Gary Allen's Blog, page 5

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #263 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.

Bengal’s Ethnic Sweetmeats—An Unconventional Food: History, Tradition, Culture

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Published on August 13, 2022 06:08

Food Sites for August 2022

A couple of young tomatoes...

...that might even ripen sometime in August. We’re not really vegetable gardeners, so—up to this moment—these tomatoes are pure expectation. But, as Laurie Colwin opined, “a world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.”

For now—we’re holding our breath.

We’ve posted A LOT to our Substack newsletter, lately. “What’s It All About, Anyway?” attempts to solve one of life’s great mysteries (with predictable results). ”In the Beginning...” is the lurid tale of how an innocent illustrator was turned to the dark side (i.e., taking up writing). “More Early-day Stuff...” provides a bit of the back story of how Human Cuisine came to be compiled. “Truth, Justice, and the Angling Way“ combines—unlikely as you might expect—lying, fishing, and seventeenth-century English poetry. It’s a story excerpted from Prophet Amidst Losses. “Watch Out for My Uncle... He’s a Cannibal!“ tries to explain our former preoccupation with anthropophagy (adapted from How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating) “77 Years Ago...” is a creation story (and only tangentially about the formation of radioactive isotopes). It comes with a poem. “You Must Remember This...” refers to an excerpt from Cenotaphs. It’s fantastic (but only in the sense that it’s just a fantasy).

A free Substack subscription will automatically deliver—under cover of darkness—such things to your virtual mailbox. In unrelated news, our poem “Trekking the Osteo Path,” was published in July 12th issue of Stunning Poetry (a digital newsletter by Silent Spark Press).

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

August is high summer, hence these comments from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the fleeting moment. Elizabeth David

No dish changes quite so much from season to season as soup. Summer’s soups come chilled, in pastel colors strewn with herbs. If hot they are sheer insubstantial broths afloat with seafood. Florence Fabricant

Cold soup is a very tricky thing and it is the rare hostess who can carry it off. More often than not, the dinner guest is left with the impression that had he only come a little earlier he could have gotten it while it was still hot. Fran Lebowitz

Gary
August 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our virtual hat to Fabio Parasecoli), 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.

— the new sites —

(PDF of a paper on the complex range of Bengali dishes—candies/desserts—written by Tanmay Sarkar, Molla Salauddin, et. al)

Chicken and Waffles: The Pennsylvania Story

(William Woys Weaver served it up in the Fall 2020 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage)

“Delectable Foods”: This 13th-Century Cookbook Reveals a World of Delicious Recipes

(report of the discovery—and subsequent translation—of a rare cookbook by Andalusi scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī, with recipes, in London’s Financial Times)

Fashionable Food

(Annie Ewbank’s reminiscences about the golden age of department store dining, in Gastro Obscura)

Food in Medieval Times

(PDF of Melitta Weiss Adamson’s 2004 book)

Guide to Cornstarch, A

(the plot thickens in Tim Chin’s Serious Eats story)

How a “Bubble Expert” Decoded the Physics of Making Mezcal

(María Paula Rubiano A., at Gastro Obscura, on learning why—and how—traditional proofing methods work)

How to Make the Perfect Cup of Italian Coffee

(Adam H. Graham’s history of the Moka pot, in the American Express magazine, Departures)

Invention of Modern Baby Formula, The

(Claudia Gelb, at Eater, traces its development to nineteenth century scientists)

MSG Convert Visits the High Church of Umami, An

(Helen Rosner enhances the flavor of “The Annals of Gastronomy” in The New Yorker)

Origins of Fake Meat Are Rooted in Chinese Cooking, The

(Ruby Lott-Lavigna’s Vice article about traditional Buddhist vegetarian cookery and its modern incarnations)

Paneer and the Origin of Cheese in India

(Aditya Raghavan’ history in The Hindu)

Purple Corn, Coyol Sap & Legume Pods of Guanacaste & Nicoya

(Nicholas Gill’s New Worlder post about the “wild foods and ancestral agriculture in northwestern Costa Rica”)

Tale of Two Buds, A: The Centuries-Old Feud Between American Budweiser and Czech Budweiser

(Brit Dawson’s Mel Magazine article blows the foam off a long-standing dispute)

Unhealthy, Smelly, and Strange: Why Italians Avoided Tomatoes for Centuries

(William Alexander’s answer, at Literary Hub; an excerpt from Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World)

Warm Belly

(“unheard food stories” from “the many different cuisines within the U.K.”—and around the world)

What is Fermentation?

(Danilo Alfaro addresses—in The Spruce Eats—the differences between methods that produce lactic acid, ethyl alcohol, and acetic acid)

Why Does Spicy Food Make You Sweat?

(an Inverse article in which “a neuroscientist breaks it down”)

Words We Use for Food, The

(what, exactly, does “organic,” or “certified organic,” or “certified naturally grown” really mean? John Porter has the answers in Mother Earth News)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

3 Best Angles for Incredible Food Photography, The

Book Review: Notes from a Small Kitchen Island

Busting the Myth: YouTube Was My Nigerian Family Cookbook

Citrus Paradisi

Cooking History–How Food Inspired Events Can Enrich Museum Engagement

Cooking Through History with the Hofstra Special Collections

Epicurus on Wine Education and Its Perils

Father’s Recipe That Crossed Three Continents, A

Food and Faulkner: Stability and Nourishment Amidst Chaos in The Sound and the Fury

Grammar Check

“Hangry Is a Real Thing”: Psychologists Find Link Between Hunger and Emotions

How Did the Diner Menu Get So Long?

Infinite Ellipses of Ritual and Flavor

Inside the Colorful, Campy, Unapologetically Horny World of Erotic Cookbooks

Know Me Come Eat with Me

On the Rigidity of Recipe Writing

On Writing (and Not Writing) About Mutton Biryani

Romance Novels Are Increasingly Getting Hot and Heavy in the Kitchen

Simple Styling Tricks for More Appealing Food Photography

Sniffing Out a Cure for Smell Loss

Suiting the Local Taste Preferences: Stories of Transformation of Foods

Traditional English Food with Strange Names

Unbreakable Rules of the Chicago Dog—and When to Bend Them, The

Water: Elixir of Taste

What Our Fantasies About Futuristic Food Say About Us

Whipped Cream, No Other Delights

Why Do We Remember More by Reading in Print Vs. on a Screen?

