Gary Allen's Blog, page 22

food sites for November 2012

Unsubstantiated sightings of Dr Sanscravat 
reported from Franconia Notch, NH (however, the same person 
also reported seeing Amelia Earhart in conversation 
with an Ivory-billed Woodpecker).

November is fast upon us -- the beginning of the feasting/dyspepsia season. If NPR's Susan Stamberg can regale us – every Thanksgiving – with her mother's cranberry sauce recipe, we experience little shame in dragging out Sanscravat's researches into one of the more puzzling aspects of the holiday menu.
Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served, directly -- but there many items that the blog doesn't sent automatically. Much of it is more than reasonable people want to chew -- but, if you're feeling particularly unreasonable, and don't want to wait for these newsletters, you can follow us on Facebook, or Twitter.  In the unlikely event that you find yourself stranded and book-starved, you can access a kind of index -- of orts and morsels of our (and the good doctor's) writings, wedged (as it were) among the back-teeth of the web – at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Leitesculinaria has reposted several of our own articles (the entire list is available here, along with several more noteworthy pieces on food history & science.
This month's quotation from On the Table's culinary quote pages is intended to provide a bit of cosmic perspective:

O woe, woe, man is only a dot: 

Hell drags us off and that is the lot;

So let us have a little space,

At least while we can feed our face. Petronius Arbiter

GaryNovember, 2012

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 finds links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

----the new sites----
"Adult" Restaurants(Jan Whitaker exposes some breastaurant history)
Crabs(a chart of US species and crab terminology)
Did the Ancients Know the Artichoke?(Clifford Wright examines, in Gastronomica, the scientific and historical evidence and doesn't think so; in PDF format)
Food in the Middle Ages: Eight Things You Probably Didn't Know(David Morton's overview of the subject)
Gastro-nationalism(a bibliography of over 200 books; from the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.)
Guide to Dumpling Styles around the World(J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is ecstatic about stuffed pouches of dough at Serious Eats)
History of Baklava, The(the multi-layered story of the classic Middle Eastern dessert; with recipes)
Maillard Reaction Turns 100, The(that wonderful browning that occurs when proteins and carbohydrates interact -- and, no, it's not caramelization – no matter what they say on food TV shows)
Old Recipes, Retried(Jessica Weisbergs' article in the New Yorker, on Sarah Lohman's recreation of long lost dishes)
Paileontology(a history of American lunchboxes)
Refined Dining(Stephen Cave's essay, in The Financial Times, on our sugar cravings, and how three books address the subject)
Sausagefans("the internet home of British sausages and beyond;" sausage news, recipes, tips, and a guide to best producers in England)
Simply Irresistible: Scientists Trace Gluttony's Path in the Brain(Daisy Yuhas's Scientific American article about brain chemistry and over-eating)
Sprudge("coffee news & frothy gossip")
Systematic Treatment of Fruit Types, A(all the technical botanical information one could possibly need – unless, just possibly, you're a botanist)

Taste of America(Josh Ozersky's food column in Time magazine)
Vanilla, Saffron Imports(a company site that provides a lot of information about the two products they sell)

-- inspirational (or not) sites for writers/bloggers --
cook n scribble
DNA of a Successful Book, The
F is for Foodie: An Alphabet of Unappetizing Words
Is Food Writing Important?

----yet another blog----
Salon Piquant

----changed URLs----
Beer Archaeologist, The
Blue Crab Archives

----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:
Our books: The Resource Guide for Food Writers ; The Herbalist in the Kitchen ; The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries ; Human Cuisine ; Herbs: A Global History ; and Terms of Vegery are still available for purchase.
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
 _______________________
"The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #145" 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) 2012 by Gary Allen.

The Scent of Madness

There was a time when I believed that I was possessed of a particularly keen sense of smell -- and because of my ultrasensitivity (I admit, up front, that this is the only form of sensitivity I've ever noticed in myself) I could, invariably, identify psychotics by their body odor alone! This sensation was so powerful that, when profoundly reality-challenged individuals were in close quarters with me, I often found it difficult to breathe.

