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Food Sites for October 2021

Monday, September 13, 2021


Gourds, warts and all.


It’s autumn, and we’re awash in the annual tsunami of pumpkin-spice-everything. There doesn’t seem to be a way to escape it—unless one never leaves the safety of home. Fortunately, introverts/hermits/writers effectively limit their exposure to that marketing plague. Reading through all of the links in this longer-than-usual issue of updates can also help (if only because it will keep you out of your local Dunkin Donuts).


In another form of relief, many of you will be happy to learn that we have self-published ABSOLUTELY NOTHING this month—although we havent stopped scribbling; wrote the first draft of a novella (working title, so far: Unbelievable) and one of a short story. The novella is not really about food (but includes plenty of food & drink elements). The short story—set in a special section of Hades—has only minor references to food. It’s working title is “Darkness, Darkness.”


You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.


From the Two-Different-Takes Dep’t, a couple of excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:


The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animals. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose, for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics. HL Mencken


I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters, or working for organized crime “associates,” food, for me, has always been an adventure. Anthony Bourdain

Gary
October, 2021


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 who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Krishnendu Ray and Anne Mendelson), 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.



— the new sites —


Ancient Mediterranean People Ate Bananas and Turmeric From Asia 3,700 Years Ago

(Claire Bugos reports on more archaeological discoveries, for Smithsonian, based on this original research)


Brief History of Pickles, A

(Michele Debczak’s article at Mental Floss)


Chinese Food & History

(a misnomer; Miranda Brown’s site features articles on plenty of Asian cuisines, not just China’s)


DeepL

(one of the better online translation tools)


Eating in Jerusalem

(an exhibition/magazine from the Museum of the History of Jerusalem)


Epic Cooking: The Decorous Rite of the Mushroom Hunt

(foraging for fungi in Poland)


Expanding the Israeli Menu

(Flora Tsapovsky, in Tablet, discusses the multicultural eclecticism of modern Israeli cuisine)


Farro: An Ancient and Complicated Grain Worth Figuring Out

(Laura Weiss’s article at NPR’s Kitchen Window)


Food & Material Culture

(PDF of the 2013 Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery)


How Ice Cream Became the Ultimate American Comfort Food

(an excerpt from Matt Siegel’s book, The Secret History of Food)


How the Kitchen Took Over Our Homes

(Deborah Sugg Ryan’s British take on an answer in Financial Times)


Late-Summer Tart from a Misunderstood Master of French Cooking, A

(Mayukh Sen’s tribute to Madeleine Kamman, in The New Yorker)


Minoans Saw Wheat as Classy and Lentils as “Plebeian” Fare, Archaeologists Deduce

(Ruth Schuster, writing for Haaretz, digs into ancient dietary choices as revealed at two sites in Crete)


Pot Thickens, The

(Jonathan Olivier tells the story of filé in The Bitter Southerner—along with some non-Zappa gumbo variations)


Save the Planet, Eat a Bug

(Dana Goodyear’s article from a 2011 issue of The New Yorker)


What Is Curry, Anyways?

(Alex Delany’s answer at Bon Appétit’s Basically)


Who Invented Peanut Butter?

(...and who better to ask than the National Peanut Board?)



— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —


Bacon: A Story of Rags to Riches


Can We Fix America’s Food-Appropriation Problem?


Dearth of Pleasure, A: The Curse of Modern Food Writing


Digital Truths Traditional Publishers Don’t Want to Hear, The


English Food Store, The 


Frosting Versus Icing: What’s the Difference?


Hilary Mantel on How Writers Learn to Trust Themselves


How to Write a Great Recipe Headnote


No One Will Read Your Book (and Other Truths about Publishing)


Notes on Cravings


Old Fashioned Kitchen Sayings from Mexico: Dichos de Antaño de la Cocina Mexicana


Psychologists Explain Why Food Memories Can Feel So Powerful


Sandwich, A


Should We Genetically Edit the Food We Eat? We Asked Two Experts


Should You Publish Your Book with a Small Press? Two Literary Agents Advise


“Super Taster” Who Lost Sense of Smell Is Helping Italians Regain It


Why Do Fantasy Novels Have So Much Food?


Why Grocery Stores Get Jewish Holidays All Wrong


Wine and Cuisine: Craft or Art?



— other blogs —


Forking Around with History


Tower of David



— podcasts, etcetera —



Ancient Drink Serving the World for 13,000 Years, The


Deadly Secret of the Humble Grapefruit, The


Disgusting Food Museum


How to Photograph a Mushroom


Why Insects are the Missing Link in our Food System



— changed URL —


O Mosey Quince



— that’s all for now —


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


As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.


Occasionally, URLs we provide may take you to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them), or publications that have paywalls. We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.


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 for our own books:


The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)


The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)


The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)


Human Cuisine
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)


Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)


Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)


Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier

(Hardcover)
(Kindle)


Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)


How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating

(Paper)
(Kindle)


How to Write a Great Book

(Paper)
(Kindle)


The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Cenotaphs
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)


Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...


...for the moment, anyway.


______________


The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #252 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.


Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.

 

1 Comments:

Blogger Rida Hashmi said...

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October 21, 2021 at 5:44 AM  

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