Why Write?

Wine is Worth It, The

Writers Shouldn’t Talk: Stop Encouraging Them

You Can Spot Climate Change in Old Restaurant Menus

— podcasts, etcetera —

4 Tricks to Isolate Your Subject in iPhone Food Photography

Brief History of Dumplings, A

Can a Cocktail Trend Be Ironic?

F Word, The: Fatphobia in the Food Industry

Grain and Finance

Grandma Ida’s Nut Rolls Gravestone

Meet the Shaman Using Ancient Chocolate Rituals to Revive Mayan Traditions

(unfortunately, many ads)

Simple Tips for Magazine-Worthy Drink Photography

This Is Kwame Onwuachi’s America (and We’re Just Living in It)

What Cheese Looks Like Around the World

What Leopold Bloom’s Food Diary Tells Us about Bloomsday

World’s Oldest Edible Ham

— changed URL —

Pass the Chipotle

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

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 for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #262 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.

70 Percent of the World’s Macadamia Nuts Came from One Tree in Australia

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Published on July 13, 2022 10:58

Food Sites for July 2022

Not yet grapes, let alone wine...

Folks’ gardens are just beginning to yield seasonal delights‑but they contain the promise of so much more, in another month or so.

Speaking of promises—that lead to larger than expected returns—we just realized that this issue marks the twenty-second year of publishing them. Someone recently posted that “Gary Allen has been writing about food for more years than most readers have been alive.” It was just a tad hyperbolic, but one wonders what else we could have been doing during those decades.

Probably better not to linger too long on that thought.

Maybe we should go shopping for some 22-year-old wine—or bourbon—to mark the anniversary.

Anyway—in the past monthe we’ve continued posting to our Substack newsletter. “I'll Take Schadenfreude for Five Hundred, Alex” features a story from Prophet Amidst Losses. The scene opens in a restaurant, but slides (quite literally, I’m afraid) precipitously downhill from there. “Call Any Vegetable...” leads to samples from Terms of Vegery; it’s about food only in the most frivolous fashion imaginable. “Once Upon a Time…” is another Substack post; it’s an excerpt from Backstories (which is not, at all, about food). A free subscription will automatically deliver these things to your virtual mailbox—in a virtual plain-brown wrapper—and no one will be the wiser (including you).

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a LOT of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

A few summery comments from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the fleeting moment. Elizabeth David

A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing but vegetables. Gertrude Stein

Although the frankfurter originated in Frankfurt, Germany, we have long since made it our own, a twin pillar of democracy along with Mom’s apple pie. In fact, now that Mom’s apple pie comes frozen and baked by somebody who isn’t Mom, the hot dog stands alone. What it symbolizes remains pure, even if what it contains does not. William Zinsser

Gary
July 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Jonell Galloway), thanks, and keep them coming!

PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.

— the new sites —

(Sabrina Imbler followed the genetic trail to Hawaii for Gastro Obscura)

Before Chickens Were Nuggets, They Were Revered

(Nick Erickson’s New York Times article on recent work by bioarchaeologists and evolutionary biologists)

Black Creole Chef Who Paved the Way for Food TV, The

(Kayla Stewart’s account, in The Bittman Project, about the influential, but barely remembered, Lena Richard)

Building Blocks: Tortillas, a Culture’s DNA

(María Ítaka’s homage at Culinary Backstreets)

Cheese Mountains, Milk Lakes, and Other Surprising Stockpiles

(Gastro Obscura’s Diana Hubbell examines the economics and absurdities of governmental warehousing of surplus foodstuffs)

Diplomats and the Rise of “Foodism” in the 1960s and 1970s

(Rachel Laudan’s musings about why so many of the most influential food writers came from a career that had nothing to do with food)

Dry Martini

(Roger Angell’s New Yorker paeon—a long leg and a triangle—to the most classic of cocktails)

Food Pairings: An Investigation into Why Foods Pair Well Together

(a 2013 master’s thesis by Mark Gaffney)

From Tiger Paws to White Claws: The 40-Year History of Flavored Seltzer Water

(VinePair’s Tim McKirdy on flavored fizzy water that isn’t an egg cream)

History of Ricotta Cheese, A

(Clifford Wright’s account of traditional ricotta made from whey)

How America Embraced Aspics with Threatening Auras

(Diana Hubbel’s Gastro Obscura article on the past and future of “perfection salads,” the complicated gelatin dishes that frighten, amuse, and attract us strangely)

Israelite Pottery and Household Life

(Jennifer Drummond’s article, in Bible History Daily, on food storage methods in ancient Israel)

Long History of Fragrant Food in India, from Massaging Hens with Musk to Cooking in Leaves, The

(Priyadarshini Chatterjee’s article, in Scroll.in, on a thousand years of perfumed cookery)

Man and The Mix, The

(Todd Coleman’s Saveur article about the real-life Duncan Hines)

Monkey Wine

(an article, on Dwight Furrow’s Edible Arts, on theories about how grape wine was first discovered)

New Insights on Ancient Spice Trade

(archaeological evidence of bi-directional trade in the Middle East; reporting on research published in Antiquity: ”Caravanserai Middens On Desert Roads: A New Perspective on the Nabataean-Roman Trade Network Across the Negev”)

Periodic Graphics: Baking Soda Versus Baking Powder

(Andy Brunning on leavening agents—other than yeast or other microbes—in Chemical & Engineering News)

Plants and People: Choices and Diversity through Time

(PDF of 2014 monograph by Alexandre Chevalier, Elena Marinova,and Leonor Peña-Chocarro)

Prove Me Wrong: The Margarita Is the Madonna of Cocktails

(VINEPAIR’s Katie Brown pours a social history of the popular tequila drink)

Quest to Recreate a Lost and ‘Terrifying’ Medieval Mead, The

(Gemma Tarlach’s experiments with making mead with caramelized honey; recipe and explanation in Gastro Obscura)

Remaking History: Using Ancient Egyptian Techniques, I Made Delicious Olive Oil at Home—And You Can Too

(an adventure in experimental archaeology, in The Conversation)

Sweet and Sour History of NYC’s Pickle Alley, The

(Nicole Saraniero whets our appetite for a talk on the subject, at Untapped Cities)

Variety in Cereal Production in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Relation to Environmental Conditions

(2013 article in the Journal of Archaeological Science, by Dagmar Dreslerova, et. al.)

