Gary Allen's Blog, page 6

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 #253 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.

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Published on October 12, 2021 09:24

Spring and the Nature of Eating

Trout season is approaching its most glorious phase, that time known as “the sweet of the year.” It’s that blissful time when the season is at its showiest, the air is soft, the streams have cleared, and the trout are rising freely in a most pleasing manner. Which is not to say that they are easily caught—they are still trout, after all. These elegant fish inhabit some of the most poetic and pristine waters, and employ their wiles inscrutably to bewitch and befuddle even the most sophisticated anglers.

So why, over that paean of piscatorial prose, is this scrawl illustrated with a lowly Yellow Perch?

Trout and Yellow Perch tell us something about the way we choose to feed ourselves. Some fishermen (at least those who do not adhere strictly to the canon of catch-and-release) will occasionally consume trout and bass, but eschew “lesser” species such as Bluegills or Yellow Perch. These easily-caught fish actually taste better than the more prestigious species (that’s why they are known collectively as “pan fish”). Trout, especially hatchery-raised fish (which are much more common than truly wild trout ) tend to have soft flesh, with a slightly musty flavor that is probably the result of the food pellets they ate. Bass (especially large-mouth bass) are often caught in muddy or weedy waters, and their flavor can reflect that terroir. Pan fish, on the other hand, are nearly always wild, and their flesh is firm and sweet. So why would someone prefer a food with potentially poorer culinary properties, that is harder to come by?

Those choosy fishermen demonstrate an important aspect of eating: the food itself is only a small part of the eating experience. What we choose to eat is determined by factors that are often at odds with our best interest. We place greater value on the symbolic aspects of foods than on their intrinsic properties.

Why would people (in the past) have preferred white bread to the “lowlier” peasant breads that were cheaper, tastier, and more nutritious? White flour was more labor-intensive, so only the wealthy could afford it—therefore eaters of white bread were visibly part of a higher-status group than eaters of dark breads. Once industrially-produced white flour, became cheap, available to everyone—consequently, losing status. Before long, whole grain breads—made, supposedly, by artisanal methods—gained a newly enhanced status. That status, in turn led people to believe that such breads were “more healthful.” Today’s supermarkets carry a plethora of supposedly more natural breads: not just whole wheat; but honey-laden 12-grain; crusty loaves festooned with seeds of pumpkin, sunflower, and flax; studded with wheat-berries and rolled oats. It’s only a matter of time before we’re offered breads that are indistinguishable from Chia Pets. Being sufficiently well-off to choose “health” over mere sustenance implied higher status, justifying the higher prices of darker breads. Former peasant breads, like pumpernickel and Russian black bread regained their lost status.

Since trout and bass require more effort to catch than plebian pan fish, they likewise confer higher status on those who choose to eat them. Yellow Perch, on the other hand, are so willing to be caught that even a small child, equipped with only the simplest gear (a hand-line, hook, and an old cork will serve nicely) and most rudimentary skills, can easily catch enough to feed their whole family. All that’s required are a few worms, and the ability to wait until the bobbing cork says it’s time to give the line a yank.

Despite the pretentions of fishers of elite species, what they demonstrate is not connoisseurship, but rather the brute power of supply-and-demand. Time is money, so having the leisure time to invest in the sport— not to mention the financial wherewithal to acquire custom-made bamboo fly rods or high-powered bass boats—means that every mouthful of gamefish is more precious than saffron-gilded peacock’s tongues.

At one time lobsters and caviar were so abundant that only servants and slaves had to eat them. The poor were pitied for having to endure the monotony of such mundane fare. Salty caviar was once given away free in taverns to encourage beer sales, while lobsters were so common that they were fed to prisoners, or used to fertilize vegetable gardens. When my mother was growing up, on the Connecticut shore, mussels were abundant—but only poor Italian immigrants collected them. Her Yankee family considered mussels to be trash, and would never touch them. Even during The Great Depression, they chose to eat the tougher (and harder-to-collect) hard-shell clams, Those big quahogs were only suitable for chowder, or chopped for clam pies. I doubt that any of my Yankee ancestors had ever tasted the sweet and tender black mussels that covered every rock in Long Island Sound, were free for the taking.

Why would people shun perfectly-delicious food in favor of something more difficult to obtain, yet not nearly as tasty? Because their self-image is more important, and presumably longer-lasting, than their evanescent dining experiences. Or, to paraphrase Brillat-Savarin, bluntly, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you think you are.”

In the sweet of the year, I may be savoring the memories of trout I’ve caught and lost… but I’ll actually be tasting the sweet flesh of a few yellow perch.

—

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of Drexel University’s Table Matters—as “Knocking Trout off its Perch,” but is no longer available on its website.

My illustration (“Yellow Perch & Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear”) was a gift for one of my fishing buddies—the artist Tom Stratton, in 1989—and that home-tied fly has long been one of our favorites for half a century.

Ancient Mediterranean People Ate Bananas and Turmeric From Asia 3,700 Years Ago

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Published on September 19, 2021 07:46

Food Sites for October 2021

Gourds, warts and all.

