Gary Allen's Blog, page 19

Food Sites for March 2014

It’s the dead of Winter in the Hudson Valley. For weeks, we have done nothing but work, order fuel oil, shovel Sisyphean mountains of snow, then order more fuel oil. But Spring will come (no matter how unlikely it seems right now) -- and it’s not too early to begin planning your garden. A guest post on our blog, Just Served, from Marie Ianotti pours a shot of Spring tonic to get you started.
Regular subscribers to this newsletter receive these updates directly -- but there is much more at the blog that isn’t delivered automatically (Marie’s gardening advice, for example).
 You can (if so inclined) follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find links to all of our online scribbles at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
March is Oscars month (hence this quote from The Godfather trilogy), an excerpt from On the Table’s culinary quote collection. Admit it, you were puzzled by the photo at the top of the page, weren’t you?

“Leave the gun. Keep the cannolis.”

GaryMarch, 2014

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. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Consider the Recipe(Kyla Tompkins applies literary analysis to the recipe format)
Global Food History (a new academic journal from Bloomsbury Publishing)
Joy of Digitized Cookbooks, with a List of Go-To Sources, The(Cynthia Bertelsen on the wonders of old culinary texts available online)
Junior’s Cheesecake and the Enduring Appeal of Mediocre Food(“…it's about the comfort and nostalgia that come from familiarity;” article in New York Magazine’s Grub Street)
Medieval Culinary Texts from Central India(first of Ammini Ramachandran’s series of posts, providing the food’s cultural and historic context)
Pizza, Pasta and Red Sauce: Italian or American?(Donna R. Gabaccia discusses the effects of the Columbian Exchange and immigration on foods often thought of as “Italian”)
Sarabhendra Pakasathram - Part IPart II - Non-Vegetarian RecipesPart III - Vegetarian RecipesPart IV - Recipes From The English Kitchen(another of Ammini Ramachandran’s serial posts, this time on a collection of early nineteenth century culinary manuscripts in the Saraswathi Mahal Library)
Scientific Explanation of How Marijuana Causes the Munchies, A(The Smithsonian reports on a study originally published in Nature Neuroscience)
Spice Chest – African Spices(Anita-Clare Field writes, not so much about the spices, as the spice blends that define African cooking)
Squirrels, Rabbits and Other World Events(“An Algonquin Round Table discourse it ain’t;” article from American Food Roots)
Touch Screen That Came to Dinner, The(former NY Times restaurant critic, Bryan Miller, writes -- in the Wall Street Journal -- about how “mobile technology is changing the way we eat out”)
What Cookbooks Mean to Cooks: A Meditation on a Magic Carpet Ride to Turkey (and We’re Not Talking ‘bout the Bird)(“Cookbooks… invite us to ponder civilizations and the formation of human connections;” a post by Cynthia Bertelsen)

---- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Ben Fink Photography
Is Self-Publishing a Better Road to Wealth for Writers?

---- yet another blog ----
Art of the Pie

---- 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)
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 #161” 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.

It may not seem like it right now...

...but Spring is coming. Really it is.
To get ready, take a look at this guest post, an excerpt from Marie Iannotti's latest book,  The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast (2014), where you'll find out much more about what to grow here and how to grow it.



