazon’s Crowdsourced Publishing Venture Kindle Scout Goes Live

Back of the House: Writing this Blog

Editing Checklist For Writers, An

Ethical Author

Leave Me Alone

Looking for Inspiration? Open Your Eyes…and Get to Work 

Merriam-Webster Apps

On All the Ways to Write a Recipe

Passive Resistance

Platforms Are Overrated

SelfControl

Smashwords


---- yet more blogs ----
5 Second Rule

Cooking in the Archives

Coorg Table, The

Culinaria

Culinary Bro-down

Cultured Grub

Eat. Drink. Think.

Elizabeth Minchilli in Rome

Foraging & Feasting

Former Chef

Historical Cooking Project, The

History’s Just Desserts 

Hortus

Hungry Dog, The

In Search of Taste

Kitchen Historic

Life’s a Feast

Lost Past Remembered

Monsoon Spice

Parla Food

Pen & Palate

Plated Stories

Revolutionary Pie

This Cook Book Life

Thyme & Temp


---- that’s all for now ----
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

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 support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 

It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.

The Resource Guide for Food Writers (Paper) (Kindle)
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)
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 #170 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 (c) 2014 by Gary Allen.

Too Hungry for Dinner at Hate

Rembrandt Peale's 1805 portrait of Thomas Jefferson
Every year or so, someone has an original idea – the exact same original idea that many other writers have pitched to magazine or newspaper editors. Surprisingly, the idea sells itself (again, and again, and yet again) – it’s nearly as predictable as each year’s crop of “new-and-exciting-ways-to-prepare-that-holiday-turkey” articles. It’s the tried-and-true “what-if-you-could-throw-a-dinner-party-and-invite-anyone-from-history-to-attend” trope.I don’t know who started this notion, ‘though I suspect it might have been Steve Allen (who was no relation, if that makes any difference to you). He had just the sort of intellectual curiosity and wide-ranging interests to make the concept work. He certainly was the first to invite Thomas Jefferson, who now shows up on almost everyone’s imaginary guest list. This despite the fact that TJ, while brilliant, was not especially sociable or talkative – even after a few glasses of the Bordeaux wine he called “O’brien.”I don’t think I could ever assemble one of these unlikely groupings of historical celebrities. For one thing, I wouldn’t know what to cook for them. How could I reconcile their unknown allergies, dislikes, and politically-incorrect foods with my plans for a menu? How could I face the looks of disgust and disappointment on the faces of long-dead heroes? Think about it – would Socrates be thrilled to be dragged from the Elysian Fields, only to face an overcooked noodle casserole? What if the guests didn’t get along, wouldn’t speak to each other, and just sat there, despondently pushing grayish pieces of limp broccoli around their plates, desperately wishing to return to their graves? I don’t even want to think about making up a dream guest list. I could, however, make a list of people I would never want to have at my table.First, without a doubt, would be Leviticus. There may never have been such a person (no doubt Moses just made up the name so it didn’t look like he was padding The Torah with his own stuff), but whoever wrote Leviticus 11:1-47 was one mean-spirited, self-important, know-it-all gastronomic buzz-kill. Just to play safe, I’m not having Moses at my party either. It’s bad enough when guests don’t want to eat the food you lovingly prepared for them, but when they get all high-and-mighty, claiming that Yahweh himself told them that everything on your table is unclean, that you and your other guests are unclean, and that it’s an abomination to eat the dishes that make up whole sections of your favorite foods list – that’s just plain rude, don’t you agree? Really, Leviticus – no lobster rolls? No billi bi? No scampi, let alone snails, afloat in garlic butter? No rabbit terrine? No frog legs Provençal? But locusts are OK? Are you kidding me?I’m willing to go along with him on vultures, owls, and bats – well maybe not the bats (I might try them; they’re sort of like flying dormice, and Ancient Romans loved their dormice). But is he serious about no bacon, ever? Not a smidgen of prosciutto, even when melons are at their most fragrant best?It’s just too much. The Leviticus invitation is definitely off the table. The same goes for any other puritanical proscribers of pleasure – like Sylvester Graham. Some might call this father of veganism a tad over-zealous, but zealotry implies at least some form of passion. He wasn’t a fan of most forms of passion, expressly prohibiting anything that might potentially