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

  

Drying morels wantonly ejecting their spores all over our table.

 

May is, indeed a lusty, x-rated kind of month. Shameless birds sing their version of the NY Review of Books personal ads, hours before dawn, and flowers spew their pollen everywhere, with nary a blush. Even mushrooms want to get into the “spreading-the-seed” act.

 

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. 

 

We’ve also started a new way to distribute our other writing: a Substack newsletter. The first post is entitled “Not Everything is about Food History.” A free subscription delivers titillating samples of our non-food-history scribbles to your virtual mailbox (there are two more posts, already)—in the proverbial plain brown wrapper—so no one need know about your furtive reading habits. Like Tom Lehrer’s old dope peddler, we “know full well that today’s young innocent faces will be tomorrow’s clientele.” 

Did you enjoy being described as a “young innocent face”? 

 

You’re welcome.

 

Some perspective, and advice, from On the Table’s culinary quote collection: 

 

I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them. Oscar Wilde

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart. Erma Bombeck

Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring. Honoré de Balzac

Food writing shouldn’t be precious, pretentious, or condescending. Just because you know what confit means doesn’t make you a better person. Adam Roberts

Gary
May, 2022

 

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 Bob DelGrosso), 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 —

All the Tea (Not) in China: The Story of How India Became a Tea-Drinking Nation
(Alex Downs’ article in Serious Eats)

 

Biblical Kings Drank Vanilla-Flavored Wine

(Nathan Steinmeyer, in Bible History Daily, on archaeological evidence of nearly three-thousend-year-old spice trade)

 

Hidden History of the Nutmeg Island That Was Traded for Manhattan, The

(Mark Hay’s Gastro Obscura article on spice trade and world politics—and how New Amsterdam became New York)

 

How Booze Is Used in the Making of Cheese

(Pamela Vachon’s article on washing and marinating cheeses with wine, beer, or spirits to develop new flavors)

 

It’s More Than Tacos: Inside LA’s First Mexican Food Museum

(Eva Recinos visits LA Plaza Cocina for The Guardian)

 

Malt Beverage

(technical article from Food and Agricultural History)

 

Olive Oil Times

(international news and articles about, and recipes for, olive oil)

 

Rome’s New Museum Dedicated to Cooking

(the BBC’s Ronan O’Connell tours the Museo della Cucina)

 

Unsung Women of the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens, The

(Anne Ewbank’s Gastro Obscura article, based on Susan Marks’ book, Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America’s First Lady of Food)

 

 

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

 

10 Tips For Writers From Douglas Adams

 

12 Most Unforgettable Descriptions of Food in Literature, The

 

Are We Entering the Post-Natural Wine Era?

 

Boeuf Neanderthal!

 

Cooking with Dorothy Sayers

 

Curse of an Irish Cook, The

 

De-Bunking the Industry Bias Behind Plant-Based Meat

 

Eat Like a Medieval Saint With Her Recipe for “Cookies of Joy”

 

Haven’t We Told Julia Child’s Story Enough?

 

How to Write Award-Winning Cookbooks

 

Is Wine Tasting Nonsense?

 

Joy of Cooking Blasphemous Fusion Food, The

 

Mixologist Has Nine Lives, The

 

This Story Stinks

 

What Humanity Should Eat to Stay Healthy and Save the Planet

 

 

— podcasts, etcetera —

 

Stirring the Pot

 

Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast with Natalie MacLean, The

 

Women and Alcohol: History, Myths, and Trailblazers

 

 

— 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 #259 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 ©2022 by Gary Allen.