It’s autumn, and we’re awash in the annual tsunami of pumpkin-spice-everything. There doesn’t seem to be a way to escape it—unless one never leaves the safety of home. Fortunately, introverts/hermits/writers effectively limit their exposure to that marketing plague. Reading through all of the links in this longer-than-usual issue of updates can also help (if only because it will keep you out of your local Dunkin Donuts).

In another form of relief, many of you will be happy to learn that we have self-published ABSOLUTELY NOTHING this month—although we haven’t stopped scribbling; wrote the first draft of a novella (working title, so far: Unbelievable) and one of a short story. The novella is not really about food (but includes plenty of food & drink elements). The short story—set in a special section of Hades—has only minor references to food. It’s working title is “Darkness, Darkness.”

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.

From the Two-Different-Takes Dep’t, a couple of excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

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

I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters, or working for organized crime “associates,” food, for me, has always been an adventure. Anthony Bourdain

Gary
October, 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 Krishnendu Ray and Anne Mendelson), 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 —

(Claire Bugos reports on more archaeological discoveries, for Smithsonian, based on this )

Brief History of Pickles, A

(Michele Debczak’s article at Mental Floss)

Chinese Food & History

(a misnomer; Miranda Brown’s site features articles on plenty of Asian cuisines, not just China’s)

DeepL

(one of the better online translation tools)

Eating in Jerusalem

(an exhibition/magazine from the Museum of the History of Jerusalem)

Epic Cooking: The Decorous Rite of the Mushroom Hunt

(foraging for fungi in Poland)

Expanding the Israeli Menu

(Flora Tsapovsky, in Tablet, discusses the multicultural eclecticism of modern Israeli cuisine)

Farro: An Ancient and Complicated Grain Worth Figuring Out

(Laura Weiss’s article at NPR’s Kitchen Window)

Food & Material Culture

(PDF of the 2013 Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery)

How Ice Cream Became the Ultimate American Comfort Food

(an excerpt from Matt Siegel’s book, The Secret History of Food)

How the Kitchen Took Over Our Homes

(Deborah Sugg Ryan’s British take on an answer in Financial Times)

Late-Summer Tart from a Misunderstood Master of French Cooking, A

(Mayukh Sen’s tribute to Madeleine Kamman, in The New Yorker)

Minoans Saw Wheat as Classy and Lentils as “Plebeian” Fare, Archaeologists Deduce

(Ruth Schuster, writing for Haaretz, digs into ancient dietary choices as revealed at two sites in Crete)

Pot Thickens, The

(Jonathan Olivier tells the story of filé in The Bitter Southerner—along with some non-Zappa gumbo variations)

Save the Planet, Eat a Bug

(Dana Goodyear’s article from a 2011 issue of The New Yorker)

What Is Curry, Anyways?

(Alex Delany’s answer at Bon Appétit’s Basically)

Who Invented Peanut Butter?

(...and who better to ask than the National Peanut Board?)

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

Bacon: A Story of Rags to Riches

Can We Fix America’s Food-Appropriation Problem?

Dearth of Pleasure, A: The Curse of Modern Food Writing

Digital Truths Traditional Publishers Don’t Want to Hear, The

English Food Store, The

Frosting Versus Icing: What’s the Difference?

Hilary Mantel on How Writers Learn to Trust Themselves

How to Write a Great Recipe Headnote

No One Will Read Your Book (and Other Truths about Publishing)

Notes on Cravings

Old Fashioned Kitchen Sayings from Mexico: Dichos de Antaño de la Cocina Mexicana

Psychologists Explain Why Food Memories Can Feel So Powerful

Sandwich, A

Should We Genetically Edit the Food We Eat? We Asked Two Experts

Should You Publish Your Book with a Small Press? Two Literary Agents Advise

“Super Taster” Who Lost Sense of Smell Is Helping Italians Regain It

Why Do Fantasy Novels Have So Much Food?

Why Grocery Stores Get Jewish Holidays All Wrong

Wine and Cuisine: Craft or Art?

— other blogs —

Forking Around with History

Tower of David

— podcasts, etcetera —

Ancient Drink Serving the World for 13,000 Years, The

Deadly Secret of the Humble Grapefruit, The

Disgusting Food Museum

How to Photograph a Mushroom

Why Insects are the Missing Link in our Food System

— changed URL —

O Mosey Quince

— 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 #252 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.

Appetizer: Words, Concepts, Contents

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Published on September 13, 2021 12:00

Food Sites for September 2021

Paperback Writer: words—a LOT of words—which, fortunately, are not written in stone.

It’s been bloody hot lately; we’ve tried to go outside only long enough to grill a chunk of some creature for dinner. Otherwise, just sit in front of the laptop—near the air conditioner—and write. Or read. With a cocktail.

Life is hard.

We’ve recently self-published a paperback edition of Prophet Amidst Losses—a book that had previously been available only as a Kindle book. It’s a collection of short stories connected by a common theme. The main characters, who sometimes act as narrators, all have to deal with some form of loss. The situations they face are often painful—but not for you, gentle reader. Some of the stories have their own form of dark humor, because other people’s suffering is so easy to bear.

