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

Benjamin Franklin’s choice for the national bird

If you have ever had any interest in preserving your current body shape, remember your Dante. “Abandon all hope, ye who enter” the gluttonous circle of hell that we like to call “La Grande Abbuffata.” After all, if we weren’t meant to be overweight, why would Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Eve be heaped onto our plates—each one more densely caloric than the last—just as the year gives up the ghost?

Changing the subject, abruptly: We discovered that one of our articles “Knocking Trout Off Its Perch,” is no longer available on Drexel University’s Table Matters website—so we posted it on our blog, Just Served. We changed the title to “Spring and the Nature of Eating” (which was the original title, anyway).

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.

And now to pluck a few seasonally-appropriate excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:

In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, he has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished. G. K. Chesterton

If the soup had been as warm as the wine; if the wine had been as old as the turkey; and if the turkey had had a breast like the maid, it would have been a swell dinner. Duncan Hines

The pilgrims were kicked out of England, quarreled with the Dutch, alienated the Indians, and had an evil reputation among the turkeys. Dave Beard

Don’t assume you’re always going to be understood. I wrote in a column that one should put a cup of liquid in the cavity of a turkey when roasting it. Someone wrote me that “the turkey tasted great, but the plastic cup melted.” Heloise

Gary
November, 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 Cynthia Bertelsen and Cara De Silva), 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 —

4 Cholesterol Myths It’s Officially Time to Stop Believing, According to Dietitians

(Karla Walsh sets the record straight, for allrecipes)

Automated Restaurants, Past and Present

(Annie Ewbank’s Gastro Observer article about food on the move)

Battle of the Bubbles, A: War Comes to the Prosecco Hills

(what’s in a name? Jason Horowitz writes, in The New York Times, about the ensuing battle between the producers of Italian prosecco and Croatian prosek)

Book of Bread, The

(PDF of Owen Simmons’ 1903 professional how-to-manual/photobook)

Can the Iconic Georgia Peach Keep Growing in a Warming South?

(Sarah Gibbens discusses the effects of climate change on the fuzzy fruit in National Geographic)

Cook in Spanish: Bi-lingual Gastronomic Vocabulary

(from “alfalfa” to “yellowtail”—“alfalfa” to “jurel;” a PDF)

Death of the Wine Critic Has Left a Hangover, The

(Jason Wilson’s lament/complaint, at Pix)

Ethiopia’s Wild Coffee Forests

(GastroObserver’s interview with Jeff Koehler, author of Where the Coffee Grows Wild)

Food Culture and Literary Imagination in Early Modern Italy. The Renaissance of Taste

(Allen J Grieco announces Laura Giannetti’s first volume in the series Food Culture, Food History before 1900 for the Amsterdam University Press; the book is here)

Guide to Thai Curries, A

(Pailin Chongchitnant’s article at Serious Eats; with definitions, recipes, and links to more recipes)

History of Börek, A

(Alexander Lee’s account of ubiquitous stuffed pastries dating back to the Ottomans and beyond; article at History Today)

How to Read a Wine Label, in 12 Easy Lessons

(Eric Asimov’s answer in The New York Times)

Massive Kitchens, Unique Tastes: India’s Ancient Temple Cuisine Sits in a Class of Its Own

(Rakesh Kumar’s report for CNN Travel)

Saint Hyacinth of Pierogi

(Karol Palion’s blog, Forking Around with History, takes on the questionable connection between saint and Polish stuffed dumplings)

Transpacific Trade Route & Its Influence on Mexican Cuisine, The

(Candelaria Donají Méndez Tello and Blanca Estela Leyva Gutiérrez on “the exchange of plants, seeds, spices and people,”—a different story than the well-known Columbian Exchange—for imagine-mexico.com)

Types of Plums: Black, Red, and More Varieties (with Pictures)–Including Plumcots, Apriums, and Pluots

(lots of details, from Leafy Place)

West African Influence on Mexican Rice Cultivation and Gastronomy

(excerpt from Marco Polo Hendández Cuevas’ book, The Afro-Mexican Ancestors and the Nation They Constructed)

When Life Gives You Lemons, It’s a Status Symbol: On the Evolving Literary and Cultural History of Citrus

(Jean Huang jumps from Little Women to the literary, historic, and archaeological evidence—for Literary Hub)

Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

(photographer Bertrand Celce visited a vast number of French vineyards and interviewed their winemakers)

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

7 of the Oldest Recipes in History

Apparently, Some People Can’t Be Bothered With Food

Claudia Roden: “What Do I Want from Life Now? Having People Around My Table”

Cookery Books: Britain’s Gift to America

Digitized “What’s the Recipe for a Queer Cookbook” Exhibit

Drexel Food Lab’s Deutsch Shares Future of Foodtech

Food Wars, The

Generate Free Barcodes Online

Gundruk, The

Inside the Company Printing America’s Community Cookbooks

ISSUE 36, PICNIC, Part 1: The Heart of the Picnic

Just 10 Companies Control Most of the World’s Food & Beverages

Spoof of a Saveur Story Might Go Like This..., A

Tea or Coffee?

Ten Things Nobody Tells You About the Publishing Industry

We Share More than Food at the Table, Says Culinary Historian Jessica Harris

Who Called the Carbonara Police?

Wine, Food, and Nostalgia

— another blog —

Chandri’s Kitchen

— podcasts, etcetera —

Calendar of Virtual Food History Talks, Cook-Alongs, Demos

EatsDrinksTV

Kitchen Whisperers with Dorothy Kalins

M.F.K. Fisher: Poet of the Appetites | The New School

Tequila, the OG Mexican Spirit

Truth About Food, The

West Africa in Mexican Rice Cultivation and Gastronomy

— changed URL —

Sporkful, The

— 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 #253 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.