We Are What We Eat

(Katheryn C Twiss’s 2007 paper in The Archaeology of Food and Identity; PDF)

What Is American Cheese, Anyway?

(J. Kenji López-Alt Krafts an answer at Serious Eats)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

5 Tips for Keyword Research for Food Bloggers

50 of the World’s Best Breads

Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories

As Police Use “Foodie” to Recruit, What Does the Word Mean?

Behind the Design: LEON: Ingredients & Recipes

Brain-Gut Connection, The

Climate Change Is Now on the Menu at Seafood Restaurants

Cube Rule of Food Identification, The

Dining and Wine

El Rey Zapoteco: The Matron of Mezcal

Greatest Food Hoaxes of All Time, The

Here’s How Day Drinking Affects Your Body Differently, According to Experts

How a 50s Food Writer Championed Kerala’s Cuisine, One Column at a Time

José Andrés: The Power of Food

Numbers Driving New Cookbook Deals, The

On “In a bowl, combine...”

Review: The Automat

Riveting Memoir of Life as a Chef with an Eating Disorder, A

Should You Start a Newsletter? David Lebovitz Weighs In

(subscription required)

Weekly Special

When Cake Imitates Art

When My Husband Left Me, I Headed for the Kitchen–Here’s How Comfort Food Can Save the Soul

Why Don’t We Eat Horses?

Why Is Every Cookbook a Memoir Now?

World War Wednesday: We Eat Because We Work

— more blogs —

Finom—The Food of Hungary

Great Food, Big Love, and Miss Emily Meggett

World History of Food

— podcasts, etcetera —

Andrew Zimmern’s Wild Game Kitchen

Chine: Dans le Restaurant du Futur, des Robots Cuisinent et Servent les Clients

Dear Writer: Advice on Writing Through Isolation

Meat & Three: A Culinary Book Club

Nitty Grits

On the Line

Pretend Cooking Show

Scoop on Ice Cream, The

Tastemade

Why Only 1% of Japan’s Soy Sauce Is Made This Way

YesChef

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #261 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.

Ancient Beer is Craft’s New Frontier

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Published on June 10, 2022 15:22

Food Sites for June 2022

Ramps and fiddleheads...

...seasonal treats to harvest when morels—or trout—successfully elude our efforts to bring them to the table. If only they’d all cooperate. We imagine a dinner of morels & fiddleheads, with trout in ramp butter. Alas, Spring’s larder is as fickle as its weather. So we freeze ramp butter and dry morels for another time, another dinner, perhaps in the dead of Winter—when Spring is only a memory or a dream.

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

We’ve continued posting our Substack newsletter. “Another Little Taste...” includes a sample from Ephemera; “You’ve Been Served...” features an essay from Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone); it’s not really a food book—but, as our gullet is adjacent to our brain pan, there’s plenty of culinary content in it. The Writing Life ...Whatever That Might Be is another Substack post; it’s an excerpt from How to Write a Great Book (which is not, at all, about food). As usual, a free subscription automatically delivers these things to your virtual mailbox—and no one will be the wiser (including you).

A couple of foraged comments, from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

A white truffle, which elsewhere might sell for hundreds of dollars, seemed easier to come by than something fresh and green. What could be got from the woods was free and amounted to a diurnal dining diary that everyone kept in their heads. May was wild asparagus, arugula, and artichokes. June was wild lettuce and stinging nettles. July was cherries and wild strawberries. August was forest berries. September was porcini. Bill Buford

My fare is really sumptuous this evening; buffaloe’s humps, tongues and marrowbones, fine trout parched meal pepper and salt, and a good appetite; the last is not considered the least of the luxuries. Journals of Lewis and Clark, Thursday, June 13, 1805

Gary
June 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Krishnendu Ray), 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.

— the new sites —

(Sara Toth Stub’s Sapiens article on collaborations between archaeologists and brewmasters)

Ancient Indigenous Oyster Fishing Practices Could Save Coastal Ecosystems, Study Finds

(Jennifer Walter’s Inverse article on oysters and water quality)

Armenia’s Culinary History Hides in a Museum’s Manuscripts

(Rafael Tonon reports, for Gastro Obscura, on ten manuscripts in the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts)

Battle to Invent the Automatic Rice Cooker, The

(Anne Ewbank chronicles the triumph of Japanese technology for Gastro Obscura)

Chemical Traces in Ancient West African Pots Show a Diet Rich in Plants

(Julie Dunne, in Phys Org, on recent archaeological findings from Nigeria)

Chinese Food Is a Celebration of Time and Place

(Clarissa Wei weighs in, at Epicurious, on authenticity vs. adaptability in Chinese cuisine)

Comprehensive History of Beer Brewing, A

(Franz Meussdoerffer’s chapter of 2009’s Handbook of Brewing: Processes, Technology, Markets)

Dutch Institute of Food & Design, The

(international group that publishes—among other things—Magazine F, each issue of which is devoted to a single ingredient)

Experiencing the Ancient Flavors of Recipes from the Bible

(Ronit Vered’s article in Haaretz—requires subscription)

How to Eat Like an Anglo-Saxon King

(Diana Hubbell debunks a few culinary myths for Gastro Obscura)

Inside Look at Judith Jones’ First Notes for Julia Child, An

(an excerpt from Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz’ Warming Up Julia Child: The Remarkable Figures Who Shaped a Legend that tells the story of the early days of editing Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

It’s a Small Aisle After All

(99 Percent Invisible takes on the grocery industry’s use of “ethnic aisles”)

(“Ah-BEETS,” you say? Jan Whitaker’s Restaurant-ing Through History site takes on pizza’s curious local monikers in Connecticut)

Precolonial First Nations Oyster Fisheries Sustained Millennia of Intense Harvests, Study Shows

(Donna Lu’s article, in The Guardian, on the scale and methodology of indigenous oyster culture)

What is a Pudding?