Needless to say, this was a very useful ability in the sixties.
I wondered how this valuable atavistic skill, the ability to smell insanity, could have become so rare. Surely, it offered great survival advantages to anyone who had the gift of "second smell." It flew in the face of everything I thought I knew about Darwinian principles. Not being one of the crazies myself, I realized that I should keep this bizarre talent a secret (even in the sixties there was a low tolerance for pronouncements of this sort).
I decided to test my new-found super-powers.
It was truly amazing! Wacko after wacko was revealed in the bright light of smell-o-vision. I knew that our little town attracted more than its share of strange beings -- people who believed that all the great rock stars' faces could be found through close scrutiny of Italian Renaissance paintings, people who believed that the terms used by quantum physicists (strangeness, charm, etc.) reflected the emotional states of sub-atomic particles, people who believed that the our local river and the Nile were the only two rivers in the world that flowed north (and hence were sources of immense psychic power) -- you know the types -- but I was awed by the predictive power of my nose. Even more impressive was the sheer number of crazy people living in this fairly small town.
But, alas, the miracle was not to last.
My ability to perceive the characteristic reek did not fade. Nor was it a case of olfactory fatigue brought on by dwelling in this living museum of lunacy. No, my own researches led me to the source of this phenomenon. No, that's giving too much historical weight to the discovery -- I actually found the answer by accident. 

In the health food store, I chanced upon a little bottle, its cap slightly askew, an odd oily residue clinging to its sides. 
Eureka!
No -- patchouli.
All the craziest people in town wore it.
My sheltered life, in the dark little basement I called home, had protected me from the very knowledge of patchouli's existence. This missing fact had led to my grand delusion. 

Now, there may have been a case for an examination of the relationship between possession of an insufficient number of marbles and the urge to smear this foul-smelling stuff on one's person -- but, by then, like you gentle reader, I had lost interest in the whole thing.

Food Sites for October 2012

Gourds in the King's Gardens, Ticonderoga, NY


So, this is issue number 144... a gross of these updates to  The Resource Guide for Food Writers . Since they come out approximately monthly, that means Dr Sanscravat and I have been at this for twelve years. Amazing.
"Amazingly gross" might once have described the Doctor's feeding habits (though somewhat less so of late; the man is, after all, well-aged). As often as not, it referred to the sheer volume he consumed, not to mention his disgusting displays of public ingestion, his eagerness to imbibe substances that more refined diners assign to the category of "non-foods," and his over-all messiness. Being forced to wear the Scarlet G has been an insignificant sacrifice to him (since, obviously, he doesn't embarrass easily).

"'Twas fair enough," he has told me, "as long as I could succeed in delivering a tiny vicarious shiver of a gastronomic thrill -- a frisson, if you will..." to anyone willing to listen.
There, but for the grace of good taste, go you.
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 sent automatically. For example, last month visitors to the blog were exposed to Dr Sanscravat's rant, On the Mysteries of Puritanism  (or why does the name 'Savonarola' provoke a longing for barbecue?. Just Served dishes out more than reasonable people want to chew -- but, if you're feeling particularly unreasonable, and don't want to wait for these newsletters, you can follow us on Facebook,  or Twitter. In the unlikely event that you find yourself stranded and book-starved, you can access a kind of index -- of orts and morsels of our (and the good doctor's) writings, wedged (as it were) among the back-teeth of the web – at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Leitesculinaria has reposted several of our own articles (the entire list is available here, along with several more noteworthy pieces on food history & science.
These quotations from On the Table's culinary quote pages are in keeping with this month’s theme:

"The Americans are the grossest feeders of any civilized nation known. As a nation, their food is heavy, coarse, and indigestible, while it is taken in the least artificial forms that cookery will allow. The predominance of grease in the American kitchen, coupled with the habits of hearty eating, and the constant expectoration, are the causes of the diseases of the stomach which are so common in America." James Fenimore Cooper

"I'm a light eater. When it gets light, I start eating." Tommy John

GaryOctober, 2012

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 links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

