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EATS: The Shocking Secret History of Food and Eating
Eats is a fun, funny, sometimes scandalous romp through the history and myths of food and eating. It’s a witty, irreverent, informative read for anyone with a mouth and an interest in history, food, or just knowing peculiar things.
Nearly all the food we eat today has radically transformed from its historic beginnings. Ancient and Medieval food animals were significantly smaller than they are today; carrots weren’t orange, apples weren’t sweet, raw cukes were thorny and could kill you, eggplants triggered madness, and potatoes could cause ugly babies. Food history and lore is truly, disturbingly, profoundly weird. And that is before we even consider mythical, magical foods, poisonous foods, and fabulous half-vegetable, half-animal hybrids with supernatural powers and ill intentions.
Even New World foods like tomatoes and corn would be unrecognizable to a shopper shunting a grocery cart through the local Piggly Wiggly. Ancient foods were so profoundly different that the shape and size of the human jaw and palate changed dramatically to accommodate our new foods and preparation methods. Here is a small taste of juicy
•A rock and some resolute whacks were needed to crack open each individual rock-hard ancient corn kernel, and it was hardly worth the work. The cob was barely the length of our thumb, with only a dozen kernels, each encased in its own granite-like covering.
•Cannibals don’t typically eat people for nutrition and calories, and cannibalism still happens today.
•Security measures for US watermelon caused more deaths in the 1850s than any other farming.
•Spontaneously combusting tempura flakes are responsible for at least seven restaurant fires across the United States.
•Leonardo da Vinci, Rasputin, and Armin Meiwes (the Rotenburg Cannibal now serving a life sentence in prison) are all vegetarians.
Eats is lavishly illustrated in color with historic images on nearly every page.
I guarantee you will learn something new or funny and a tidbit to tickle your dinner guests’ synapses. Please join me on this twisty, festive ramble through food history. I saved you the best seat at the feast!
Who would love this researchers interested in unique, fascinating details, fans of history, food history, gastronomic trivia, cooks, people who like cooks, living history fans and history reenactors, adventurous travelers, adventurous eaters.
Similar If you enjoy any of these authors you will love Max Miller Tasting History, Ken Albala’s many works on food history, Tom Standage’s, An Edible History of Humanity, or Matt Siegel’s The Secret History of Food.
Interested in more fun history, follow Ancient Echoes on Pinterest and YouTube.
Nearly all the food we eat today has radically transformed from its historic beginnings. Ancient and Medieval food animals were significantly smaller than they are today; carrots weren’t orange, apples weren’t sweet, raw cukes were thorny and could kill you, eggplants triggered madness, and potatoes could cause ugly babies. Food history and lore is truly, disturbingly, profoundly weird. And that is before we even consider mythical, magical foods, poisonous foods, and fabulous half-vegetable, half-animal hybrids with supernatural powers and ill intentions.
Even New World foods like tomatoes and corn would be unrecognizable to a shopper shunting a grocery cart through the local Piggly Wiggly. Ancient foods were so profoundly different that the shape and size of the human jaw and palate changed dramatically to accommodate our new foods and preparation methods. Here is a small taste of juicy
•A rock and some resolute whacks were needed to crack open each individual rock-hard ancient corn kernel, and it was hardly worth the work. The cob was barely the length of our thumb, with only a dozen kernels, each encased in its own granite-like covering.
•Cannibals don’t typically eat people for nutrition and calories, and cannibalism still happens today.
•Security measures for US watermelon caused more deaths in the 1850s than any other farming.
•Spontaneously combusting tempura flakes are responsible for at least seven restaurant fires across the United States.
•Leonardo da Vinci, Rasputin, and Armin Meiwes (the Rotenburg Cannibal now serving a life sentence in prison) are all vegetarians.
Eats is lavishly illustrated in color with historic images on nearly every page.
I guarantee you will learn something new or funny and a tidbit to tickle your dinner guests’ synapses. Please join me on this twisty, festive ramble through food history. I saved you the best seat at the feast!
Who would love this researchers interested in unique, fascinating details, fans of history, food history, gastronomic trivia, cooks, people who like cooks, living history fans and history reenactors, adventurous travelers, adventurous eaters.
Similar If you enjoy any of these authors you will love Max Miller Tasting History, Ken Albala’s many works on food history, Tom Standage’s, An Edible History of Humanity, or Matt Siegel’s The Secret History of Food.
Interested in more fun history, follow Ancient Echoes on Pinterest and YouTube.
Kindle Edition
Published March 15, 2024
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May 24, 2024
This was a delightful journey through food history via loads of fun tidbits and trivia! Set up a bit like an encyclopedia of eating, this touched on so much wild, bizarre, and fascinating information, often delivered with a delightful dose of humor. It was just enough to leave me wanting to look up more details on things like Viking Helga Ball, the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, and defeating Kappa demons (who are chasing you after entering the water post-cucumber nibble) by farting on them.
This focuses largely on plants (edible, medicinal, and poisonous!) but does also dip into other foods and food-related topics such as ice harvesting, etiquette, tableware, and even cannibalism.
There's no index but the table of contents is very detailed and it's worth reading from cover to cover as the food facts presented never ceased to amaze me on every page.
Highly recommend to anyone who loves food and wants a good dose of history and excellent trivia to drop on your unsuspecting friends or to use as ice-breakers with strangers!
This focuses largely on plants (edible, medicinal, and poisonous!) but does also dip into other foods and food-related topics such as ice harvesting, etiquette, tableware, and even cannibalism.
There's no index but the table of contents is very detailed and it's worth reading from cover to cover as the food facts presented never ceased to amaze me on every page.
Highly recommend to anyone who loves food and wants a good dose of history and excellent trivia to drop on your unsuspecting friends or to use as ice-breakers with strangers!
Displaying 1 of 1 review