Planning Your Perfect Vegetable Garden
Complaining about the weather is winter sport for Northeasterners, but our long, cold winters are really a mixed blessing. Although they keep us indoors, they provide plenty of time to plan our gardens. So much time that it's easy to get carried away. If you are planning your first vegetable garden, you can be realistic or be overwhelmed. Even old hands at vegetable gardening need to be reined in. Think back to the cabbage your kids grew weary of after three steady weeks of cole slaw. Do you want a repeat of that? Instead of fantasizing, grab a cup of tea and a seat by the window and ask yourself; How much time do I have to work in the garden? How much space can I spare? What vegetables do I really like to eat? 
Making choices about what to grow is probably the most important of your garden planning tasks, because those choices will dictate how much time and space is required. Every gardener tries to plant more than their space can hold. That's a gardening given, and it really doesn't get any better with experience. However, you can make your decisions a little easier by considering these 3 things:
1. Plant what you like to eat. This should be common sense, but seed catalogs are seductive. Consider how you eat already, not an idealized version of what the back-to-the-earth gardener eats. If your kids adore carrots, not chard, use your space to re-seed carrots every couple of weeks. If all you are really interested in is fresh salads, start with tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and radishes. You can always add more.
2. Plant what you cannot get fresh locally. Sweet corn is grown up and down the East Coast and the start of sweet corn season is a regionally celebrated event. Farmers' markets and stands will be overflowing with it. On the other hand, matchstick-thin green beans are rarely grown commercially and taste their snappy best when eaten fresh from the garden. Home gardeners can grow thousands of vegetables that will never be found in the produce aisle. Planting something new and different every year is a great way to expand your culinary horizon as well as your gardening chops.
3. Plant things that grow well in your area. Some crops, like sweet potatoes and melons need a longer, warmer growing season than many of us can provide. You might want to leave them for the pros to grow. Plant for the season we have, starting with cool weather greens,  then clearing space for the heat lovers we can please, like tomatoes and zucchini, and cap the season off with vegetables -- like kale -- that sweeten with frost.
Be wary of vegetables that come with a guarantee of problems. Multiple leaf-spotting disease spores lie dormant in the soil, waiting for the perfect conditions to infect your tomatoes. Foil them by choosing varieties that are resistant to reoccurring problems in your area, like 'Celebrity' or 'Roma'. It's not a guarantee, but it does give you an edge, and there are plenty of choices. Choosing vegetables and varieties suited to your climate will pay off with less effort on your part and a better harvest.
Navigating the eccentricities of gardening in the Northeast is not easy. Plants are not "plug and play". They don't thrive if you ignore them and they require a lot of follow-up, which is why some people love gardening and others avoid it. For those who love it, our lingering, hazy summers and cool, crisp falls provide a growing season capable of yielding an every-changing menu of seasonal food. You wouldn't eat it all at once and you shouldn't try to plant it all at once.
______
Marie Iannotti is a gardener who writes, photographs and speaks irreverently about gardening. She is the author of The Beginners Guide to Heirloom Vegetables (Kindle, Paper) and The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast (Paper). You can find her at PracticallyGardening.com and About.com Gardening.

Food Sites for February 2014

Nutmeg and Mace,  Myristica fragrans

Winter continues to serve up its worst, but a warm kitchen -- filled with the aromas of hearty slow-cooked dishes helps get us through February. Well, that, and Valentine’s Day. Or maybe both. It is no accident that Valentine’s Day falls in the dead of winter  (is any couple foolish enough to break up during such a dismally icy 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. The blog continues to be neglected while plugging away at a book project... but Roll Magazine served up an amuse bouche from our book, Terms of Vegery , as “Go Ahead, Just Take a Little Taste…”.
You can (if so inclined) follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find links to all of our online scribbles at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Leitesculinaria has reposted twenty-two of our backlisted (and vaguely historical) LC pieces here.
Sans additional comment, we’ll conclude this month’s introductory palaver with just two excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animals. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose, for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics. HL Mencken

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

GaryFebruary, 2014

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. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Biggest Food Revolution Ever, The: The Printed Cookbook?(Cynthia Bertelsen on the how and why of early cookbooks)
Geography of a Restaurant Menu, The(sociologist Gwen Sharp’s analysis of marketing techniques used on menus)
Lifelong Fight Against Trans Fats, A(Melanie Warner’s New York Times article about Dr. Fred Kummerow, one of the first scientists to note the connection between trans fats – and oxidized fats – with heart disease)
RecipeCurio.com(an archive of preserved, mostly twentieth-century, recipes – from handwritten cards, clippings, and cookbooks)
Sauce for Thought: A Brief History of Spices that Serve as Natural Food Coloring(Alice DeLuca on colorants that predate Red Dye #2)
SkyBlueSky(David Hagerman’s food and travel photography)
Two Reasons Why I am Interested in What King Kalakaua of Hawaii Ate(Rachel Laudan – and Henry Voigt – offer some insights into cross-cultural cuisine)
When a Food Writer Can’t Taste(Marlena Spieler’s post-accident account “phantom scents and distortions of actual smells — phantosmia and parosmia, respectively;” in The New York Times)
Why Study the History of Cookbooks, or, the Art and the Mystery of Food(Cynthia Bertelsen on the early history of cookbooks, along with an excellent bibliography of cookbook bibliographies)

---- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Battle Cry from the Goddesses of Food, A
How to Blog a Book
Work from Home? Do it Better.