----the new sites----
1850s & 1860s Hotel and Restaurant Menus(a searchable collection of 80 menus at the University of Houston)
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest(a search for "food" at this Library of Congress site turned up historic 118 documents, from late nineteenth- through early twentieth-centuries)
Canning Jars: From Faux To Best Preserving Choices(Susan Lutz explains some dos and don'ts for home canners)
Cavemen Ground Flour, Prepped Veggies(Jennifer Viegas writes, in Discovery, about starchy residues on grinding stones used by Neanderthals and other early humans)
Cured Meat is In, but is it Safe?(Andy Frame's article in Food Safety News)
Discover the History of Sushi(Tori Avey's article from PBS's The History Kitchen)
Drink Globally, Hop Locally("boutique" hop farms and micro-breweries, natural partners )
Eating Etiquette(how to eat oysters on the half shell)
Evolutionary Biology: The Lost Appetites(Ewen Callaway writes, in Nature, about the reasons species experience taste differently)
Fearless Eating: It May Be in Our Genes(Jaimal Yogis's Huffington Post article about research that suggests a genetic link for adventurous eating)
For Gastronomists, a Go-To Microbiologist(Peter Andrey Smith's New York Times article about Harvard's Rachel Dutton, the leading expert on using fermentation to make fine-tasting cultured foods)
Genetic Variation of an Odorant Receptor OR7D4 and Sensory Perception of Cooked Meat Containing Androstenone(Norwegian scientific paper that finds that the scent of wild boar meat, cinghiale, is genetically off-putting to some humans)
Gustatory System: The Finer Points of Taste(how we perceive tastes; Bijal P. Trivedi's Nature article on the latest science)
Kitchen Antiques("historic kitchen equipment, culinary objects;" with lots of links to articles on old cookwares)
Kitchen in Upper Egypt, A(Nancy Harmon Jenkins, in The Art of Eating, takes a close look at Egyptian home cooking)
Kitchen That Time Forgot, The(photos of a Victorian kitchen, discovered intact in the basement of a British home)
Lunch: An Urban Invention(interview with Laura Shapiro and Rebecca Federman about their exhibit, Lunch Hour NYC, at the New York Public Library)
Mrs. Fisher's Cigarettes(John Martin Taylor's article about one of the earliest African-American cookbooks)
Neuroscience: Hardwired for Taste(Bijal P. Trivedi's article, in Nature, exploring the body's ways of detecting taste – and not just via the tongue)

New Books in Food("discussions with chefs and food writers about their new books;" introductory paragraphs and podcasts)
Oyster Varieties(detailed descriptions of 110 varieties of oysters found in US waters, plus availability and storage info)
Oyster's My World, The("history of oysters and oyster cultivation;" plus oyster lore, science, and wine pairing)
Patience Gray(Ed Behr's article, in The Art of Eating, on "possibly the best writer ever about food")
Preaching Lost Art of Fermentation(Ben Harris' article, in Jewish Daily Forward, on Sandor Katz's efforts to "to convince the world of both the wonders and the essentialness of fermentation")
Science on the Silk Road: Taste for Adventure(Alison Abbott's Nature article about an expedition to find genetic explanation for food preferences)
Sensory Science: Partners in Flavour(Nicholas Bakalar explains, in Nature, how all of our senses cooperate to create the composite sensation we call "flavor")
Story Of: Bourbon, The(Sara Kay's Snooth article on America's whiskey)
Taste of a Decade: 1820s Restaurants(part of Jan Whitaker's continued investigations into the history of American restaurants)
U. Researcher Studying What Mormons Eat and Why(Peggy Fletcher Stack's Salt Lake Tribune article about Kate Holbrook's doctoral research into Mormon eating habits)
World's Oldest Champagne Tastes Sweet After 200-Year Shipwreck(Richard Vines, in Bloomberg News, describes the discovery and tasting of some really old Veuve Cliquot)
Writer Food From A To Z(an alphabetical feastiary)

-- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers --
Download Your Free, Comprehensive, Step-By-Step Guide to Internet Marketing
Food Photography 101
Joys and Hazards of Self-Publishing on the Web, The
New FTC Rules on Writing Reviews, Affiliations, and Sponsored Posts
Publishing Process in GIF Form, The
Q&A: Peter Reinhart on What it Takes to Be a Successful Cookbook Author
Write, Publish, and Market Your Ebook: Free Step-by-Step Tutorial

----yet more blogs----
Culture: The Word on Cheese
Eve's Apple
Food Bridge: Food. Culture and Family
Michael Laiskonis: Notes from the Kitchen
Multicultural Cooking Network

----changed URL----
Ideas in 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:
Our books, The Resource Guide for Food Writers , The Herbalist in the Kitchen , The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries , Human Cuisine , Herbs: A Global History, and Terms of Vegery  are currently available.
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
 ——————————————————————
"The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #144" 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) 2012 by Gary Allen.

On the Mysteries of Puritanism (or why does the name "Savonarola" provoke a longing for barbecue?)

