On the Table - the curious home of Gary Allen, Food Writer & Dillettante

It's the very end of November, not one of our favorite months -- even though it does include the National Day of Overindulgence (the pleasure of which, alas, is immediately canceled out by interminable football games suffered in dyspeptic silence). As many of you will be similarly occupied, we thought it might be a good idea to send this newsletter out early.

We're realists: The odds are against any of you wanting to read about food for quite a while.

Last month, Let Them Eat Crepes (edited by Melissa Doffing and Susan Koefod) was published. It contains several homages to those wonderful French pancakes -- including one, "A Bunch of the Boys Were Whooping It Up," by yours truly. Please don't hold that against this lovely little book, or keep you from ordering a copy here or at the book's website. [a disclosure of sorts: we have no financial stake in the sales of this book; our sole involvement was in writing the aforementioned essay]

Regular subscribers to our updates newsletter receive these updates from our blog, Just Served, directly -- but there is much more at the blog that isn’t sent automatically. We understand that many (OK, most) folks have better things to do with their time than wade through countless unwanted e-missives, so we won't add ours to that pile. However... should you feel an inexplicable craving for exactly the sort of self-indulgent claptrap we periodically post, you can satisfy that urge at Just Served.

Leitesculinaria is still in the process of reposting, sometimes with shiny new updates and edits, some of our older articles. The entire list of our currently-posted LeitesCulinaria articles (twenty, so far) is available here.

For hard-core addicts of our stuff (assuming such unlikely beings exist), Marty Martindale's Food Site of the Day has been completely redesigned, and has returned to posting A Quiet Little Table in the Corner -- an index of our writings on the web.

As always, we end our monthly sermon with some selections from On the Table's culinary quote pages. This month, a month that contains a superfluity of superfluity, when excess exceeds all reasonable limits, clearly requires no more -- hence there is but one quotation:

"SATIETY, n. The feeling that one has for the plate after he has eaten its contents, madam." Ambrose Bierce

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs -- or know of wonderful sites we've missed -- please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those of you who have suggested sites -- thanks, and keep them coming!

PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings, go here.

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



15 Food & Cooking Myths, Busted
(a selection of ideas from Harold McGee's Keys to Good Cooking)

Food in the 'Hood
(food history articles by Joel Denker, author of The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisine)

Food Science Central
("…free articles on many topics in food science, food technology and nutrition")

In Praise of Fast Food
(Tom Philpott's essay, in Grist, on the omnipresence of fast food throughout history and across cultures)

Market Assistant
("Containing a Brief Description of Every Article of Human Food Sold in the Public Markets of the Cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn; Including the Various Domestic and Wild Animals, Poultry, Game, Fish, Vegetables, Fruits, &C, &C. with Many Curious Incidents and Anecdotes;" complete text of Thomas F. De Voe's 1867 book)

Nourish
(site of an organization whose mission it is to educate the public about our food systems)

Science Behind Why We Love Ice Cream, The
(Wall Street Journal report on work being done at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia)

Wessels Living History Farm, The
(site of a museum of 1920s farming, with sections on later periods, and various resources -- including podcasts on different aspects of farm life)



Blogs about blogging -- their writing, design, photography, promotion, and ethics -- can help us become better, and maybe even more successful, writers ("success" being a relative, and highly-variable, notion). Here are a few of our favorites:

As Pretty as Egg Salad: a Food Styling Post

Authors, Social Media and the Allure of Magical Thinking

Food Photography: How to Shoot Ugly Food

How Right is the Customer who Blogs?

Should I Tweet?

Social (Marketing) Network, The: Can an Analog Girl Thrive in the Digital World?



Afghan Cooking Unveiled

Ecocentric

Edible Geography

Edible Living

Jefferson's Table

Lucid Food

menuism

Vintage Cookbooks



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

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

Our books, The Resource Guide for Food Writers, The Herbalist in the Kitchen, The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries, and Human Cuisine can be ordered through the Libro-Emporium.

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.