---- yet another blog ----

My Carolina Kitchen

---- 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)
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 #160” 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.

food sites for January 2014

We might not be taking our morning coffee in the garden anytime in the near future.

Lately, in our part of the world, Winter has blasted us with everything it has to offer. Not that we’ve indicated any interest in being the recipient of such largesse. It does mean that (other than time spent shoveling) there’s more time for wandering about the internet, visiting tasty sites.
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. The blog continues to be neglected while plugging away at a book project... but Just Served did have one new post. Unfortunately for subscribers to this newsletter, “What’s in a Sausage?” is not really about our beloved encased meats – unless “encased meat” is understood to be our brain and the reading we’ve stuffed into it. However, since a new year is about to arrive, you might consider reading about one of our January traditions: “Hoppin’ John for the New Year Celebration: Hope For a Rosy Future” – one that is mirrored, in Japan, with sekihan (rice cooked with tiny red adzuki beans).
You can (if so inclined) follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find links to all of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Leitesculinaria has reposted twenty-two of our backlisted (and vaguely historical) LC pieces here.
To balance all the holiday excess, this month. we’ll add just one excerpt from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

Now hoppin'-john was F. Jasmine's very favorite food. She had always warned them to wave a plate of rice and peas before her nose when she was in her coffin, to make certain there was no mistake; for if a breath of life was left in her, she would sit up and eat, but if she smelled the hoppin'-john, and did not stir, then they could just nail down the coffin and be certain she was truly dead. Carson McCullers

GaryJanuary, 2014

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. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
A-Z of Unusual Ingredients: Coconut OilA-Z of Unusual Ingredients: DukkahA-Z of Unusual ingredients: MatchaA-Z of Unusual Ingredients: Ras el Hanout(Rachel Smith’s articles, in The Telegraph)
American Cakes – Carrot Cake(Gil Marks, at The History Kitchen, on the three-thousand-year-old roots of a classic cake)
Appam - A Temple Food Offering with a Very Ancient History(Ammini Ramachandran’s account of Hindi ritual cooking)
Archaeologists Officially Declare Collective Sigh Over “Paleo Diet”(“The nutritional benefits of the diet are not what the grievance is about…” it’s that neo-Neanderthals don’t recognize a joke when it’s on them)
Are There Fundamental Laws of Cooking?(Samuel Arbesman, writing in Wired Magazine)
Culinary Art: History and Marketing Strategies(five papers presented at CrossCulTour Summerschool, Friesach, Austria, 14 -17 September 2010; three are about food in the Medieval period)
From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry(an exhibition at the U.S. National Library of Medicine)
Geographical Distance, not Climate, Explains Regional Cuisines(a statistical analysis of Chinese cooking styles, by Yuxiao Zhu, et.al.)
Gourmand, The (British food and culture journal)
Guide to Collecting Cookbooks, A(a brief introduction, from online used book seller AbeBooks)
History of Carrots(first page is a brief timeline, but is followed by much more detail)
Honey Bees Across America(Brenda Kellar traces the spread of Apis mellifera for the Oregon State Beekeepers Association)
How Stress Affects Your Food: From Distorted Tastes to Comfort Eating(Amy Fleming’s post on why we taste with our brains, not our tongues)
just-food(food industry news aggregator)
McRib, The: Enjoy Your Symptom(Ian Bogost, in The Atlantic, tells why we don’t want to know how the food magicians do their tricks, but derive satisfaction just by knowing that we are being tricked.)
New Kind of Food Science, A: How IBM is Using Big Data to Invent Creative Recipes(Aatish Bhatia, on how to deeply analyze the recipe-writing process, in Wired Magazine)
Pride and Partridges(Pen Vogler, in The Guardian, on Jane Austen and food)
Rapeseed Revolution, The(Lydia Bell’s article on the oil known, in North America, as “canola”)
Road Trip Restaurant-ing(Theodore Dreiser and Emily Post wrote the first “road trip” books -- at least ones involving automobiles; Jan Whitaker’s observations of the meals they experienced)
Shircliffe Menu Collection, The(Jan Whitaker’s article about 10,000 items in the New York Historical Society’s Patricia D. Klingenstein Library)
Study: Fast-Food Culture Hinders Our Ability to Savor Life(Julie Beck’s article in The Atlantic)
Sweet Potato Varieties(everything you need to know about the roots that are neither tubers nor yams)
Vintage Cocktails: Gee Whiz, The Evolution of the Gin Fizz(Kimberly Voss’ article, in The Southern Food and Beverage Museum’s OKRA Magazine)
Wild Raspberries : Young Andy Warhol’s Little-Known Vintage Cookbook(a whimsical collection of thoroughly untestable recipes from the pre-pop artist and Suzie Frankfurt)

---- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Five Ways To Identify a Bullshit Food Writer
I Ate the Sponsored Food: Why Disclosure Isn’t Enough.
Publishing Trend for 2014: A New Demand for Eye-Catching Cookbooks
Writer's Web

---- yet more blogs ----
Cookery Year in Coorg, A
Food in Jars
Les Leftovers
my cooking hut
Retro-Food.Com


---- and just because it’s a new year ----
5 Futuristic Food Trends


---- 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 this newsletter, 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 On the Table.
The Resource Guide for Food Writers (Paper) (Kindle)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen (Hardcover)
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 #159” 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.

Now That the Holiday’s Over

Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone. Mostly gone. While it was everything you could have hoped for, I'll wager you’ve pretty much lost interest in the leftover turkey sandwiches that seemed so wonderful – back on Wednesday. Even stuffing has lost its appeal. And yet there is still more turkey in the ‘fridge.Assuming you’ve already served every conceivable variation of the original dinner, and gone off into Turkey Tetrazini territory and beyond, you’re probably looking for a way to serve that left-over turkey in some way that doesn’t taste so much like… so much like… well, you know, turkey.Around our house, we have a solution to this annual problem. It may not be new, or traditional in a New England sort of way, but it has prevented a lot of tired left-overs from becoming raccoon fodder.Back in seventeenth century Mexico -- as the story goes – word reached a poor convent that its bishop was going to pay a visit to the nuns. They needed to find something suitable to serve him, but all they had was turkey. After all these centuries, we can’t be certain that it was left-over turkey but, for the sake of the story, let’s go with it. In a state of increasing panic, they ransacked their pantry for anything that might make the boring turkey more appetizing. They found chiles – this was Mexico, after all -- but also some spices, a little dried fruit, some nuts, and a few precious blocks of chocolate. They combined it all and served the bishop the best thing he had ever tasted. He left the convent a happy man, and everywhere he traveled, he raved about the wonderful dish he’d had in Puebla. A bishop on a donkey was the foodie blog of the day, and the dish became an immediate success.There’s a wonderful recipe for it in Diana Kennedy’s The Cuisines of Mexico . It’s a complex and time-consuming process – wholly undesirable characteristics in the days following exhaustive efforts in the kitchen and dining room. We want something easy, something tasty, something we can eat with our hands as simply as a sandwich – yet not another damn sandwich – and something that will not even vaguely remind us of repasts so recently perdu.Our solution is this much-simplified version of Ms. Kennedy’s Mole Poblano de Guajolote. We spoon it onto flour tortillas, and wrap them burrito-style. They’re good on their own, but (if you’ve recovered enough from the holiday to exert yourself) a garnish of avocado cubes, a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds, and some mild Oaxacan cheese would not be out of place.Quick Mole PoblanoYield: 8-10 servingsIngredients6 cups turkey stock (you did make stock from the bones, right?)
1 oz. stale French bread
4 cloves
1/8 tsp. coriander seed
10 black peppercorns
¼ tsp. fennel seed
¼ tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. raisins
1 Tbsp. chile powder (I used ancho)
20 almonds, unpeeled
3 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
2 oz. raw pumpkin seeds
2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
12 oz. leftover turkey, shredded
8-10 nine-inch flour tortillasMethod1. Combine first twelve ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pot, bring to a boil then turn down to simmer. Cook until bread has broken down, and the sauce is slightly thickened.
2. Pour mixture into blender. Cover tightly, place kitchen towel over blender cover (hot liquids can easily splash out dangerously), and blend until smooth. Don’t over-fill the blender – if need be, purée in two batches.
3. Pour mixture back into pot, and add chopped chocolate. Heat gently, while stirring, until all chocolate is melted. Taste for seasoning, and thin with a little more stock if needed (it should be very thick, but not pasty). 
4. Add shredded turkey and cook until just heated through, stirring to make sure the sauce doesn’t scorch.
5. Spoon about a half cup of mole across a tortilla, add garnishes if desired, fold in the two sides, then roll up to form the classic burrito shape.

