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

"It's May, it's May," and (if Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe are to be believed) it's that wonderful time when "when ev'ryone goes blissfully astray." We suspect they had other distractions in mind, but we'll take our rapture from early spring greens, morels, fresh trout, tiny radishes and sweet early peas.

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. Last month we posted "Creamsicles, Re-Imagined," our speculations about the intersection of nostalgia and jaded palates. There were a few other posts -- but since they were not about food we won't list them here. However, should you require a dose of non-culinary foolishness, check out the Archive for April.

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 is available here, along with several other articles on food history & science.

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.

Here's a selection soon to be added to On the Table's culinary quote pages.

Cookbooks are the history of an epoch. They show how people prepared and ate the ingredients available to them. Cookbooks provide answers to social, political, and economic questions about the society for which they were written. They are an essential ingredient to preserving our past and enhancing our future. Julia Child

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.



About That Recipe
("Or, Revelation from Stuffed Waterfowl That Require Onions," Trudy Eden's article in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

How Food Explains the World
("From China's strategic pork reserve to a future where insects are the new white meat, 10 reasons we really are what we eat;" Joshua Keating's article in Foreign Policy)

Mediterranean Creole
(a chef's site about Algerian cookery)

Old School
("Glenn Roberts Restores Carolina Grains," article in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

On Figs
("Sweetness in the Common Landscape," Bernard L. Herman's article in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

Pigeons
("Pigeons and their Cuisine," Caroline F. Sloat 's article in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

Recipe for a Culinary Archive
("An Illustrated Essay," Jan Longone's article in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

Roots of Taste, The
(David Shields 's article on root vegetables in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

Unbearable Taste, The
(slavery and "Early African American Foodways," Michael W. Twitty's article in Common-place: American Food in the Age of Experiment)

What‭'‬s Cooking, Uncle Sam?
("The Government's Effect on the American Diet," brochure for the exhibit at U.S. National Archives; in PDF format)



Blog posts about blogging -- and writing, design, photography, promotion, and ethics -- can help us become better, and possibly more successful, writers (i.e., having more people read our stuff). Here're some recent favorites:

20 Terms For Selling (I Mean Writing) Recipes

Serious Eats Guide to Food Photography, The

Unspeakable Bodily Fluids and Genitalia: A Short, Revolting Intro to the Finest Metaphors in British Food Criticism



Glutton for Life

Rooter to the Tooter, The

Starving off the Land



Except, of course, for the usual legalistic 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.