provoke excitement or lust. Meat, dairy, alcohol, and spices were forbidden. That pretty much eliminates anything I would consider serving at a dinner party. Inconsistently, Reverend Graham also forbade the consumption of white bread, which (to my way of thinking) is an unprovoker of lust if there ever was one.Sharing a pepperoni-topped pizza “and a nice chianti” with Graham is clearly out-of-the-question. Hell, sharing anything with this guy is out-of-the-question.No dinner invitation for him.Then there was John Harvey Kellogg, who founded a masochistic empire based on Graham’s bizarre beliefs. He believed that illness resulted from meat rotting in our intestines. Alcohol, a provoker of lust, was forbidden. Dairy was OK, but taken primarily in the form of an enema. I don’t know about you, but extended talk of enemas is not especially welcome at my dinner table. Kellogg did, however, recommend a diet that was rich in nuts. That particular idea, in Kellogg’s case, borders on autocannibalism – and that’s more than enough for me to scratch his name off my list of dinner invitees.Sister Ellen G. White was another of the nineteenth century’s extreme vegetarians. Unlike Dr. Kellogg, who thought that spoiling our meals for the sake of our physical health was a worthy goal, she wanted more; she wanted to save our very souls by keeping God’s other creatures off of our plates. She also said that we eat too much even of healthy foods (that is, foods of which she approved). OK, she was right about that over-eating business, but it’s harder to swallow her claims that just because our sinful forbears ate meat, God caused The Flood. However, since that same flood wiped out everything else that was edible, Noah’s family had to start eating the Ark’s other passengers. She “explained” the result:After the flood the people ate largely of animal food. God saw that the ways of man were corrupt, and that he was disposed to exalt himself proudly against his Creator and to follow the inclinations of his own heart. …[God] permitted that long-lived race to eat animal food to shorten their sinful lives. Soon after the Flood the race began to rapidly decrease in size, and in length of years.Sorry Sister, but the inclinations of my own heart are that my guests and I should be able to eat any damned thing we want. Our sinful lives may be short, but they’ll be happier than long ones filled with your self-righteous sermons. Don’t bother checking your mailbox for dinner invitations from me.While it is true that my main reason for rejecting potential dinner guests is their rejection of my omnivorous appetites, it’s not the only one. Even in as permissive a dining room as mine, certain standards of etiquette must be observed. Horace Fletcher was obsessed with poop. He was constantly telling folks to sniff their excrement, to check for tell-tale signs of digestive failures (by which he meant “bacterial decomposition,” something I prefer to call “digestion”). I don’t want to hear any of this at my dinner table.Equally bad was his insistence on chewing every bite of food thirty-two times, very quickly (in under twenty seconds) would replace informed and civil discourse with the sounds of machine-gun mastication. Sorry, Fletch – no dinner party should resemble an onslaught of rabid beavers. Horace Fletcher will never receive an invitation to dine in my house.If I ever do host one of these silly imaginary dinners, I plan to begin with this soup from Craig Claiborne. It is rich and seductive enough to provoke lust (at least for dinner). What’s more, it violates just about every rule promulgated by the irritating people I’ve banned from my table. Not only that, it doesn’t have to be chewed – not even once.
Billi BiServes 4Ingredients2 lbs. mussels
2 shallots, coarsely chopped
2 small onions, quartered
2 sprigs parsley
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. thyme
2 cups heavy cream
1 egg yolk, lightly beatenMethodScrub the mussels well to remove all exterior sand and dirt.Place them in a large kettle with the shallots, onions, parsley, salt, black pepper, cayenne, wine, butter, bay leaf, and thyme.Cover and bring to a boil.Simmer 5-10 minutes, or until the mussels have opened.Discard any mussels that do not open.Strain the liquid through a double thickness of cheesecloth.Reserve the mussels for another use or remove them from the shells and use them as a garnish.Bring the liquid in the saucepan to a boil and add the cream.Return to boil and remove from the heat.Add the beaten egg yolk and return to the heat long enough for the soup to thicken slightly.DO NOT BOIL.Serve hot or cold.This dish may be enriched, if desired, by stirring two tablespoons of hollandaise sauce into the soup before it is served.
Source: Claiborne, Craig. The New York Times Cookbook . New York: Harper & Row, 1961.