We’ve also edited and released yet another Kindle book—Ephemera—as a paperback. It’s also a collection of short stories (some them, VERY short). Unlike the Prophet book, the stories are not thematically-connected.

An older book, previously available only in Kindle form—How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating is finally out in paper. It’s non-fiction (mostly) and, while it will entertain the curious, it’s probably not ideal reading for the squeamish.

We think we’re finally up-to-date with converting Kindle books to paper—and have, at last, gotten back to actual writing. BTW, all nine of the books have a common design, page size, and cover color.

“A foolish consistency,” as Emerson said in some completely different context.

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.

From the Some-things-never-change Dep’t, here’s an excerpt from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

When we examine the story of a nation’s eating habits, describing the changing fashions of preparation and presentation and discussing the development of ifs cuisine throughout the ages, then we find an outline of the nation’s history, harking back to those distant days when a scattered tribe lurked in dismal caves, feeding on raw fish and plants and the hot, quivering flesh of wild beasts, lately slain with a rude spear. Auguste Escoffier

Gary
September, 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 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 —

(another trip down menu memory lane, with Jan Whitaker as guide)

Baghdad was in the Limelight of Medieval Arab Cuisine

(Nawal Nasrallah, writing for Inside Arabia, about what we can learn from the earliest Arabic cookbooks)

Before Farm to Table

(a team of scholars studying “early modern foodways and cultures“ at the Folger Library)

DU’s Cookery and Foodways Collection Whets the Appetite for Discovery

(Denver University’s collection of 11,000 titles; not—unfortunately—online)

Everything You Need to Know About French Wine Regions in Under 5 Minutes

(Vicki Denig decants the short version for Taste France magazine)

Evolution of Israeli Cuisine, The

(Joan Nathan reports—at My Jewish Learning—on the culinary changes that have happened since 1948; an excerpt from The Foods of Israel Today: More than 300 Recipes—and Memories—Reflecting Israel’s Past and Present Through Its Many Cuisines)

Hash House Lingo

(Jan Whitaker’s blog—Restaurant-ing through history—discusses food industry jargon that is often “racy, picturesque, humorous [and] only by the initiate”)

How 12 Female Cookbook Authors Changed the Way We Eat

(Lily Katzman’s review, in Smithsonian magazine, of Anne Willan’s book, Women in the Kitchen)

How Freezing Changed the Green Pea

(Veronique Greenwood’s history—and explanation of how frozen can be better than fresh—at BBC Future)

(Anja Madhvani, at Sourced Journeys, corrects the familiar, but “...rather loose interpretation of a somewhat patchily documented history” of the popular brew)

Invention of the Fried Clam, The

(...at least according to the New England Historical Society)

Is the Croissant Really French?

(Amanda Flegl’s answer[s] in Smithsonian Magazine)

Learning to Love G.M.O.s

(Jennifer Kahn examines the state of GMO crops, and the way they’re perceived by consumers, for The New York Times)

Long Good-bye, The: A Writer’s Plea to Save the Foods We Love

(Keith Pandolfi’s review of Bread, Wine and Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love, for Serious Eats)

Morel Compass—John Cage’s Mania For Mushrooms

(Josie Thaddeus-Johns’s review, in Apollo Magazine, of John Cage: A Mycological Foray—a beautifully-illustrated book from Atelier Éditions)

Mystery of the Lost Roman Herb, The

(Zaria Gorvett discusses silphium—or laser—for BBC Future)

Obsessed: Finding Your Food in the Field

(Sho Spaeth’s interview, at Serious Eats, with forager Tama Matsuoka Wong)

Oddly Autocratic Roots of Pad Thai, The

(Alex Mayyasi’s GastroObscura article about how Plaek Phibunsongkhram got Thailand to eat more noodles)

Origin and Art of Japanese Rice, The

(Dan Q. Dao’s Saveur article)

Real Reason Jack Daniel’s Is Called Old No. 7, The

(Travis Gillmore adds to the speculations at VINEPAIR)

Revealed: The True Extent of America’s Food Monopolies, and Who Pays the Price

(exposé in The Guardian, by Nina Lakhani and Alvin Chang)

Understanding Black Southern Funeral Food Tradition

(Robin Caldwell’s article, in Black Southern Belle, on current and historical practices)

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

6 Relics of Forgotten Fast-Food Dynasties

18th-Century Cookbook That Helped Save the Slovene Language, The

Black Food Heritage: Wild Game Receipts (Recipes) from the Past that Live On

Cancel “Curry”? Why South Asian American Chefs Say It’s Time for the Word to Go

Cooking with James Baldwin

Dick Soup

Growing Eggplant: A Complete Guide

Hot Diggity Dog!

How Vittles Is Revolutionising Food Writing

Is Soft-Serve Healthier than Ice Cream? Chemistry Debunks a Common Myth

Lilac Syrup and the Underrated Art of Eating Flowers

Meat and Pets: A Double Feature

Meat Marketing: The Truth About Food Labels

Mighty Vegemite

Nach Waxman, Founder of a Bookstore Where Foodies Flock, Dies at 84

New Evidence Busts New Haven’s Claim as “Birthplace of the Burger”

Rome Finds There’s No Accounting for Taste, Artistic or Culinary

Singapore’s Last Traditional Coffee Roasters May Soon Disappear

So, What’s in Food Coloring?