Dietitians are the cowled monks of today's religion, one that celebrates culinary self-restraint the way older ones celebrated morality. It's an oddly self-indulgent church that substitutes "health" for "piety," but it's still the same story: bliss can only be achieved through purity. While their science is respectable, it is too often served in an entirely humorless and otherwise unappetizing fashion. I’m not jealous that prohibitionists get some sort of joy from their peculiar addiction to non-addiction -- nor do I have any desire to join in their incomprehensible obsession.
It's difficult to understand the joy that some people seem to take in the gastronomic equivalent of self-flagellation, the mortification of one’s own flesh via non-consumption of tasty viands. Their smug self-satisfied proselytizing robs the very air of any pleasures it might hold for an appreciative nose. The promise of carnal bliss conjured by the aroma of a perfectly-grilled steak -- a vast glistening slab of proteinaceous pulchritude, encircled by crisply browned fat -- are banished, forthwith, as the temptations of a baser instinct, a crude and unenlightened coarseness that is as disgusting as it is unforgivable.
But there are even more vexing questions.
Why are these true believers always so deadly boring to be around? Nothing about them suggests the presence of wit or any other form of human comaraderie. Is brilliance and bonhomie dependent on sugar, saturated fat, and ethyl alcohol in the diet?
Why does encouraging self-deprivation in others translate to self-righteous satisfaction for them?
In short, how does the absence of pleasure pleasure them?
We may never learn the answers, but one thing is certain:  A lion-sized portion of well-roasted beast , followed by a thick wedge (or two) of fat- and calorie-laden cake -- not to mention a flagon (or three) of ale -- usually makes the sermonizing much easier to swallow.

Ah, Youth

In my salad days (a period in which, to the best of my recollection, salad was not a major part of my diet), I frequently explored the far reaches of the edible world in search of new adventures. Some were of the typical variety: chocolate-covered ants and the like. These novelty items are intended to titillate the squeamish, but offer little gastronomic excitement.


Real adventures do not begin with gag (or gag reflex) gifts.
I once (around age 17) ate steamed clams with maple ice cream for breakfast. I vaguely recall the reaction of whatever witnesses were present, but not the gustatory experience itself. It probably wasn't awful -- I know it didn't sicken me. To put this in context, around the same time I ingested a sandwich that consisted of hot pickled peppers and Hershey’s chocolate syrup on white bread. 
The white bread provided my only regret. 
Another time, I consumed an entire quart jarful of hot cherry peppers. These, of course, are the mildest of chiles; their vinegary bark is worse than their peppery bite. The vinegar/chile theme was also in evidence when I drank a standard bottle of Tabasco before vaguely amused, but otherwise unimpressed, friends. 
They've seen stunts like this too often to react in any other fashion.
This desire to extend the boundaries of the gustatorially possible has never been successfully suppressed. It's a form of arrested development, no doubt. When ordering at a restaurant of obscure ethnicity, my choice is invariably the dish I will be least likely to ever have another chance to try. This, as you might expect, has led to mixed results. While I have experienced some remarkable (and sometimes remarkably repulsive) dishes, I suspect that this disgusting behavior has more often spoiled the meals of many of my dining companions -- but I have no choice. 
What must be done must be done.

Food Sites for September 2012

With September we enter the beginning of the fall harvest, before the bounty of summer has even passed. If you live for food, this is the time to live. August is just about gone, but we escaped (some of the) the heat by releasing a new Kindle book:  Terms of Vegery .*  It's not really a food book, even if it does contain a large section called "Edibilia." It is nice to look at, but you probably shouldn't read if there's a risk of pulling out any abdominal stitches (it's chock full of snarky humor and perfectly dreadful puns).

 "I laughed. I cried. I wet my plants."
*Terms of Vegery looks best on Kindle Fire, iPad, and Kindle apps for other platforms; there may be some slight formatting issues on smaller smartphone screens.

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 sent automatically. Just Served dishes out more than reasonable people want to chew -- but, if you're feeling particularly unreasonable, and don't want to wait for these newsletters, you can follow us on Facebook, or Twitter. In the event that you find yourself stranded and book-starved, you can access a kind of index -- of orts and morsels of our writing, wedged (as it were) among the back-teeth of the web – at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.

This month's quotation from On the Table's culinary quote pages Celebrates Julia Child's first hundred years:

"As you get older, you shouldn't waste time drinking bad wine." 

"How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?"

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate." 