What’s in a Sausage?

My friend Carey and I met yesterday, and we spoke for a while about my little book on sausages. His fond childhood memories of sausages in England prompted him to wonder what we know about the earliest sausages. I mentioned references to blood sausage in Homer, and how modern Linguiça and Longaniza are direct descendants of Roman Lucanian links, which are -- in turn -- descended from older Greek ones. All rather ordinary factoids.This morning, that discussion seems to have been about more than encased meats (not that the subject isn’t a juicy one in itself). No, it has something to do with what -- in me, at least -- passes for an intellectual life. I have always been a voracious and eclectic reader. I’ve consumed thousands of arcane volumes, on subjects as diverse as history of science, anthropology, mythology, physics, geology, archaeology and paleontology, computer science, philosophy and religion. Most of that reading was non-fiction, but my more literary readings generally lean toward the classics. Given a choice between old books and new, I always choose the old.I only half-kiddingly refer to myself as a dilettante, but a better description would be “serial monomaniac.” Subjects grab hold of me for a while, leading to a bouts of obsessive reading. An interest in fly-fishing provokes the consumption of countless entomologies, life-histories of various salmonids, and angling literature from contemporary writers all the way back to Dame Juliana Berners’ A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle , with obligatory stops at a couple of editions of Izaac Walton. A fascination with words leads to etymology, which suggests that Greek and Roman literature might offer some hints, which leads to a prolonged stay among the Loeb Classical Library’s editions, with red-covered Romans and green-covered Greeks of all descriptions. Herodotus and Thucydides start me wondering about connections between myth, vaguely remembered bits of oral history, and archaeology. I find I must read everything I can about Egypt and the Fertile Crescent. But it’s not enough – I need to examine the earliest ancestors of Homo sapiens sapiens. That requires a look at evolution itself – which carried to its logical extreme passes back though the planet’s history, to cosmology, and ultimately to quantum physics.I realize there could be a connection between the orbital distances of electrons around the nucleus of atoms and the colors of the perceived world, from pigments and dyes to the spectrum of light itself. The most esoteric scraps of information appear to be directly connected to the seemingly most-obvious aspects of day-to-day life. The pot of feijoada, bubbling away on the stove contains – scattered among the black beans and linguiça -- the colonial history of Brazil, the discovery of the New World, medical notions of the Renaissance, the Crusades of the Middle Ages, the Islamic fascination with spices, linked via sausages all the way back to Ancient Greece, and via the Homer to memories of Bronze Age conflicts. Noticing that the ancient gods spoke directly to the heroes at Troy (something they rarely do today), leads to reading a book on the breakdown of the bi-cameral mind. Which leads to a bunch of books on the functioning of the brain (and a host of literary – as in “non-scientific” -- speculations on the nature of thought itself).Why would these seemingly unrelated subjects hold such fascination? Why follow every lead back to point where there is nowhere to go beyond the axiomatic? Why prefer the raw purity of Aeschylus over the more psychologically-correct Sophocles? Mathematical Bach over Romantic Brahms? Why this constant need to strip away the surface soil, to see what’s buried beneath? Why spend countless hours on Ancestry.com digging into every remote corner of my genealogy? What could possibly be gained through all this effort?That conversation with Carey suggests an answer of sorts. Sausages may be a savory metaphor for this quest: they are literal links between the past and present, and between all these disparate subjects; and each one is stuffed with tiny scraps of whatnot, fused together into a savory morsel that is something quite different from its ingredients, yet somehow incorporates the attributes of each. The expeditions through all these subjects do have something in common: they are about the search for an ultimate answer, the First Cause, if you will. While ego obviously initiates our attempts to find our place in the history of the Universe, we are unlikely to find much ego gratification there. It’s all so big and we’re so small. However, it’s oddly comforting to know that even though we occupy such an insignificant portion of that time-space continuum, we simultaneously contain all of it.Despite the sound of that last sentence, there is nothing mystical about it (‘though I can certainly see how mystics might reach similar conclusions). We each represent a history of everything that came before us, in microcosm, much like a strand of DNA… or a link of sausage.