(British food: A History has an answer; no surprise, the word had different meanings on the opposite shores of the Atlantic)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

Advice for Future Food Writers

AI Sommelier Generates Wine Reviews without Ever Opening a Bottle

Art of Take-out, The

Aunty Sylvie’s Sponge: Foodmaking, Cookbooks and Nostalgia

Can This Cultivated Meat Startup Make Lion Meat a Thing?

Collapse of the Industrial Livestock Industry is Coming, The

Feminine Ending/Masculine Ending

High Art of Food Literature, The. Seriously?

How To Be Food Famous!

How to Organize, Clean, and Maintain Cookbooks

Just Reject Me

We Invented the Cow 10,000 Years Ago

Why are Many Modern Recipes a Challenge?

Why You Should Learn “Winespeak”

— podcasts, etcetera —

Comfort Foods for a Weary World

Culinary Media Network

How Black Culture Helped Define American Cuisine

Nopalitos: Taming the Prickly Pear Cactus

Pass the Chipotle Podcast

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #260 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.

Biblical Kings Drank Vanilla-Flavored Wine

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Published on May 13, 2022 08:33

Food Sites for May 2022

Drying morels wantonly ejecting their spores all over our table.

May is, indeed a lusty, x-rated kind of month. Shameless birds sing their version of the NY Review of Books personal ads, hours before dawn, and flowers spew their pollen everywhere, with nary a blush. Even mushrooms want to get into the “spreading-the-seed” act.

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

We’ve also started a new way to distribute our other writing: a Substack newsletter. The first post is entitled “Not Everything is about Food History.” A free subscription delivers titillating samples of our non-food-history scribbles to your virtual mailbox (there are two more posts, already)—in the proverbial plain brown wrapper—so no one need know about your furtive reading habits. Like Tom Lehrer’s old dope peddler, we “know full well that today’s young innocent faces will be tomorrow’s clientele.”

Did you enjoy being described as a “young innocent face”?

You’re welcome.

Some perspective, and advice, from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them. Oscar Wilde

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart. Erma Bombeck

Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring. Honoré de Balzac

Food writing shouldn’t be precious, pretentious, or condescending. Just because you know what confit means doesn’t make you a better person. Adam Roberts

Gary
May, 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Bob DelGrosso), 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.

— the new sites —

All the Tea (Not) in China: The Story of How India Became a Tea-Drinking Nation
(Alex Downs’ article in Serious Eats)

(Nathan Steinmeyer, in Bible History Daily, on archaeological evidence of nearly three-thousend-year-old spice trade)

Hidden History of the Nutmeg Island That Was Traded for Manhattan, The

(Mark Hay’s Gastro Obscura article on spice trade and world politics—and how New Amsterdam became New York)

How Booze Is Used in the Making of Cheese

(Pamela Vachon’s article on washing and marinating cheeses with wine, beer, or spirits to develop new flavors)

It’s More Than Tacos: Inside LA’s First Mexican Food Museum

(Eva Recinos visits LA Plaza Cocina for The Guardian)

Malt Beverage

(technical article from Food and Agricultural History)

Olive Oil Times

(international news and articles about, and recipes for, olive oil)

Rome’s New Museum Dedicated to Cooking

(the BBC’s Ronan O’Connell tours the Museo della Cucina)

Unsung Women of the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens, The

(Anne Ewbank’s Gastro Obscura article, based on Susan Marks’ book, Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America’s First Lady of Food)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

10 Tips For Writers From Douglas Adams

12 Most Unforgettable Descriptions of Food in Literature, The

Are We Entering the Post-Natural Wine Era?

Boeuf Neanderthal!

Cooking with Dorothy Sayers

Curse of an Irish Cook, The

De-Bunking the Industry Bias Behind Plant-Based Meat

Eat Like a Medieval Saint With Her Recipe for “Cookies of Joy”

Haven’t We Told Julia Child’s Story Enough?

How to Write Award-Winning Cookbooks

Is Wine Tasting Nonsense?

Joy of Cooking Blasphemous Fusion Food, The

Mixologist Has Nine Lives, The

This Story Stinks

What Humanity Should Eat to Stay Healthy and Save the Planet

— podcasts, etcetera —

Stirring the Pot

Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast with Natalie MacLean, The

Women and Alcohol: History, Myths, and Trailblazers

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #259 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.

17 Delicious Types of Plums

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Published on April 15, 2022 09:26

Food Sites for April 2022

Chef Julius, inventor of Caesar Salad.

As first recorded by Apicius, the earliest written record of the eponymous romaine salad made generous use of egg, hard cheese from the provinces, lemon, good olive oil, and garum—beaten like a galley slave—then lavished upon lactucae. The leaves untimely ripped, of course (as was the photo, from the internet).

It is almost April First, and no better time than now to disseminate some food fakelore.

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

More foolishness from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. Ernest Hemingway

Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with that it's compounding a felony. Robert Benchley

Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or of pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully; for I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else. Samuel Johnson

Gary
April, 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Dianne Jacob), thanks, and keep them coming!

PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.