Sold: Sylvia Plath’s Rolling Pin and Recipes

Stop Calling Food “Exotic”

Tamales de Tia Tila: Steamed Comfort

This Writer Is Tweeting Everything Sylvia Plath Ever Ate

Trade Cards: An Illustrated History (Highlights from the Waxman Collection of Food and Culinary Trade Cards)

What Did the Ancient Romans Eat?

What Is Good Taste, Revisited

Why Are Restaurants’ Cheapest Bottles of Wine Becoming So Expensive?

Why I Won’t Self-Publish a Cookbook Again

— another blog —

Passionate Foodie, The

— podcasts, etcetera —

Baking of the Legendary Samarkand Bread

Ethnographic Eater, The

Food Chain, The: What’s the Appetite for Gene Edited Food?

History of the Legendary Delmonico’s & New Delmonico’s Cookbook, The

Onion Pakora Weather

MSG—Seasoning Non Grata

Wine 101

— changed URL —

Buzz on Our Forgotten American Tea Plant, The

Online Historic Cookbooks

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

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

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 #251 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 Table Scraps Offer a Fresh Twist on Jewish Culinary Heritage

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Published on August 13, 2021 12:22

Food Sites for August 2021

Onions: the original social-distancing tool.

It almost feels like post-pandemic: we’ve been able to travel, dine in restaurants, and stroll through crowded farmer’s markets—thinking only of the kitchen potential of the fresh ingredients there, instead of the possibility of catching the plague. The photo, above, was taken at a farmer's market in Chicago, this weekend.

We’ve recently self-published another little book. This time, it’s Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen, a collection of nineteen (sort of) fairy tales with very different endings and narrators than the ones your parents told you. They are funny, in a dark and unsettling way—and several of them have culinary content. Don’t expect to be cooking up any recipes from it, though. (Aside: it’s also available as a paperback)

We’ve recently edited and released some of our other Kindle books as paperbacks (for those, like us, who prefer to fondle physical books):

Cenotaphs, a novel about the urge to disappear;

The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions, an annotated collection of essays that pretends to be a kind of memoir;

How to Write a Great Book, a humorous non-fiction look at how writers actually work;

Terms of Vegery, an album of photographs and punning taxonomy;

How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating , just what it says;
and, finally:

Future Tense, a novel about a bunch of hippies, in 1968, who have strange encounters with things that happen far in their future lives.

We still have a couple of Kindle books to convert to paper editions. Maybe next issue...

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.

As if you didn’t have enough to read, already—here’re some excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

All the best cooking is simple. There is really nothing new in it. I have 4,000 cookbooks dating back to 1503, and everything that is in nouvelle cuisine was there 200 years ago. Anton Mosimann

Americans, more than any other culture on earth, are cookbook cooks; we learn to make our meals not from any oral tradition, but from a text. The just-wed cook brings to the new household no carefully copied collection of the family’s cherished recipes, but a spanking new edition of Fannie Farmer or The Joy of Cooking. John Thorne

No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers. Laurie Colwin

Anyone who eats three meals a day should understand why cookbooks outsell sex books three to one. L. M. Boyd

Gary
August, 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 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 —

(Leviticus aside, recent archaeology reveals that the rules of kashrut have not always been the... ummm... rule)

Can America Save Its National Dish?

(Meghan McArdle airs her fear—in The Washington Post—that Americans have forgotten how to make pie crust)

Cookbooks

(archived articles about cookbooks at Atlas Obscura)

Cookbooks and Home Economics

(an index of over 11,000 digitized cookbooks from multiple university and public libraries)

Cuisine Noir

(magazine, and blog, on all culinary aspects of the African diaspora—recipes, interviews, book reviews, news, etc.)

Deep Roots of the Vegetable That “Took Over the World,” The

(Gemma Tarlach’s article, in Gastro Obscura, about the genetic history of a species that eventually became all the members of the cole family)

Heard It On The Grape Vine

(a literary early history of wine, from Thomas O’Dwyer At 3 Quarks Daily)

How James Beard Invented American Cooking

(Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker article)

In the Beginning, There Was Ice, Snow, and Science

(a brief history of ice cream, at Trivia Genius)

Life, Death, and Barbecue Sauce

(an excerpt from Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue)

Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters

(PDF of Gordon M. Shepherd’s 2012 book)

Welcome to Coffee Country

(Eater’s articles on the evolution—and current status—of American specialty coffee in the Pacific Northwest)

What Did Italians Eat 2,000 Years Ago?

(Sara Wells reports, for Inverse, on recent archaeological findings)

What’s the Difference Between All the Types of Tomatoes?

(Brette Warshaw answers, in Bon Appétit; an excerpt from What’s the Difference?)