"I'm awfully sorry for people who are taken in by all of today's dietary mumbo jumbo. They are not getting any enjoyment out of their food." 

"Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, well, so is the ballet." 

"The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appétit." 

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude." 

"The only time to eat diet food is while you are waiting for the steak to cook."

GarySeptember, 2012

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 links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

----the new sites----
Bagel, Perfected by Science, The(Andy Altman-Ohr reports on Dan Graf's efforts to bring NY bagels to SF )
Bread of Beirut(Annia Ciezadlo's Granta article about the place of the bakery in Lebanese life)
Designer Kitchens And Why We Think We Need Them(Jessica Stoller-Conrad discusses our absurd addiction to expensively elaborate kitchens; in The New York Times)
Five Key Wine Components and How to Detect Them(Nancy Hawks Miller serves up "a lesson on the basic words and phrases you need to know about wine;" at Snooth)
Food Art(a collection of posts, from Eater, about some of the amazing – and amazingly quirky – things done with or about food)
Heads, Yes. Tails, No.(Melena Ryzik's New York Times article about an art event that featured a dinner of rat, "broiled and smoked and grilled")
History You Thought You Knew(Alice Wilkinson's article about the foods of Maine, as explained by Sandy Oliver)
Maíces(the different races of corn, a project in Mexican Biodiversity from the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity; in English and Spanish)
North Carolina Barbecue Society, The(a glossary of porcine terminology, recipes, a map of classic NC BBQ joints, and archive of their newsletter, NCBS Pig Tales)
Oxford Dictionaries Online's New Food Word Additions Include "Frankenfish," "Locavore"(a quick review from Huffington Post)
Research at Historical Societies and Manuscript Cookbooks in Print(bibliography of sources)
What Good Is a Pig? Cuts of Pork, Nose to Tail(Walter Jeffries's article in Mother Earth News)

 -- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers --
Act of Worship
Blogger Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Photos You Don't Own on Your Blog
Getting to Yes on Foodgawker and Tastespotting
How to Learn Food Journalism
Plan a Book Launch Party for an Ebook
Stick a Fork in 'Em: Which Food-Writing Clichés Should We Toss Out Forever?
Struggling With Food Writing? Make a Pie.
Take Food Photos Like Matt Armendariz (Meaning, Like a Pro)
WritersDiet Test, The

----yet more blogs----
cooking in my heels
History Kitchen, The
Researching Food History - Cooking and Dining


----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:
Our books, The Resource Guide for Food Writers , The Herbalist in the Kitchen , The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries , Human Cuisine , Herbs: A Global History , and Terms of Vegery  are currently available.
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.

_________________________________

"The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #143" 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) 2012 by Gary Allen.

Food Sites for August 2012

Edge of a wheat field. Tompkins County, NY

It's not quite August yet, but it feels like it's been August for months. If this is what global warming is about, I don't much care for it. A couple of scoops of gelato -- perhaps peach and hazelnut -- however, might make all the difference.
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 sent automatically. Just Served dishes out more than reasonable people want to chew -- but, if you're feeling particularly unreasonable, and don't want to wait for these newsletters, you can follow us on Facebook, or Twitter. Our Facebook and Twitter friends already know about our recent blogpost, "Dream Dish" in which we speculate on the taste of things not tasted in our adolescence. In the event that you crave more of our stuff, there's a kind of index -- of bits and pieces of it lodged into odd corners, all over the web – at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
Leitesculinaria has reposted several of our articles (the entire list is available here, along with several more noteworthy pieces on food history & science.
This month's quotation from On the Table's culinary quote pages --

If your regrets linger, if you cannot find inspiration in solitude, then you still have much to learn from the writers and poets and the cooks on becoming the artist of your own life... you can never re-create the past. But you can shape your own future. And you can make a cake. Jacqueline Duval

GaryAugust, 2012

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 links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.