Food Sites for December 2013

Eighteenth-century field kitchen re-enactment, Fort Ticonderoga, New York

Since the over-the-top-overeating holiday season is fast approaching, this month’s photo is somewhat more austere than is our usual wont. While we love gastronomic excess as much as (and possibly more than) most folks, we know that the sequel to all that hearty holiday fare is the bitter aftertaste of regret.
[The previous paragraph was intended as a kind of peptic talk, to urge us to fight the good fight against the dark forces of over-indulgence. We do not expect it to have any influence, whatsoever, on our actual behavior.]
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. The blog continues to be neglected while plugging away at a book project... but Just Served is already dishing out some holiday leftovers. In the classic Susan-Stamberg’s-mother’s-cranberry-sauce-mode, we’ve replated our “Thanksgiving (Special Holiday Report).”
You can (if so inclined) follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find links to all of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Leitesculinaria has reposted twenty-two of our backlisted (and vaguely historical) LC pieces here.
Here lie three holiday excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

It [Thanksgiving] was founded by the Puritans to give thanks for bein’ preserved from the Indians, an’ we keep it to give thanks we are preserved from the Puritans. Finley Peter Dunne

It was dramatic to watch [my grandmother] decapitate [a turkey] with an ax the day before Thanksgiving. Nowadays the expense of hiring grandmothers for the ax work would probably qualify all turkeys so honored with “gourmet” status. Russell Baker

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. Erma Bombeck

GaryDecember, 2013

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. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine(an exhibit at The Art Institute of Chicago)
Culinary Luminaries: Edna Lewis(video of a panel held at the New School, in New York City)
Favorites from the L.A. Public Library’s Menu Collection(a few samples from the collection of Dr. Melvin Schrier – who donated some 9,000 items)
Food Think Tank, The(a site about sustainability, not only of what is eaten, but of the eaters)
Foodspin(in-your-face humor, with a side of attitude – or maybe just trolling for foodies)
Glossary(Italian cooking terms)
How 17th Century Fraud Gave Rise to Bright Orange Cheese(hint: someone was skimming off the top…)
It’s the Umami, Stupid. Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow(article on the Smithsonian Institution’s blog, “Food & Think”)
Saturated Fat is Not the Major Issue(cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, writing in The British Medical Journal, explains that cutting saturated fats -- like butter and cheese – from our diets discourages neither obesity nor heart attacks)
Swallow Magazine (a droll step away from the usual foodie gushing)
Table Sauce World(descriptions, ingredients and histories of many, many, condiments, new and old)
Thai Ingredients(more than a glossary, each link leads to a detailed article on the ingredient)

---- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers ----
5 Ways to be a Good Literary Citizen
14 Foodie Phrases That Have Lost All Meaning
Book Marketing 101
Confessions of a Dyslexic (Word Award Winning) Food Writer
Cost of Killing Off Real Food Writing, The
Lesson 873 – The Power of One (Photo)
Make the Most of Your Indie Bookstore Event
Off the Page Design
Writer’s Circle

---- yet more blogs ----
Bowl Half Full
BRUCE AND MARK
honey & jam
Kosher Camembert

---- moved or changed URLs ----
Culinary Historians of Southern California, The

---- 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 this newsletter, 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 On the Table.
The Resource Guide for Food Writers (Paper) (Kindle)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen (Hardcover)
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 #158” 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) 2013 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for November 2013

A pumpkin patch in Clintondale, New York

It’s pumpkin season – which is not easy to forget, since every company (no matter what they sell) seems to be advertising pumpkin something-or-other. We haven’t seen any pumpkin laser printers yet, but they’re probably out there.
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. The blog continues to be neglected while we keep plugging away at a book project... but Just Served did get one new entry this month (albeit, not a food post). It’s vaguely about writing, if you’re the sort of person who procrastinates when you should be writing -- by reading about writing -- this might be for you. We’re not encouraging that sort of behavior, of course, but -- should you require a brief diversion – check out Dr Sanscravat’s barely literate rant at “On the Renouning of Nouns.”
You can (if so inclined) follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find links to all of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Fall must be a time for looking backwards (perhaps it’s just that prospect of winter is too grim for contemplation), because Roll Magazine has been reissuing some of our old articles. In the past month they’ve posted two that had formerly appeared in print: “Preserving Apples,” and “Pancakes.”
Leitesculinaria has reposted twenty-or-so of our backlisted (and, no, I didn’t say “blacklisted” – so don’t get your hopes up) LC pieces here, as part of their archive of food history & science articles.
In an effort to purge ourselves of all-things-pumpkin (and we haven’t even reached Halloween yet, let alone Thanksgiving) here two Concord excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. -- Henry David Thoreau