— the new sites —

(descriptions with photos, plus a short introduction to plum history)

Betty Crocker’s Cosmopolitan Kitchens

(Annie Ewbank’s Gastro Obscura interview with Susan Marks—author of Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food)

ckbk

(subscription-based searchable access to vast number of recipes, cookbooks, food reference books, author bios, and feature articles)

Food History and Gastronomic Traditions of Beans in Italy

(Giandomenico Corrado’s article in the Journal of Ethnic Foods)

Hymn of Ninkasi, The

(Kevin O’Briant’s 2017 article in Beyond Beer Magazine)

J. Kenji López-Alt Says You’re Cooking Just Fine

(Helen Rosner’s New Yorker interview)

Man Who Discovered Umami, The

(Veronique Greenwood’s article about Kikunae Ikeda, and the perception of taste, in BBC Future)

Medieval Influencer Who Convinced the World to Drink Tea, The—Not Eat It

(Miranda Brown’s Gastro Obscura article about Lu Yu—”the world’s greatest tea influencer”)

Necco Wafers: The Return of an American Candy Classic

(Aimee Tucker’s New England Today article about a candy that was in the pockets of many Civil War soldiers)

Peeling Onions, Layer by Layer

(Yasmin Amin’s paper on the use of two alliums in Islamic cookery; included in Insatiable Appetite: Food as Cultural Signifier in the Middle East and Beyond)

Recipe From a Talented Chef Enslaved by a Founding Father, A

(Natasha Frost’s Gastro Observer article about James Hemings, the cook in Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello kitchen)

Rise and Fall of Gruit, The

(Susan Verberg’s 2018 paper on the historical differences between beers made with hops and other herbs)

What Is the Arabesque Kitchen?

(N.A. Mansour’s Eater review of The Arabesque Table, discusses multiple varieties of Arabic cuisine)

What Makes Oaxacan Food Oaxacan?

(Bricia Lopez’s Eater piece on something that’s too complex to be covered by one word)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

8 Tips to Become a Successful Content Writer

Anton Ego and the Critical Sense

“Cultivated Meat is no Silver Bullet” by Carlo Petrini

Curious Case of Colonial India’s Breakfast Curries, The

Egg Cream

Food Writer Dishes on Black Culinary Traditions, A (and Top Spots to Experience Them)

History of the Last Time I Ate at a Chinese Buffet, A

How Apples Go Bad

How I Got My Job: Creating Weeknight Recipe Faves for Top Publications and Writing a Cookbook

I’m Common as Muck and Spent £150 in a Michelin Star Restaurant to See If It Was Worth It

Is Diet Writing Over?

John Locke’s Personal Pancake Recipe: “This Is the Right Way” to Make the Classic Breakfast Treat

Meet the Indispensable Bagel Rollers of NYC

National Cuisine Is a Useful Illusion

Reader Comments for The New York Times’ “Homestyle Spaghetti Carbonara” Recipe

Remembering Two Fat Ladies, the Perfect Fat-Positive Cooking Show

“The Automat” Is a Guide to the Wonders of Mid-Twentieth-Century Urbanism

To Evade Pre-Prohibition Drinking Laws, New Yorkers Created the World’s Worst Sandwich

Top 10 Cooks in Fiction

— podcasts, etcetera —

Dave Chang Show, The

Grounds for Revolution: the Stimulating

Story of How Coffee Shaped the World

Hot Dog Is a Sandwich, A

Joy of Cooking, The (Insects)

Lunch Therapy

New Secret Chicken Recipe, The?

Animal Cells.

Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner

People Can’t Believe That THIS Is How Cashews Grow

See the True Cost of Your Cheap Chicken

Well-Seasoned Librarian, The: A Conversation About Food, Food Writing and More

When Sitting Bull Came to Dinner

(you’ll need to use this passcode: .p$1t74C [Note that the passcode starts with a period])

— changed URL —

What We Write About When We Write About Food

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #258 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.

Adoration of the Pine Nut, The

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Published on March 19, 2022 06:06

Food Sites for March 2022

February was brutal, this year.

It called for a particularly dark and stormy Dark and Stormy—

à propos for a dark and stormy month.

(It should have been lime... but I used what I had on hand)

March is fast upon us, and we couldn’t be happier. February brought us an ice storm that left us without heat or light for days on end. Between that, and living our second year with the vagaries of Covid-19 (with inexplicably-odd lacunae on grocery store shelves), it’s plain that the March Hare’s iconic madness is more justified this year than it was in Lewis Carroll’s time.

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

Tired of ice, outside, here are two reflections on ice—inside—from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

The Americans are a funny lot; they drink whiskey to keep them warm; then they put some ice in it to make it cool; they put some sugar in it to make it sweet, and then they put a slice of lemon in it to make it sour. Then they say “here’s to you” and drink it themselves. B.N. Chakravarty

For each glass, liberally large, the basic ingredients begin with ice cubes in a shaker and three or four drops of Angostura bitters on the ice cubes. Add several twisted lemon peels to the shaker, then a bottle-top of dry vermouth, a bottle-top of Scotch, and multiply the resultant liquid content by five with gin, preferably Bombay Sapphire. Add more gin if you think it is too bland... I have been told, but have no personal proof that it is true, that three of these taken in the course of an evening make it possible to fly from New York to Paris without an airplane. Isaac Stern

Gary
March, 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Cynthia Bertelsen), thanks, and keep them coming!

PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.

— the new sites —

(The Botanist in the Kitchen waxes scientifically-rhapsodic about pignoli)

Archaeobotanical Evidence Reveals the Origins of Bread 14,400 Years Ago in Northeastern Jordan

(Lara Gonzalez Carretero’s 2018 presentation to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)

Barley Malt and Ale in the Neolithic

(Merryn Dineley’s 1999 paper on brewing methods revealed by archaeological evidence)

Beer

(a 21 page overview by Puran Singh Bisht)

Beer: Health and Nutrition

(PDF of C.W. Bamforth’s 2004 book)

Campari’s Secret History

(Brad Thompson Parsons writes, in Punch, about Italy’s famous bitter aperitif)

English Muffin Is Not English at All, The

(Anna Goldfarb’s tells the story of Samuel Bath Thomas’s invention—in New York City—for The Kitchen)

Food-History.org

(a collection of articles, with book recommendations on related topics)

Guide to Different Types of Wheat Flour, A

(Danilo Alfaro sifts the wheat from the chaff for The Spruce Eats; many links, at the bottom of the page, to more flour information)

Home Cook’s Guide to Onions, A

(supplied by Gelson’s Markets, a California supermarket chain)

How a 400-Year-Old Cheese Got Its Groove Back

(Richard Collett’s GastroObserver article about nettle-wrapped Cornish Yarg)

How Black Pepper Won Europe From a Tastier Pepper

(Sarah Laskow’s Gastro Observer article about Piper longum, Long Pepper)