Wrapped Up

(Tedium’s history of the ubiquitous shrink-wrapping that encloses so much of our food)

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

5 Amazing Tools for Writers

Authors to Earn Royalties on Secondhand Books for First Time

Cheese Professor, The

Cooking Has Gone from Chore to Inspiration

Day in the Life of a King Arthur Recipe Tester, A

Deborah Madison Is Done with Cookbooks. Now, She’s Making Corn Dogs and Fried Chicken.

Dirty Secret of “Secret Family Recipes,” The

Eleven Extraordinary Foods We’ll Be Eating More in the Future

Food and Drink in Medieval and Renaissance Europe: An Overview of the Past Decade (2001-2012)

F&W Game Changers: A Kinder Publishing Model

Good Taste Is Not About Detecting Aroma Notes

How Good Grammar Saves Lives and Other Reasons It’s Still Important

My Time Traveling Cookbook

National Food Holidays

Those Old Cookbooks Are a Great Recipe for History

What 1984 Tells Us About Eating Under a Totalitarian Regime

What’s Your Beef? An Ethicist’s Guide to Giving Up Meat

Why Work from Home Professionals Should Publish a Book

— other blogs —

Drinks52

Pardon Your French

— podcasts, etcetera —

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

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

Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)

How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating

How to Write a Great Book

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

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(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 #250 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.

America’s Finest Restaurant, Revisited

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Published on July 18, 2021 08:01

Food Sites for July 2021

“Only two things that money can’t buy
That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes.” Guy Clark

With this issue, we’ve completed twenty-one years of these updates. Who knew there would be so much constantly-changing verbiage about food floating about on the interwebs?

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 love apples, plucked from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

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

A world devoid of tomato soup, tomato sauce, tomato ketchup and tomato paste is hard to visualize. Could the tin and processed food industries have got where they have without the benefit of the tomato compounds which colour, flavour, thicken and conceal so many deficiencies? How did the Italians eat spaghetti before the advent of the tomato? Was there such a thing as tomato-less Neapolitan pizza? Elizabeth David

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

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

Gary
July, 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 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 —

(the story of Delmonico’s—from Jan Whitaker’s blog, Restaurant-ing through History)

Cocktail Science: All About Foams

(Kevin Liu gets physical—and a little chemical—at Serious Eats)

CSA’s Roots in Black History, The

(it’s more than forty-acres-and-a-mule; Shelby Vittek’s article in Modern Farmer)

Flavor Science: How We Taste Sweet, Sour, Salty, and More

(Daniel Gritzer’s explanation, at Serious Eats)

Food Additive

(PDF of the 2012 book, edited by Yehia El-Samragy)

Gatekeepers Who Get to Decide What Food Is “Disgusting”, The

(Jiayang Fan’s New Yorker essay about The Disgusting Food Museum, in Malmö, Sweden)

Gum Arabic. The Golden Tears of the Acacia Tree

(PDF of Dorrit van Dalen’s 2019 book about an ingredient used, commercially, in everything from candy, to chewing gum, to fillings, icings, soft drinks, and assorted other sweeteners and flavorings)

In Praise of Pastrami, The World’s Sexiest Sandwich

(Josie Dunlap will have what she’s having, in The Economist)

It’s Not Delivery, It’s...

(Ernie Smith’s history of frozen pizza, at Tedium)

Meet the Appalachian Apple Hunter Who Rescued 1,000 “Lost” Varieties

(Eric J.Wallace’s profile of Tom Brown in GastroObscura)

Quiet Rescue of America’s Forgotten Fruit, The

(Anne Ewbank’s GastroObscura article about C. Todd Kennedy and the rare stone fruits being grown at Morgan Hill, CA’s Arboreum Company)

Tracing the African Diaspora in Food

(Helen Rosner’s New Yorker article about the making of the Jessica B. Harris Netflix special)

Welcome to Vegetable Produce Converter!

(measurement tool for recipe writers)

Who Were the First Humans to Start Cooking Meat? And Why?

(Alex Bezzerides stirs the hot coals for Literary Hub)

Wine and Romance: The Eternal Connection

(Dwight Furrow waxes rhapsodic in his valentine to wine, at Edible Arts)

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

Alice Waters Says People Who Call Her Elitist Just Don’t Get It

Delectable Digest

Eating Your Way Through Art History

Food Is Us

Introducing “Food Grammar,” the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine

On Ideas; and the Business of Being an Independent Writer

Pitch Guidelines for the VICE Culture Desk

Rise of the Climatarian, The

Snacks That Get Us Through the Work Day

— podcasts, etcetera —

Eat Y’all

Extra Spicy

Food 360 with Marc Murphy

Honoring Your Heritage—and Improving Your Health—Through Food

Oil & Water

Rachel Laudan on Cuisine, Culture, and Empire

— changed URL —

Mustard Manual

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

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

(Hardcover)(Kindle)

Terms of Vegery(Kindle)

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

How to Write a Great Book(Kindle)

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

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses(Kindle)

Cenotaphs(Kindle)

Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past()

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #249 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.

Database of 5,000 Historical Cookbooks Is Now Online, and You Can Help Improve It

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Published on June 08, 2021 13:22

Food Sites for June 2021

Salad Days are here again!