We fancy men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every pumpkin in the field goes through every point of pumpkin history. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

GaryNovember, 2013

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. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

---- the new sites ----
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown Season 2 - Jerusalem(a video look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, viewed through their foods)
Ark of Taste, The(directory of artisanal foods from around the world, recognized by the Slow Food Foundation)
Bible Cake(nutritional anthropologist, and culinary historian, Deb Duchon, slices into some scripture cakes)
Big Chill, The(Jonathan Rees, on refrigerators in American life, in Atlantic)
Culinary Library [opening 30 October 2013] (archives of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum)
Damon Lee Fowler(website of a southern food writer and culinary historian)
Fish and Bread Journey, A(Heather Smith on “the natural and social history of bagels and lox”)
Food in Medieval Sicily(Christiane Truelove’s article about the intersection of Italian and Muslim cuisines)
Founding of the Food Network: A 20 Year Retrospective, The(YouTube video of a panel held at The New School)
Free Antique Recipes from Old Newspapers(plus links to other historic recipe sites)
German-English Cooking Glossary(exactly what it says)
Italian Culinary Terminology(glossary with English translations)
Southern Recipes(“Cajun, soul food and lowcountry recipes” from food historian, chef, and author, Rick McDaniel)
Taste of a Decade: 1970s Restaurants(Jan Whitaker continues her “Decades” project, looking at the way restaurants change over time)
Want to Eat Roadkill? There’s an App for That(not a recipe site… and this is only news in Montana)
What are Soya Sauce and Other Seasoning Called in Chinese?(glossary of Chinese, English, and Malay terms for ingredients)
What’s the Deal With Waiters Grinding Pepper onto Your Food?(Laura Anderson asks and answers at Slate)

---- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers ----
Editors Read Your Pitches—Really
Resolved: It’s OK for Creative People to not be Consumed with Self-Loathing

---- yet more blogs ----
Albany Ale Project
Hushpuppy Nation
Lentil Breakdown

---- moved or changed URLs ----
Global Gourmet, The

---- 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 this newsletter, 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 On the Table.
The Resource Guide for Food Writers (Paper) (Kindle)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen (Hardcover)
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 #157” 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) 2013 by Gary Allen.

On the Renouning of Nouns

Bureaucrats, middle managers, politicians—anyone whose livelihood depends as much upon the regular application of obfuscation as a farmer’s spreading of manure—are major contributors to our store of useless words. One of the favored techniques for their creation is that of compounding perfectly acceptable nouns, folding and redoubling them until their meaning is lost, while leaving the impression that something significant has been said. 
This serves two important purposes: it forestalls the discovery of the inconvenient fact that one does not actually have anything to contribute, and it increases the listener’s (or reader’s) level of insecurity. There’s always the possibility (unreasonable as it may be) that the renounifier might know the meaning of their portentous, yet inscrutable, words—words that defy one’s best efforts to locate in any dictionary.
A correspondent recently wrote, “I attended a meeting at a publishing house recently and the agenda actually mentioned functionalitization.” Apparently, grammarazation monitors had been disinvitationalized from these agendafications. The impliedified level of excellentitude, however, was palpable.
In rereading the former paragraph, we experienced quantifiable remorse when we realized that we might have had lucrative careers as jargonists or bureaucratinizers.