How the Refrigerator Became an Agent of Climate Catastrophe

(David Owens’ New Yorker article is hot stuff)

It’s Official: Americans Are Floating in a Pool of Ranch Dressing

(April Fulton, on the origins of ranch dressing; a report from NPR’s The Salt)

Mad Honey

(hallucinogenic honey can be made from the nectar of certain Turkish and Nepalese rhododendron flowers, and it’s expensive; article in Gastro Observer)

Native American Restaurants

(Jan Whitaker’s blog, Restaurant-ing Through History, looks at the roots of a recent trend)

Online Historical Cookbooks

(links to vast collections of digitized books)

Party Like a Sumerian: Reinterpreting the ‘Sceptres’ from the Maikop Kurgan

(article, by Viktor Trifonov, Denis Petrov and Larisa Savelieva—in Antiquity—about ancient drinking “straws” used for communal beer-drinking)

Pizza Isn’t Italian

(H.D. Miller, at An Eccentric Culinary History, cuts through the layers of myth that cling like cold mozzarella to pizza-box cardboard)

Psychedelic-Laced Beer May Have Helped This Ancient South American Empire Rule

(Ashley Strickland’s CNN report about archaeological evidence of beer brewed with a drug similar to tryptamine DMT)

Recipe: Pastitsio, Greece’s Beloved Baked Pasta

(Carolina Dorito dishes on baked pasta dishes from all around the Mediterranean—not just Greece—for Culinary Backstreets)

Sweetwater, Mountain Springs, and Great Lakes: A Hydro-geography of Beer Brands

(water is key to brewing, obviously, and this paper by Jay D. Gatrell, David J. Nemeth and Charles D. Yeager explores the topic)

This Ancient Brew Has Retro Appeal in South Korea

(Chang W. Lee and Mike Ives discuss “makgeolli, a cloudy Korean rice wine” for The New York Times)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

10 Lessons We’ve Learned About Eating Well

Diary of a Book Launch: An Insider Peek from Idea to Publication

Diaspora Co.

Did Eating Meat Really Make Us Human?

Down the Rabbit Hole: Wandering through an Amazing Maze of Links

Food and Men in Cinema: an Exploration of Gender in Blockbuster Movies

How To Write An Elevator Pitch For Your Book

Language of Lucky Foods, The

Petits Propos Culinaires, an Oft-Overlooked and Unobtainable Tool Now Available in Digital

Q&A: Deb Perelman on 16 Years at Smitten Kitchen

Secret Lives of Kitchen Appliances, The

Top 1000 Cookbooks

Undersung Trailblazer of Indian Cooking, An

What To Eat?

— another blog —

Burnt My Fingers

— podcasts, etcetera —

Follow the Food

Meat & Three: A Culinary Book Club

Run the Dish!

This Tiktok Creator Makes the Recipes She Finds on Gravestones

What’s Burning

— changed URL —

Food That Built America, The

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #257 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.

All About Chianti: The Lifestyle, the Region, and the Wine

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Published on February 11, 2022 11:46

Food Sites for February 2022

It’s practically February; we should just forget about sharing cocktails in the garden.

The month of February is so unrelentingly depressing that ancient calendar-makers tried to make up for it by making it as short as possible. They also stuck a holiday—right in the middle—to generate some sort of heat. It's intended to throw a virtual log on the fire, since the February sun is an aloof, distant, and fickle partner at best.

There are a few (not altogether unforeseen) effects of all that calendar tampering: Valentine’s Day acts like Viagra for the greeting-card, gift-boxed-chocolate, and cut-flower industries.

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

In the spirit of the up-coming holiday, a few excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

In the nineteenth century, it was traditional to serve three courses of asparagus—thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac—to a French groom on the night before the wedding. The modern French gentleman has discarded the noble asparagus for the more romantic passion prompter—Champagne. Sharon Tyler Herbst

The truffle is not a positive aphrodisiac, but it can upon occasion make women tenderer and men more apt to love. Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

A number of rare or newly experienced foods have been claimed to be aphrodisiacs. At one time this quality was even ascribed to the tomato. Reflect on that when you are next preparing the family salad. Jane Grigson

Absinthe makes the tart grow fonder. Variously attributed to Ernest Dowson, Christina Rossetti, and Oscar Wilde

Gary
February, 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Fabio Parasecoli), 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.

— the new sites —

(Jennifer Simonson’s discusses the classic Tuscan wine for VINEPAIR)

Emerging Science Conflicts with Traditional Views of Taste and Smell

(Dwight Furrow’s Edible Arts article examines the case for whether or not whether “smell and taste have a cognitive dimension;” it’s part of his continuing effort to determine if wine and food can be considered forms of art)

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Garum

(Rafael Tonon’s Eater article about ancient Rome’s famous fermented fish sauce)

For Some Whiskey Distilleries, Malting Is an Ancient Process Worth the Effort

(Susannah Skiver Barton’s VINEPAIR article on the revival of old-school methods—flooring—to produce malt)

From Bengal to Manipur, This Is the Story of the Ubiquitous Dried Fish

(Priyadarshini Chatterjee explains, at Zeezest.com, that dried fish is much more than Bombay Duck)

From Hangovers to Hierarchies: Beer Production and Use During the Chalcolithic period of the Southern Levant—New evidence from Tel Tsaf and Peqi‘in Cave

(report on evidence of beer brewing, in Israel, as early as 5,200 BCE; published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology)

Great American Chestnut Tree Revival, The

(Shea Swenson’s Modern Farmer article on recent attempts to undo the effect of a blight that killed almost all the chestnut trees in the US)

History of Beer and Brewing, A

(PDF of Ian S. Hornsley’s rare 2003 book)

How the Potato Chip Took Over America

(Brandon Tensley revisits some origin stories for Smithsonian)

Kohlrabi’s Time to Shine

(Flora Tsapovsky writes, in Tablet, about the reasons why this cabbage relative is suddenly popular in Israel)

Types of Potatoes: Ultimate Guide to Different Kinds of Potatoes and Their Uses

(another informative page from Leafy Place)

What’s So Special About Monk-Made Food?