“What is so rare as a day in June?” Well, technically, a day in February—since there’s never more than twenty-nine of them. Of course, “June is bustin’ out all over” is more in the spirit of the thing—right?. Besides, who wants to waste these glorious days thinking about February?

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.

Bon appétit from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

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, 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 Elatia Harris), 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 —

Bean Institute, The

(science, recipes, nutrition, and assorted other bean facts)

(Gastro Obscura article about The Sifter, a lifelong project of Barbara Ketcham Wheaton)

Difford’s Guide

(huge website “for discerning drinkers;” cocktail recipes and histories, info on beer & wine, producers, profiles, drinking establishments, books, bar ware, and more)

Doughnuts Make the World Go Round

(links to ten articles about fried treats, posted at Culinary Backstreets)

Food Fads Have Always Been Ridiculous. Just Ask the Great Masticator.

(Jessica Gingrich’s Narratively article recounts the rise and bizarre influence of Horace Fletcher)

For Nourishment, There’s Nothing Like ‘First Foods’

(article savoring indigenous—or Native American, or pre-Columbian—foodstuffs, by Kathleen Purvis in iPondr)

Indian Community Cookbook Project, The

(archive of regional recipes from India, and bibliography)

Letter in the Window, The

(Andrew Egan’s history of NYC restaurant inspections, at Tedium)

Making Sense of Food

(Foodprint publishes articles that address the “environmental and public health issues created by our current industrial food system”)

Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life, The

(Natasha Geiling’s Smithsonian article)

Scientists Debunk a Long-Held Theory about Oysters, Chocolate, Honey, and Spanish Fly

(Inverse article that can bust your balloon)

Scientists Debunk a Long-Held Theory about Spicy Food

(according to Inverse, Darwinian gastronomy it ain’t)

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

Baz to Basics

How To Write A Book In 2021: The Ultimate Guide For Authors

Small Press Publishing: Necessary Imprint On A Big-Press World

Write the World Blog, The

— podcasts, etcetera —

Food Season

Radio Misfits

— changed URL —

Medieval Arabic Cookbooks: Reviving the Taste of History

— that’s all for now —

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

Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.

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

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

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

How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)

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

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Kindle)

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

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #248 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.

African Cuisines: Recipes for Nation-Building?

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Published on May 13, 2021 04:08

Food Sites for May 2021

Hellebores, the heralds of Spring.

The month of January is appropriately named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doors—looking backwards and forwards at the same time.

May, however, has hidden in its very name something equally appropriate. During the long preceding winter, in which desires* were tightly restrained, indoors, as closed-up as storm windows, we never felt permitted to even ask, “May I?”. Then, before we know it, April’s rains depart, the sun comes out, we throw open the long-closed windows, stick our heads out, and shout for all the world to hear, “I MAY!”.

* Feel free to insert desire or desires of your choice.

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.

These Springy items might not be precisely culinary, but they celebrate a kind of appetite that might fit in On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress. Charles Pierre Monselet

Spring is nature’s way of saying let’s party. Robin Williams

It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! Mark Twain

Gary
May, 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 Dianne Jacob), thanks, and keep them coming!

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

— the new sites —

(Igor Cusack’s 2000 article in Journal of African Cultural Studies)

Black Cookbook Directory

(Rekaya Gibson reviews fifty cookbooks that reflect the African diaspora)

Field Guide to North America’s Wild Crops, A

(Reina Gattuso’s Gastro Obscura article on foraging)

Food Historian Dishes on Her Love Affair with Italy, A

(Irene S. Levine interviews Francine Segan for Forbes)

History of the Food Pyramid, A

(according to Hannah McLeod, writing in the Smoky Mountain News, the familiar image evolved from earlier attempts to deal with food shortages in WW II—and only later focused on nutrition)

How to Taste Wine and Assess Wine

(seven step approach provided by wine club Firstleaf)

Inside the World’s Largest Jewish Cookbook Collection

(Anne Ewbank’s Gastro Obscura article about some of the 2,500+ books in the New York Public Library’s Dorot Jewish Division)

More than Málà: A Deeper Introduction to Sichuan Cuisine

(Joe Distefano serves Fuchsia Dunlop’s take on that not-always fiery cuisine for Serious Eats)

So What Is a British Biscuit Really?

(Dan Nosowitz sorts out the differences and similarities between British biscuits and American cookies—and a host of other tiny flat breads—for Gastro Observer)

Taking the Temperature

(six Eater articles on how global warming is likely to change the way we eat)

Your Diet Is Cooking the Planet

(Annie Lowrey, in The Atlantic, on the effect agriculture has on global warming)

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

Breakup Letter to My Writing Career, A

Do You Have Nafas, the Elusive Gift That Makes Food Taste Better?

