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

“Svmer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu…” and yes, we’re cuckoo about cook-outs. Here in the US, on July Fourth alone, uncountable tons of charcoal will contribute their carbon to the atmosphere, the smoke of innumerable chickens, cows, and pigs will float to the heavens—a savory sacrifice to the gods of gluttony—and the cholesterol levels and BMIs of the multitudes will rise along with them.
Life can be grand.  
Last month, Roll Magazine published our rant, “Too Hungry for Dinner at Hate,”  an exercise in deciding who not to invite to an imaginary dinner.  In other news, Reaktion has published a Japanese-language version of Herbs: A Global History. Apparently it's called Habu no rekishi. While we can’t read a word of Japanese, it looks very nice.
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 delivered automatically. 
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook,  and Twitter.  Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner.
This month’s quotes (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection) are a celebration of summer (we just quote ‘em; we don’t necessarily agree with every little politically-incorrect comment tossed out beside the grill):

Around here, grillin’s grillin’ and barbecue is, well—sigh, sweat—what dinin’ in heaven’s got to be all about. Jane Garvey 

Grilling, broiling, barbecuing—whatever you want to call it—is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach. James Beard

I’m a man. Men cook outside. Women make the three-bean salad. That’s the way it is and always has been, since the first settlers of Levittown. That outdoor grilling is a manly pursuit has long been beyond question. If this wasn’t firmly understood, you’d never get grown men to put on those aprons with pictures of dancing wienies and things on the front... William Geist

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with …a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. Erma Bombeck

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 introduced us to sites like the ones in this newsletter (such as Jonell Galloway & 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. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.
Brief History of the Hot Texas Wiener, A
(as explained by the Library of Congress)
Cooking Issues
(delightfully geeky food technology articles from The International Culinary Center)
Eat Insects for Fun, Not to Help the Environment 
(Ophelia Deroy writes: “people will only be persuaded to eat them if they seem appealing”; a PDF)
Eating the Earth
(John Whiting’s Oxford Symposium paper on the double-edged sword that is agriculture)
Food & Consequences: The Meaning of “Food”
(Aaron Their, in Lucky Peach, on what constitutes “food”)
Food is Culture Too, and Freedom of Culture is a Fundamental Right
(op-ed piece, in The Asian Age, on official gastronomic intolerance in India)
Good Digestion
(Sadie Stein on the relation between appetite and happiness; in The Paris Review)
Life & Thyme
(magazine of “culinary storytelling”)
New Religion, The: How The Emphasis on “Clean Eating” Has Created a Moral Hierarchy for Food
(Sarah Boesveld on self-righteous neo-puritanical eating choices; in Canada’s National Post)
Offal-Eater’s Handbook, The: Untangling the Myths of Organ Meats
(first half of Robert Sietsema’s two part essay, defining offal)
Offal-Eater’s Handbook, The: Where to Eat Organs All Over the World
(second half of Robert Sietsema’s two part essay, a country-by-country listing of dishes that you might—if you really try—find in the US)
On Veganism
(Tara Kaushal on why she should be—but isn’t—a vegan; at 3 Quarks Daily)
Reconstructing Cuisines and Recipes from the Ancient World
(James Wiener’s interview with The Silk Road Gourmet’s Laura Kelley; at Ancient History Et Cetera)
Utopian Studies
(a special issue devoted to papers on food utopias, from the seventeenth century to today; downloadable PDF)
Warning: This Article Could Radically Alter the Way You Eat 
(Amy Fleming, on gastrophysics—the science behind how our perception of flavor and satiety are altered byall of our other senses; in The Guardian)
What Does a Food Historian Do?
(Rick Paulas’ interview with Ken Albala)
What to Eat in France: Camembert
(Jonell Galloway speaks fluent Fromage)
You’re Eating Fake Tortillas, and Diana Kennedy Is Pissed About It
(Daniel Hernández’s interview with the “Michael Moore of [Mexican] food”)
5 Lessons I Learned Writing the Genius Recipes Cookbook
13 Rules to Maximize Writing Productivity
Blogging 101: Why Start a Food or Author Blog?
Comma Sense
Food Blogging 101: More Computer Info for Food Writers
How I Broke Into Food Writing: Advice From Tasting Table’s Senior Editor
How to Pitch a Newspaper or Magazine Feature: Dianne Jacob’s Valuable Advice
In Defense of Food Writing: A Reader’s Manifesto
Nigella Lawson: Why I Became a Cookbook Writer
RecipeWriter
Writing a Cookbook Proposal
Andrea Maraschi 
Cookblog
Danger! Men Cooking!
Eccentric Culinary History, An
Food Institute Blog, The
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: 
Want to support On the Table, without spending a dime of your own money on it? 
It’s easy. Whenever you want to shop on Amazon. Com, click on any of the book links below, then whatever you buy there (it doesn’t even have to be one of our books) will earn a commission for this newsletter.
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.