(Alex Mayyasi, on the appeal of “beer, cheesecake, and ferments made at convents and temples,” for Gastro Obscura)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

An Ex-Drinker’s Search for a Sober Buzz

Argentine Wheat Hides a History of Native Genocide

Being Avant-Garde Does Not Require Being a Pompous Ass

Can “Distraction-Free” Devices Change the Way We Write?

Cook More, Talk Less

Cooking with Mary Shelley

Eye of the Beer Holder: Beer Label Design Trends to Watch

Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Cookbook Stories of 2021

Gift of Hunger, The

How the Pandemic Knocked Chefs Off Their Pedestal

Kiki or Bouba: What Is the Shape of Your Taste?

Mayukh Sen on Writing about Food—With Feeling

(Other) French Chef, The

Retirement Tips from World-Famous Authors to Live Happily Ever After

What Does It Mean to Read Great Food Writing in a Pandemic?

What We Talk About When We Talk About Food

— another blog —

Mid-century Menu

— podcasts, etcetera —

Green Eggs and Dan

How Did Sweetness Become Taboo in Drinks?

Kitchen Counter, The

Library of Congress Acquires Kitchen Sisters’ Audio Archive

Local Mouthful

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #256 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.

Brief History of Cheesy Pasta, A

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Published on January 15, 2022 06:57

Food Sites for January 2022

Two images that define the departing year:
a shot and shots (how many of us got by),
and a mask, hanging near the front door
(for when we needed to get out) .

The nineteen-twenties roared with jazzy excitement—but, so far, the twenty-twenties have been one humongous disappointment. Please accept our apologies for grossly understating the gravity of the situation. Who knows? Maybe twenty-twenty-two will bring some better news—or, at least, cease making the news a source of agita-induced dypepsia.

For the new year, let’s raise a nineteen-twenties-style glass—or three—to the possibility of better news. Maybe some old-fashioned optimism‑because what could be more old-fashioned, right?

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

Keeping the twenties in mind, we’ve shuffled through the liquor cabinet for a few excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow they may make it illegal. Anonymous

A prohibitionist is the sort of man one wouldn’t care to drink with—even if he drank. H.L. Mencken

Everyone must believe in something, I believe I’ll have another drink. WC Fields

Gary
January, 2022

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Krishnendu Ray), 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.

— the new sites —

(Massimo Montanari’s account at Literary Hub)

Creating a Better Leaf

(Elizabeth Kolbert’s article, in The New Yorker, on altering the way plants use photosynthesis to produce more food for us)

Green Fruits

(berries, citrus fruits, drupes, pomes, and melons; an illustrated guide from Leafy Place)

Hallstatt Miners Consumed Blue Cheese and Beer During the Iron Age and Retained a Non-Westernized Gut Microbiome Until the Baroque Period

(Frank Maixner, et. al., report—in Current Biology—on archaeological evidence obtained from ancient feces)

Hidden, Magnificent History of Chop Suey, The

(Miranda Brown’ tells the sordid story at Gastro Obscura)

Perfect Storm, A: The Chocolate, Coffee, and Climate Crises

(Randall Myers discusses the horror of climate-change extinction of some of our favorite things—and what we can do to prevent it—for Quillette)

Reign of Terroir

(Joshua Levine’s Smithsonian article about Roquefort cheese)

Seeing and Tasting: The Evolution of Dessert in French Gastronomy

(Maryann Tebben’s 2015 essay in Gastronomica)

TASTE (law and the senses series)

(aesthetics, philosophy, and anthropology of food; PDF of the 2018 anthology from the University of Westminster Press)

Types of Coconuts

(varieties from around the world; an illustrated guide from Leafy Place)

Types of Onions

(“varieties of onions and how to use them;” an illustrated guide from Leafy Place)

Types of Red Berries That Grow on Trees or Shrubs

(an identification guide from Leafy Place)

What Humanity Should Eat to Stay Healthy and Save the Planet

(Gayathri Vaidyanathan’s Nature article about the cost of global sustainability and adequate nutrition)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

10 Massively Inedible Roadside Attractions

Christmas Feasts

“Designing Human-Food Interactions in Space Is Not a Trivial Task.”

Fine Dining on the Front Line

How Marcella Hazan Became a Legend of Italian Cooking

How Things Are Changing for Women in the Kitchen

It’s Time to Retire the ‘Julia Child Of’ Trope

Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable.’

Mrs. Goodfellow—Raves from Miss Leslie and Others

Who Owns a Recipe? A Plagiarism Claim Has Cookbook Authors Asking.

Wisdom about Wine and Food Pairing

World’s Vast Networks of Underground Fungi to Be Mapped for First Time

— another blog —

Medieval Mead and Beer

— podcasts, etcetera —

Hot Ale Flip, The

XOXO Dorie

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #255 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.

Botanist in the Root Cellar, The

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Published on December 10, 2021 11:57

Food Sites for December 2021

Preserved for winter.

November delivered our first killing frost.

There was a time, not that long ago, in our collective memory, when gardens died each year—and, if we didn’t “put food by”—we would too. It wasn’t a joke when people alluded to “the dead of winter.” But countless generations filled root cellars [speaking of which, make sure to check out The Botanist in the Root Cellar, below] with carrots and turnips and beets and potatoes—plus jars (or barrels) of all sorts of pickled produce. Their attics held strings of dried fruits, mushrooms, and herbs. Sometimes, they’d bury apples, layered with straw, the longest-keeping varieties at the bottom, to be exhumed through the dark months of the year.

By the end of winter everyone would be mighty tired of preserved food. But Spring would always come (at least for those who had prudently prepared before the Winter) and jaded appetites rediscovered fresh food. Today, a quick trip to the supermarket allows us to eat anything we want, anytime we want, and seasons have been rendered irrelevant. Of course, all of that out-of-season produce—shipped from far-away places—comes with a price, the biggest of which is flavor. Perhaps a winter of pickles was not too much to pay for the joy of encountering the first ripe in-season strawberry of Spring?

