Food Sites for July 2022
Friday, June 10, 2022
Not yet grapes, let alone wine...
Folks’ gardens are just beginning to yield seasonal delights‑but they contain the promise of so much more, in another month or so.
Speaking of promises—that lead to larger than expected returns—we just realized that this issue marks the twenty-second year of publishing them. Someone recently posted that “Gary Allen has been writing about food for more years than most readers have been alive.” It was just a tad hyperbolic, but one wonders what else we could have been doing during those decades.
Probably better not to linger too long on that thought.
Maybe we should go shopping for some 22-year-old wine—or bourbon—to mark the anniversary.
Anyway—in the past monthe we’ve continued posting to our Substack newsletter. “I'll Take Schadenfreude for Five Hundred, Alex” features a story from Prophet Amidst Losses. The scene opens in a restaurant, but slides (quite literally, I’m afraid) precipitously downhill from there. “Call Any Vegetable...” leads to samples from Terms of Vegery; it’s about food only in the most frivolous fashion imaginable. “Once Upon a Time…” is another Substack post; it’s an excerpt from Backstories (which is not, at all, about food). A free subscription will automatically deliver these things to your virtual mailbox—in a virtual plain-brown wrapper—and no one will be the wiser (including you).
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.
A few summery comments from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the fleeting moment. Elizabeth David
A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing but vegetables. Gertrude Stein
Although the frankfurter originated in Frankfurt, Germany, we have long since made it our own, a twin pillar of democracy along with Mom’s apple pie. In fact, now that Mom’s apple pie comes frozen and baked by somebody who isn’t Mom, the hot dog stands alone. What it symbolizes remains pure, even if what it contains does not. William Zinsser
Gary
July 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 Jonell Galloway), 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 —
70 Percent of the World’s Macadamia Nuts Came from One Tree in Australia
(Sabrina Imbler followed the genetic trail to Hawaii for Gastro Obscura)
Before Chickens Were Nuggets, They Were Revered
(Nick Erickson’s New York Times article on recent work by bioarchaeologists and evolutionary biologists)
Black Creole Chef Who Paved the Way for Food TV, The
(Kayla Stewart’s account, in The Bittman Project, about the influential, but barely remembered, Lena Richard)
Building Blocks: Tortillas, a Culture’s DNA
(María Ítaka’s homage at Culinary Backstreets)
Cheese Mountains, Milk Lakes, and Other Surprising Stockpiles
(Gastro Obscura’s Diana Hubbell examines the economics and absurdities of governmental warehousing of surplus foodstuffs)
Diplomats and the Rise of “Foodism” in the 1960s and 1970s
(Rachel Laudan’s musings about why so many of the most influential food writers came from a career that had nothing to do with food)
(Roger Angell’s New Yorker paeon—a long leg and a triangle—to the most classic of cocktails)
Food Pairings: An Investigation into Why Foods Pair Well Together
(a 2013 master’s thesis by Mark Gaffney)
From Tiger Paws to White Claws: The 40-Year History of Flavored Seltzer Water
(VinePair’s Tim McKirdy on flavored fizzy water that isn’t an egg cream)
(Clifford Wright’s account of traditional ricotta made from whey)
How America Embraced Aspics with Threatening Auras
(Diana Hubbel’s Gastro Obscura article on the past and future of “perfection salads,” the complicated gelatin dishes that frighten, amuse, and attract us strangely)
Israelite Pottery and Household Life
(Jennifer Drummond’s article, in Bible History Daily, on food storage methods in ancient Israel)
Long History of Fragrant Food in India, from Massaging Hens with Musk to Cooking in Leaves, The
(Priyadarshini Chatterjee’s article, in Scroll.in, on a thousand years of perfumed cookery)
(Todd Coleman’s Saveur article about the real-life Duncan Hines)
(an article, on Dwight Furrow’s Edible Arts, on theories about how grape wine was first discovered)
New Insights on Ancient Spice Trade
(archaeological evidence of bi-directional trade in the Middle East; reporting on research published in Antiquity: ”Caravanserai Middens On Desert Roads: A New Perspective on the Nabataean-Roman Trade Network Across the Negev”)
Periodic Graphics: Baking Soda Versus Baking Powder
(Andy Brunning on leavening agents—other than yeast or other microbes—in Chemical & Engineering News)
Plants and People: Choices and Diversity through Time
(PDF of 2014 monograph by Alexandre Chevalier, Elena Marinova,and Leonor Peña-Chocarro)
Prove Me Wrong: The Margarita Is the Madonna of Cocktails
(VINEPAIR’s Katie Brown pours a social history of the popular tequila drink)
Quest to Recreate a Lost and ‘Terrifying’ Medieval Mead, The
(Gemma Tarlach’s experiments with making mead with caramelized honey; recipe and explanation in Gastro Obscura)
(an adventure in experimental archaeology, in The Conversation)
Sweet and Sour History of NYC’s Pickle Alley, The
(Nicole Saraniero whets our appetite for a talk on the subject, at Untapped Cities)
(2013 article in the Journal of Archaeological Science, by Dagmar Dreslerova, et. al.)
(Katheryn C Twiss’s 2007 paper in The Archaeology of Food and Identity; PDF)
What Is American Cheese, Anyway?
(J. Kenji López-Alt Krafts an answer at Serious Eats)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
5 Tips for Keyword Research for Food Bloggers
Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories
As Police Use “Foodie” to Recruit, What Does the Word Mean?
Behind the Design: LEON: Ingredients & Recipes
Climate Change Is Now on the Menu at Seafood Restaurants
Cube Rule of Food Identification, The
El Rey Zapoteco: The Matron of Mezcal
Greatest Food Hoaxes of All Time, The
Here’s How Day Drinking Affects Your Body Differently, According to Experts
How a 50s Food Writer Championed Kerala’s Cuisine, One Column at a Time
José Andrés: The Power of Food
Numbers Driving New Cookbook Deals, The
Riveting Memoir of Life as a Chef with an Eating Disorder, A
Should You Start a Newsletter? David Lebovitz Weighs In
(subscription required)
When My Husband Left Me, I Headed for the Kitchen–Here’s How Comfort Food Can Save the Soul
Why Is Every Cookbook a Memoir Now?
World War Wednesday: We Eat Because We Work
— more blogs —
Great Food, Big Love, and Miss Emily Meggett
— podcasts, etcetera —
Andrew Zimmern’s Wild Game Kitchen
Chine: Dans le Restaurant du Futur, des Robots Cuisinent et Servent les Clients
Dear Writer: Advice on Writing Through Isolation
Meat & Three: A Culinary Book Club
Something Fishy: Garum, Liquamen and Muria—What’s in a Name?
Why Only 1% of Japan’s Soy Sauce Is Made This Way
— 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
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
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)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #261 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.
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