Fuchsia Dunlop

How to Convert Measurements in Baking Recipes—and Why You Might Want To

Power of Self-Publishing in Food Media, The

Tejal Rao on Food Writing, Aimless Roaming, and the Joy of Deadlines

Unsung Influence of a Pioneering Food Journalist, The

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Email Newsletters (They’re Not Going Away)

Why the Owner of Loaves & Fishes Started Her Own Publishing Company

Why We Can’t Talk About Race in Food

Why Writers Need To Be Readers

— podcasts, etcetera —

Salmon Sushi Conspiracy, The

Tip of the Tongue

Warwick Food GRP Webinar on “Food and Drink Cultures Through the Ages”

— that’s all for now —

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

Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.

As an Amazon Associate, our 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 any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

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

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

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

How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)

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

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Kindle)

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

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #247 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.

Bun! A Taxonomy of the British Bread Roll

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Published on April 16, 2021 07:08

Food Sites for April 2021

“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote,

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote...”

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales might contain the world’s first restaurant review:

For many a pastee hastow laten blood,

And many a Jakke of Dovere hastow soold

That hath been twies hoot and twies coold.

Of many a pilgrym hastow Cristes curs,

For of thy percely yet they fare the wors,

That they han eten with thy stubbel goos,

For in thy shoppe is many a flye loos.

If your Middle English is not what it used to be, here’s a modern translation:

For of many a pastry hast thou drawn out the gravy,

And many a Jack of Dover hast thou sold

That has been twice hot and twice cold.

Of many a pilgrim hast thou Christ’s curse,

For of thy parsley yet they fare the worse,

Which they have eaten with thy stubble-fed goose,

For in thy shop is many a fly loose.

We suspect that it would take more than a year’s Covid-isolation to have us longen to goon on pilgrimages to that restaurant.

The Sickness has caused a feverish frenzy of writing around here—but little of it has anything to do with food. A post-vaccine visit to an actual sit-down restaurant (other than the one described by Chaucer) might change that. Should it cause a shift to culinary subjects, we’ll let you know. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to add podcasts to the updates, on the off-chance that you crave some other distractions.

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.

This might be poor marketing, on our part, but here’s an excerpt from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

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

Gary
April, 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 Elisabeth Luard), thanks, and keep them coming!

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

— the new sites —

(Katie Mather rises to the challenge for Pellicle Magazine)

Feast Afrique

(“A Celebration of West African Culinary Excellence“ or—more accurately—of the culinary excellence of the West African diaspora)

Food Additives

(PDF of the 2001 second edition)

Food Flavour Technology

(PDF of the 2010 second edition)

High Cuisine in Ancient France

(Livia Gershon, on the 2000-year-old divide between upper- and lower-class Roman diets; review archaeologist Benjamin Peter Luley’s article, “Cooking, Class, and Colonial Transformations in Roman Mediterranean France”)

How King George III’s Kitchens Gave Britain Taste for International Cuisine

(historians Adam Crymble, Lisa Smith, and Rachel Rich discuss eighteenth-century food for The British Academy)

How to Build a Chinese-American Cookbook

(dialog, in Eater, about the collaboration of a chef with a ghost writer)

Macarons, Macaroons, Macaroni

(Dan Jurafsky’s adventure in edible etymology for Slate)

Never Heard of Khoja Ismaili Cuisine? It's Time for a Change

(Madhuri Sastry’s Serious Eats article about the food of a sect of Shia Muslims from Gujarat, India, various parts of east Africa—and now the UK and Canada)

Remembering When Only Barbarians Drank Milk

(an excerpt from Mark Kurlansky’s Milk! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas, in Gastro Obscura)

Sex, Nazis and da Vinci: The Hidden History of Italian Rice

(CNN’s Julia Buckley reports on the complex story of rice in Italy, and the women who grew it)

Street Food: Tamales

(a “red hot” post from Jan Whitaker’s Restaurant-ing Through History)

Whetstone

(magazine, and videos, about regional foods)

Women Dominated Beer Brewing Until They Were Accused of Being Witches

(Laken Brooks on ancient—and residual—gender inequality, in Smithsonian)

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

Analysis of [French] Cooking Terminology

Decoding Waiter Speak

Frederick Douglass on How Slave Owners Used Food As a Weapon of Control

Guide to the History of Coffee, A (and 15 Interesting Facts)

How the Trillion-Dollar Processed Food Industry Manipulates Our Instinctual Desires

Restaurant Manifesto, The

Salt Fat Acid Defeat: The Restaurant Before and After Covid

This Is What Happens When Tech Bros Attempt to ‘Fix’ Online Recipes

Triumphant Return of the Tiki Bar, The

Type what you want, but we’re going to remove your extra space after a period.

What It Says About Us When We Want a Cook’s Recipe but Not Their Humanity

— podcasts, etcetera —

Brü Lab, The

Food That Built America, The

Secret Life of Cookies, The

Shameless Chef, The

— that’s all for now —

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

Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.

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 any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

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

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

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

How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)

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

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Kindle)

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

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #246 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 Olives (for eating, not oil)

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Published on March 20, 2021 10:35

Food Sites for March 2021

Garlic, Allium sativum

The corona virus has given us reason to fear its effects. Oh sure, there is that whole death thing—but, for those of us who take food seriously, the fear of losing our ability to experience taste and smell is truly terrifying. The prospect of living, minus those joys of the table, is almost worse than the risk of our demise.