----the new sites----
ALBC Quick Reference Guide to Heritage Hog Breeds(descriptions from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy; in PDF format)
Coffee Ad from the 1650s(a handbill in the collection of the British Museum)
Dan Barber's Culinary Crusade(an opinion piece, in The Wall Street Journal, on self-righteousness and the interdependence of meat and vegetable agriculture)
Heritage Radio Network(over 20 different online radio programs about food, with podcasts of prior shows)
How the Chicken Conquered the World(an article in Smithsonian magazine, by Jerry Adler and Andrew Lawler, on the cultural, agricultural, historical, and gastronomical aspects of the original white meat)
Libido-Killing Food(Lexi Dwyer's article, at Gourmet Live, on dishes to avoid on date night)
Long History of the Espresso Machine, The(informative, and well-illustrated, article from The Smithsonian)
Multiple Pieces of Food are More Rewarding than an Equicaloric Single Piece of Food in Both Animals and Humans(a report from the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior)
Soda vs. Pop with Twitter(Edwin Chen uses new technologies to re-vamp some classic maps of linguistic geography)
Somebody has to Bring Home the Bacon(Bob Nickas' article, in Slate, on Andy Warhol and food)
Three Asparagus Recipes and Four Centuries of Cookbooks(Virginia Willis leafs through part of Anne Willan's and Mark Cherniavsky's collection of rare cookbooks, the basis for The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes that Made the Modern Cookbook)
Tour de Hamdel: Chicken of the Sea Edition, or Who Invented the Tuna Melt?(The Columbia Review's Editor in Chief, Jason Bell, tells the tale of a famous sandwich -- which, as you'll discover in the article, I am unlikely ever to taste)

-- inspirational (or not) sites for writers/bloggers --
How Do You Know?
How George Carlin Changed Recipe Writing
How Literary Agents Find Talent on Twitter
What Happens When We Tell Peter Meehan to Rewrite a Recipe for Batter Pudding


----yet more blogs----
art & lemons
Foodgeekology


----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:
Our books, The Resource Guide for Food Writers , The Herbalist in the Kitchen , The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries , Human Cuisine , and Herbs: A Global History  are currently available.
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
___________

"The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #142" 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) 2012 by Gary Allen.

Dream Dish

When I was an adolescent, bursting with adolescent wanderlust and adolescent appetites – but adolescently deficient in cash and mechanized transportation – I discovered, to my delight, that the range of my explorations was increasing. I suppose the rate of change was a factor of, and roughly proportional to, the length of my legs’ adolescent growth spurt – but, at the time, it simply meant freedom.For about a quarter, I could buy an entire loaf of dark pumpernickel, unsliced, which – if torn, or bitten, off judiciously – could fuel a few extra miles of aimless wandering. I rarely had a destination because the world was new, and wandering was its own reward.In some ways, I still feel that way about travel -- although I’m considerably less interested in pursuing long-distance expeditions on foot. My distance from adolescence is much greater than my behavior would suggest.On one of these trips, at the end of a long uphill grade, I came upon a sort of luncheonette. There was no thought of going in, of course. That would have required actual cash. However, perpendicular to the luncheonette’s front wall -- hence clearly visible to me, all the way up the hill toward it – was a long red vertical sign board. In yellow letters, out-lined in black (for better visibility and the barest suggestion of substantial three-dimensionality), was a partial listing of the offerings on their menu.Being adolescent, and hungry, and penniless, I lingered over the seductive names of each and every dish. Had I possessed the wherewithal, I could have easily eaten my way down the entire list, but one item in particular kept me staring at the sign.You must understand that this was long before semiotics was even imagined – and, even if it existed, there’s no way this ambulatory stomach would have known enough about Derrida and Barthes to have been distracted by it. A sign was merely a sign, signifying no more, nor less, than the words it bore.Still, the sign held me with a strange power.I think that power was pure ignorance, amplified by hunger. My eyes never wandered from something near the bottom of the sign. They were only two enigmatic words, but they were enough to stop me in my proverbial tracks.Just “Pastrami” and “Sand” -- just the two words.What could they mean? I was vaguely aware that pastrami was some kind of cured meat, ‘though I’d never tasted it. It was the “sand” that puzzled me. Was sand somehow involved in the curing process? Was “pastrami” a mere adjective to “sand’s” noun? Did “sand” refer to some obscure mode of preparation? Was “pastrami sand” a pile of cured meat, minced exceeding fine, like dust, an incomparably delicate and airy essence of pure meat flavor? There was nothing to suggest its degree of opulence or unattainability – yet, in my mind, this was a dish so exquisite that I could never even imagine being given the chance to taste it. A galantine of peacock, stuffed with ortolans, and garnished with lark’s tongues, would be coarse peasant food compared with the dish that existed only in my adolescent fantasy.Of course, no reality can compare with the magically indistinct dreams that only the naïve can conjure. Even today -- when prosaic experience knows that the sign listed only a plebian sandwich, and that some sign-painter’s lack of foresight left not enough room for even an explanatory period -- even today, I long to have intimate knowledge of that ethereal dish of pastrami sand.

