Cynthia D. Bertelsen's Blog, page 14

Stoves & Suitcases

Wanderlust infiltrated my blood from early on. I joke that I left the womb three months early, so impatient was I to get started with life. In the beginning, just my mouth got to travel. And those exhilarating experiences of tasting and eating new things consoled me through a turbulent childhood. As did reading and … Continue reading "Stoves & Suitcases"

Friday Fish Fry

I have never much liked fish. Shellfish? That’s another matter. Except for crab. I seem to have developed an insidious allergy to that crustacean, as I suddenly suffered a great deal after diving into a platter of crab legs in Hawaii. But when I first moved to Milwaukee for graduate school in library science, Fridays … Continue reading "Friday Fish Fry"

M. F. K. Fisher in Japan: A Meditation by Leo Racicot

Leo Racicot, a friend of M. F. K. Fisher’s, wrote an essay about M. F.’s sojourn in Japan, a part of her life that rarely gets any ink. This total immersion in the Japanese way of eating and of living changed M.F.K. Fisher. Admirers of her work boldly underscore her sojourns in France, particularly in … Continue reading "M. F. K. Fisher in Japan: A Meditation by Leo Racicot"

Tucson: The Gastronomic City

Daddy always told me about being born in Miami. Yet it took me years to realize he wasn’t talking about Miami, Florida. Rather, he meant Miami, Arizona, near Globe, where my grandmother Winnie Gibson grew up, where she lived among Native Americans, miners, ranchers. Where all sorts of drifters came and went. Where one such … Continue reading "Tucson: The Gastronomic City"

Cuisine in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert: Cholla Buds

Miles and miles of endless, empty roads, only the occasional passing freight truck for hours on end, vast open spaces on either side, sagebrush, sand, merciless sunshine, roadrunners darting across the asphalt, jarring hypnotized drivers awake faster than a double Big Jolt. The desert, to the uninitiated, seems barren, lifeless, a place to be gotten … Continue reading "Cuisine in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert: Cholla Buds"

Nika Standen Hazelton: Remembering a Food Writer Chronicling a Lost World

It’s hard not to admire Nika Standen Hazelton, an outspoken and opinionated food writer who, despite the 30 or so cookbooks she wrote, quipped that “… cookbooks are mostly bought as escape literature, not to cook from … .”  Very much a prophetess! Born in Rome in 1908, to a German diplomat father and Italian … Continue reading "Nika Standen Hazelton: Remembering a Food Writer Chronicling a Lost World"

Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz: Remembering Her Latin American Food Writings

She was British, he was Mexican.  And from a meeting at the United Nations in New York came a surfeit of riches of cookbooks and food writing. Articles for Gourmet and House and Garden flowed from her pen. thanks to the support of José Wilson, editor of House and Garden, who opened the publishing door … Continue reading "Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz: Remembering Her Latin American Food Writings"

Remembering Mireille Johnston: Memories of a French Food Writer on a Fall Day

As I sniffed the seductive odor of pumpkin pies emanating from the bakery that day, a menu composed itself in my head, shouting “It’s FALL, finally!” I went wild over the cheap chicken thighs at my local Kroger, dumping package after package into my grocery cart. Mushrooms, walnuts, shallots joined the chicken in the cart, … Continue reading "Remembering Mireille Johnston: Memories of a French Food Writer on a Fall Day"

Remembering Jane Grigson, a British Food Writer Gone Too Soon*

Since it looks like I won’t be sitting in a pub quaffing Guinness anytime soon, I decided to dig out a few of my British cookbooks and think of England. Thinking of England, especially if you’re a food-crazed blogger with a penchant for the past, means recalling food writer Elizabeth David, and of course, Alan … Continue reading "Remembering Jane Grigson, a British Food Writer Gone Too Soon*"

Remembering Penelope Casas, a Greek-American Food Writer with a Spanish Heart*

Now this may seem strange to you, and it does feel odd to me at times, but through the six books Penelope Casas wrote and the recipes she shared, I felt a bond with her. Over the years, her books and recipes slowly inserted themselves into my life, their presence like big sisters or favorite … Continue reading "Remembering Penelope Casas, a Greek-American Food Writer with a Spanish Heart*"