Fortunately—other than the vaccine, which is slow in coming—we still have a way to prevent becoming infected: social distancing. And what better way to make social distancing automatic than the regular, and generous, inclusion of Allium sativum in our diets?

The pandemic continues to discourage most social activities. However, anti-social activities—such as writing—are thriving. We’re still adding stories to our fairy tale book. There’s also a longish short story threatening to become a novel (we wonder if the so-called novel coronavirus is to blame for this rampant prolixity). If any of these scribbles develop significant culinary content, we’ll let you know.

Another—possibly positive—consequence of pandemic isolation is that this issue of our newsletter is larger than usual. Plenty of new sites to visit! We’ve also added more podcasts, on the off-chance that you’ve run out of ways to procrastinate.

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.

To aid in your social distancing efforts, here are a few observations on the stinking rose from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat. Old New York Proverb

Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires heartburn if they get through the garlic defense. Calvin Trillin

It has been said of garlic that everyone knows its odor save he who has eaten it, and who wonders why everyone flies at his approach. George Ellwanger

A little garlic, judiciously used, won’t seriously affect your social life and will tone up more dull dishes than any commodity discovered to date. Alexander Wright

Gary
March, 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 Sarah Wassberg Johnson), thanks, and keep them coming!

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

— the new sites —

(a University of Haifa report on an archaeological discovery—just off the coast of modern Israel)

Beyond Fuyus: The World of Persimmon Varieties

(Georgia Freedman’s article at Serious Eats)

Chemistry of Spices

(PDF of 2008 book, with essays on 23 primary ingredients used in Indian cuisine)

Did the Italians Actually Teach the French the Art of the Vinaigrette?

(Bill Buford investigates for Literary Hub; it’s an excerpt from his book, Dirt)

Genetic Diversity Enhances Human Olfaction

(Deborah Parker Wong’s article, in The Somm Journal, on why we perceive the smells of food and wine differently from each other)

Grammica

(free tools for writers: grammar, spelling, paraphrasing, proofreading, and more)

Identification of Aroma Chemicals

(PDF of Neil C Da Costa’s article in Chemistry and Technology of Flavors and Fragrances, 2004)

Ingredient Interactions : Effects on Food Quality

(PDF of 2nd edition, 2006)

Internet’s Most Incredible Collection of Food History Has Been Saved, The

(not yet available, but coming soon)

Introducing “Food Grammar,” the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine

(Emily Monaco’s Gastro Obscura article on various scholars’ efforts to decipher the subject)

Ka’ak, and the Case for the Ancient Arabic Origins of the Bagel

(great; an article by Reem Kassis, at Serious Eats, suggesting yet another thing on which Jews and Arabs can disagree)

More to Cheese than Meets the Eye?

(Kathryn Murphy’s Apollo article shows that—in baroque Dutch still-life painting—the cheese never stands alone)

Paradoxes of Jews and Their Foods

(PDF of Richard Wilk’s 2015 paper)

Stability of Aroma Chemicals

(PDF of Chris Winkel’s article in Chemistry and Technology of Flavors and Fragrances, 2004)

Taste History at These 6 Fast-Food Firsts

(Anne Ewbank returns to the birthplace of several iconic chain eateries for Atlas Obscura)

What Can Covid-19 Teach Us About the Mysteries of Smell?

(New York Times Magazine article, by Brooke Jarvis, on things the disease has taught us about how our sense of smell works)

When Kitchens Worked: The Rise and Fall of Functional Kitchens

(Sarah Wassberg Johnson’s article on the efficiency/home economics movements and their effects on kitchen design)

Women Chefs Before the 1970s

(article from Jan Whitaker’s blog, Restauranting Through History)

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

Absurd Logic of Internet Recipe Hacks, The

Deeper Understanding of Mexican Food at Gastronomy Underground, A

Editor’s Note: Why a Recipe Is More Than a Recipe About Food: Where to Begin

Everything You Need to Know About Cover Reveals

Impact of Editing and Proofreading Before Publication

Importance of Getting Food Right in Fiction, The

Lost Lingo of New York City’s Soda Jerks, The

Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet Newsletter

Not All Mummies and Statues: Meet the Egyptian Archaeologist Studying Ancient Food

“Not That Good”: Montreal Restaurant’s Brutally Honest Menu Pulls in the Customers

On Ingredients: And How Recipe Developers Are Dealing with Complex Sourcing Questions

Pellet Ice Is the Good Ice

Spellbinding History of Cheese and Witchcraft, The

Taste for Husbands’ Buttocks, A: The Bizarre History of Pregnancy Cravings

What Is the Philosophy of Wine?

Writing About Food: Where to Begin

Yes, I’m a Food Writer—and That Qualifies Me to Write About Everything

— changed URL —

Food Chemistry

— podcasts, etcetera —

Eat My Globe: Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Food

Yiddish New York 2020 1000 Cookbooks

— that’s all for now —

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

Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.

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 any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.

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

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

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

How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)

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

Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)

Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)

Cenotaphs
(Kindle)

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

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #245 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.