Food Sites for July 2012

The July issue marks the beginning of our twelfth year of these updates. That's twelve time-wasting years provided, gratis, long before Facebook -- or even MySpace -- was created.
You're welcome.
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 sent automatically. Just Served dishes out more than most people can swallow -- but, if you're in training for a competitive food-reading contest, you can carbo-load with us on Facebook, or Twitter. Our Facebook and Twitter friends already know about our recent blogpost, “No Puppy-dogs, Please,” an unanticipated lesson in French gastronomy; "Thanks, Euell," where things get wild (some things, anyway); and they had a chance to hear a recent radio interview that was part of a virtual book tour. Serious competitors can flex their gastronomic muscles at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
This month's quotation from On the Table's culinary quote pages, is just the thing for those summer day doldrums:

"Coffee is a great way to fool yourself into believing you're going to have a productive day." Bill Murray

GaryJuly, 2012

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, go here.
PPPS: 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’s an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page.

----the new sites----
Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition(Leah Rae Berk's essay, part of the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, at the Brown University Library)
Art for Foodies(Laura Weiss' article about the storied New Yorker Hotel and its artistic menus that evoke the glamour of the 1930s and 1940s)
Bogus Quest for 'Authentic' Food, The(Sejal Sukhadwala's post at The Guardian's Word of Mouth blog)
Charcuterie Underground, The(Mike Sula's article, in The Sun-Times Reader, about sausage outlaw-artisans in Chicago)
Evolution’s Sweet Tooth(Daniel E. Lieberman's Op-Ed piece, in The New York Times, on why there should be legal limits on unhealthy treats)
Food for Thought(special issue of 614, a magazine from Brandeis University)
Gerry Dawes's Visual Encyclopedia of Spanish Gastronomy & Wine("An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel;" an illustrated glossary)
History of the Doughnut, The(David A. Taylor's article in Smithsonian magazine)
Power of Bread, The: Let Us Eat Politics(Jonathan Kent's article, in The Guardian, about baking as a political act)
Revisiting the Era of Automatic Dining(More on automats, this time in response to an exhibit at the New York Public Library)
Salt, We Misjudged You(Gary Taubes' article, in The New York Times, questioning links between salt consumption and health risks)
Superbugs(Dana Goodyear's article, in The New Yorker, on antibiotic use in the US meat industry)
Taco USA(Gustavo Arellano's article about "How Mexican food became more American than apple pie")
Taste, Memory(Courtney Watson's article, in the Inquisitive Eater, on pernickety copy editors and the recollections of glorious meals perdú)

-- inspirational (or otherwise) sites for writers/bloggers --
Antidote to e-Books, The(Stacy A. Anderson's article, in The New York Times, about print-on-demand vending machines as a venue for self-publishing)
Author Marketing Experts
Becoming a Writer
[Fatal] Flaw, The: What’s Wrong with [Food] Writing Now
Is Free Content in Exchange for “Exposure” Over?
Mouthfeel of Fiction, The
When it Comes to Writing, Define Your Terms

----yet more blogs----
Food Communication
Food Mycology
Knish Me
Summer Tomato

----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:
Our books, The Resource Guide for Food Writers , The Herbalist in the Kitchen , The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries , Human Cuisine , and Herbs: A Global History  are (much like Dr Sanscravat himself) commercially available.
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
———————————————

"The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #141" 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) 2012 by Gary Allen.

A New Radio Appearance

Ann & Peter Haigh on the Japanese Bridge at Claude Monet's Giverny

Ann & Peter Haigh's radio show "On the Menu," -- which sounds like it has something to do with our site (On the Table), but doesn't -- is broadcast weekly from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


Their one-hour talk radio program covers food, wine, travel & lifestyle, and features lively interviews with chefs, nutritionists, restaurateurs, hoteliers, winemakers, food producers, cookware and kitchen gadget makers, and other culinary luminaries. They even speak with authors -- which is how I managed to sneak onto the program. The show aired last weekend, and featured some fantastic people (like John T. Edge, Robert Reid, and Cheryl Sternman Rule). You can hear the podcast in their archives (just click on "listen now" beside the date "June 17, 2012."  


Our portion of the show comes at the end.