We haven’t published anything new this month—shocking, right?—but we have begun writing a sort of nostalgic novella. Tentatively titled Beer Taste (on a Champagne Budget), it’s a little like The Wonder Years, but with food—and recipes.

You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and . Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.

We’ve dug into the pantry for a few excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

The jelly—the jam and the marmalade,
And the cherry-and quince-“preserves” she made!
And the sweet-sour pickles of peach and pear,
With cinnamon in ‘em, and all things rare!
And the more we ate was the more to spare,
Out to old Aunt Mary’s! Ah! James Whitcomb Riley

The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today. Lewis Carroll

Marmalade in the morning has the same effect on taste buds that a cold shower has on the body. Jeanine Larmoth

In the last analysis, a pickle is a cucumber with experience. Irena Chalmers

Gary
December, 2021

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Sheila Ratcliffe), 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.

— the new sites —

Are Vegetables Winning?

(New York Magazine article, by Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite, on meatless options in the Big Apple)

(the taxonomy of all the foods we casually refer to as “roots”)

Chicago Brewseum

(dedicated to preserving the culture & history of beer, they don’t have a physical location yet—but the museum has coordinated exhibits elsewhere and has even developed a few beers of its own)

Culinary Detectives Try to Recover the Formula for a Deliciously Fishy Roman Condiment

(Taras Grescoe’s article, in Smithsonian, about trying to recreate the long-lost garum sociorum)

Female Cooks Who Shaped French Cuisine, The

(Rachel E. Black’s essay about women in the celebrated kitchens of Lyon, in Zocalo; an excerpt from Cheffes de Cuisine: Women and Work in the Professional French Kitchen)

foodtank

(“the think tank for food;” articles about responsible food systems, sustainability, etc.)

From Pythagorean to Pescatarian; The Evolution of Vegetarianism

(Tori Avey’s account, fresh from The History Kitchen)

Fry Bread Is Beloved, but Also Divisive

(Kevin Noble Maillard’ New York Times article on a Native American foodstuff with a history that shares origins that are similar to that of “soul food”)

Great Organic-Food Fraud, The

(Ian Parker’s New Yorker exposé of why things are not always what they seem—or claim to be)

How Korean Cuisine Got Huge in America (and Why It Took So Long)

(John Surico gets an answer from Matt Rodbard—one of the authors of Koreatown: A Cookbook—for Serious Eats)

Is Coffee Good for You?

(Dawn MacKeen on the latest medical opinion, in The New York Times)

Let the Wine Flow

(Nathan Steinmeyer’s report, in Bible History Daily, on the excavation of a Byzantine winery at Tel Yavne, in Israel)

Olives for Ancient Eating

(Jonathan Laden’s report on archaeological work in Israel; in Bible History Daily)

Outline View (with links)

(The Botanist in the Kitchen’s taxonomic table of food plants grouped by their botanical relationships)

People All Over the World Love Adobo—But What Is It?

(whether it’s from Spain, Mexico, the Philippines, or Puerto Rico, Bettina Makalintal has the answer at Bon Appetit)

Search for the Competitive Edge: A History of Dietary Fads and Supplements

(Louis Grivetti’s 1997 paper in The Journal of Nutrition)

True Story of Pizza Margherita: a Food Fit for a Queen, The

(Francine Segan traces the ancient roots of pizza for La Cucina Italiana)

Untold Story of Sushi in America, The

(Daniel Fromson’s New York Times article about the connection between sushi and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon)

What Is A Potato Anyway?

(Amiel Stanek‘s article, in Bon Appétit, offers a quick answer)

World War Wednesday: Save a Loaf a Week

(Sarah Wassberg Johnson’s blog, The Food Historian, looks at food rationing campaigns during World War I)

— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —

Building Blocks: Chapulines, a Bug’s Culinary Life in Oaxaca

Definitive History of Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, The

Does Wine Have a Subject Matter?

Feast for the Soul

Flavor, Memory, and Emotion

Free Man of Color Whose Invention Revolutionized the Sugar Industry, The

How a Librarian and a Food Historian Rediscovered the Recipes of Moorish Spain

How Capicola Became Gabagool: The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained

How Much Syrup Can a Doughnut Leak?

How to Cook from a Historical Recipe

How to Make Twitter a Better Place—With Emotional Food Memories

How to Start a Writing Podcast

In Shanghai, Teahouses Offer Both Community and Solitude

Laurie Colwin’s Recipe for Being Yourself in the Kitchen

London Chef Elizabeth Haigh’s Cookbook Withdrawn After Plagiarism Allegations

On Aroma and Emotion

Return of the American Rail Dining Car, The

Rise and Rise of Mother Gin, The

Small Cautionary Tale about Cookbooks and Authenticity, A

Traveling the World for Recipes, but Always Looking for Home

Tweezer Cuisine

Two Mustard Seeds, Lime-Sized Balls of Tamarind, and Hand Smells

U.S. Restaurant Criticism Was Evolving Well Before Covid-19. The Pandemic Revealed Why Critics Need to Keep Embracing Change.

Why Cookbook Stores Are the Antidote We Need Right Now

Writing about Food IS Writing

— more blogs —

British Food: A History

Food Section, The

— podcasts, etcetera —

Art of Eating, The (Calhum Trailer Final)

Barbara Haber: The Lioness at the Library

Buried Treasure: Weeds, Seeds, and Zombies

Conversation with Melissa Clark, A

Cookbooks with Virginia

“Every Time You Make A Recipe, You Take A Risk,” An Interview With David Sutton

How We Find Our Writer’s Voice, with Dianne Jacob

Inside Julia’s Kitchen

JULIA | Official Trailer (2021)

New Book Brings Foodies on a Global Culinary Adventure

Rise and Folly of the Refugee Cookbook, The

Taste of Louisiana, A: Mainstreaming Blackness Through Food in The Princess and the Frog

Tip of the Tongue 100: 100th Episode Special with Ken Albala

Why the Recession Helped the Donut

Why You Should Eat Oysters at Home (And How to Shuck Them!)

Women Left Out of Cocktail History, The

Zest, The

— changed URL —

Oyster Varieties

— that’s all for now —

Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:

As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.

Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:

The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)

The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #254 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.