A Quandry

How to begin? Starting with an incomplete sentence seems wrong, even if there is an implied subject, a narrator if you will. But is that narrator myself, the author? Or is it (we don’t know yet if it should be a he or a she) some imaginary all-seeing being who just happens to have witnessed this extraordinary event? Should the narrator be involved? I don’t see how – the situation is just so unusual that forcing an additional person into it would just complicate matters unnecessarily.Perhaps we should just set that “little” problem aside for a while, and see how things develop. And yes, those are ironic quotation marks, signifying that the situation is far from small – yet we haven’t even begun to suggest any hint of that situation’s nature, so what is the reader to make of them? Perhaps the reader will just assume that the narrator is a pretentious twit who punctuates his/her conversations with the index and middle fingers of both hands, unsubtly scribing all-too-visible invisible quotation marks in the air. That won’t do. If the narrator is me, that paints too vivid a picture – one whose composition is too busy, too filled with tiny distractions, to show the scene as it deserves to be seen. Even imposing that “arty” metaphor is an intrusion. Better to just leave all that stuff out. Besides, if the narrator is me, and I’ve portrayed myself as a twit (of any description) isn’t that a tad too coy? Too self-deprecating? The reader will not be fooled – he/she will see through the persiflage, recognizing the worm in the apple, the bosom serpent, the hidden egotism, for what it is.Maybe we should (perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently) set the problems of the narrator aside as well. Wait -- what is that? The royal or editorial “we”? There’s no “we” here. It’s not like “we” are having a discussion about the situation – are we? No. In fact, we (whoever the hell “we” is – or are) haven’t even begun to deal with the strange and compelling incidents that forced us to the typewriter in the first place. No, even that’s wrong. “Typewriter” either places our mysterious events in a historical period somewhere between inkwells and software (which is probably inaccurate or downright misleading), or it’s an overly-cute attempt to show the writer at work by implying an anachronistic means of communication. If we said the writer was sending smoke signals, we would (ourselves) have sent a signal that was only slightly more misleading. Not to mention, silly.God knows, we don’t want to appear silly. The situation is too important, too fraught with meaning, for silliness. Damn, there’s another issue to deal with. And yes, we know we shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition (or start one with a conjunction, for that matter), but things are beginning to get out of hand here. That whole “fraught with meaning” business. We don’t want to imply that there was something going on in the incident other than the incident itself, do we? It’s not a goddamned allegory, is it? Things happened. Inexplicable things (despite the fact that we are really, really, trying to explicate them).Maybe we should just let the scene speak for itself. I know, a “scene” is neither animate nor capable of self-expression, but let’s try to focus on the problem. The “problem,” is how to describe the event. We don’t want to interpret it for the reader (well, we do, but we don’t want to be obvious about it, do we?). We’d like the event to stand on its own (there we go again, treating the event as if it were a character). But how do we do that?Should we provide background for the real characters involved in the incident? How much? If we even mention their genders, won’t that allow certain pre-conceived notions abut gender roles to intrude where they may have nothing to do with the facts? And aren’t readers of different genders – let alone differing political orientations -- going to impose different sets of stereotypes on the characters before they even open their mouths? Maybe it would be better not to describe the characters at all; maybe not even let them speak. Of course, that places the entire burden back on the narrator (and we know what a can of worms that is).Maybe we should literally let the scene speak for itself (and yes, we know that “literally” is anything but literal in this context). We could simply describe the setting to provide the ambience in which or enigmatic event occurred. But how much detail is enough, how much is too much? The event could have happened anywhere, or any time – but did it? Is that even important? Do we need to furnish the scene with details, details that may or may not help the reader to understand the situation? We may have noticed things at the time – things like an old clock whose hands had not moved in years (and how, exactly, would our narrator have known that – would he/she have been part of the scene for all those years, or would the fact of their immovability been made apparent by corrosion or other visible damage?). However, such details may simply be filling space, padding the word count, without adding anything useful to the narrative. In fact, such small furniture (however artfully-described) may mislead the reader by suggesting that an acknowledgement of passing (or passed) of time may somehow add to an understanding of the event. Again, who is noticing those clocks (by which we mean the entire spectrum of details that could be included in the description of our scene) – that damned narrator again? If the narrator keeps inserting him- or herself into the action, the reader will begin to suspect that he/she is part of the action. If that’s the case, it’s but a short step to believing that the narrator has some ulterior motive for drawing attention to minutiae, might have reasons for choosing to show, or hide, key bits of evidence (for example, the all-too frequent use of italics is almost as distracting as ironic air-quotes). This is just too much of a distraction. Unless, of course, distraction is our purpose in revealing these details (it serves as a writer’s slight-of-hand, especially a mystery writer’s), we probably should not allow such suspicions to enter our readers’ minds. But that’s not our situation. We want to describe something that happened – something that is mysterious, but is not -- in itself -- a mystery. Maybe we would better off dispensing with the narrator altogether. Unfortunately, since we have already eliminated all the speaking roles, that leaves no one to tell the story of this most unusual happening – which is just as well, because we couldn’t figure out how to begin to tell it anyway.