Food Sites for October 2022
Friday, September 9, 2022
It’s a jungle out there.
This summer has brought drought to the Hudson Valley. Our city’s drought emergency has banned watering. Some parts of our gardens have died, but weeds and established plants have not merely weathered it—they’ve gone absolutely rogue. Watering the tomatoes and herbs with used dishwater has exhausted any charm it might once have had.
We longed for cooler and—hopefully—wetter days and nights. So, naturally, with the season beginning to change, we’ve just had continuous downpours: a summer’s worth of rain in one week.
By staying inside to escape the heat, we’ve posted several more Substack newsletters:
Not a Hugger is a Dr Sanscravat confessional piece, with snarky comments provided by an editor (who is one and the same).
There Are No Two Finer Words in the English Language Than “Encased Meats” tells the tale of how we came to write about sausages (false starts and a lot of years preceded Sausage: A Global History).
Not Fade Away is a kind of memento mori, with a side of hot sauce.
“WIP it, WIP it good...” reveals the opening bits of a story we’re still in the midst of writing.
What’s in a Name? deconstructs Texan naming patterns and, naturally, smothers it in more hot sauce.
Among the Missing segues from self-aggrandizement to another reading from Cenotaphs.
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.
Just thinking about drought makes us thirsty—and thinking about thirst suggests some choice words from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
All animals are strictly dry,
They sinless live and swiftly die.
But sinful, ginfull rum-soaked men
Survive three score years and ten.
And some of us—though mighty few—
Survive until we’re ninety-two. Anonymous
Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly... they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the water they loved to drink. This good man, Noah, having seen that all his contemporaries had perished by this unpleasant drink, took a dislike to it; and God, to relieve his dryness, created the vine and revealed to him the art of making le vin. By the aid of this liquid he unveiled more and more truth. Benjamin Franklin
Gary
October 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 virtual hat to Abe Opincar), 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 —
(described by the folks at Happy DIY Home)
A to Z Guide to Restaurant Lingo (100+ Restaurant Terms Explained)
(Saif Alnasur translates chef-speak into English at Eat)
Almost Everything You Know About Cheese Is Wrong
(Stan Horaczek sets the record straight in Popular Science)
Bananas That Aren’t the Cavendish
(according to Gastro Obscura’s editor, Alex Mayyasi, not all peels are mellow yellow)
Botany Lab of the Month—August Edition: Rocky Top Corn Soup
(soup as a hook for botanical info about corn itself)
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ghee
(Rituparna Roy, at Eater, on an ingredient that is much more than just clarified butter)
Everything You Need to Know About Session IPAs
(Hop Culture taps lower-alcohol IPA)
Everything You Need to Know About Trying Nepal’s Hallucinogenic “Mad Honey”
(Christine Sarikas’ Matador Network article about nectar of the gods... or, at least, rhododendrons)
(not spicy hot, popular hot; Ligaya Misham’s article, in The New York Times)
How to Drink Wine Like an Italian
(Marcella Newhouse explains at Wine Enthusiast)
Issue 67, ARK OF TASTE, Part 3: Dry Monterey Jack Cheese
(David S. Shields on the history and process of a unique California cheese)
(Robert Romagnoli’s illustrated histories of New York’s iconic foods—bagels, black-and-white cookies, egg creams and more)
Pizza Topping That Divides the World, A
(Stephen Dowling and Richard Gray, in BBC Future, share too much about pineapple-ham pizza—and related crimes against humanity; can you guess how I feel about the subject?)
Rethinking Our Relationship with Cumin
(Diana Kuan surveys the international appeal of Cuminum cyminum for Taste)
Sorry, Scoville. Peppers Deserve Better Than an Archaic Heat Scale.
(Tamar Haspel makes the case, in the Washington Post, for a more scientific way to measure a chile’s heat)
Supercharged Biotech Rice Yields 40% More Grain
(Erik Stokstad reports, in Science, on how duplicating one of the plant’s own genes increases its production of rice)
What’s Behind America’s Pickle Craze?
(Kenneth Symsack and Jeffrey Miller spear some answers, at Fast Company)
What’s the Difference Between Natural, Vegan, Organic, Biodynamic, and 00 Wine?
(Kate Kassin clears things up, at Bon Appetit)
What’s the Difference Between Shrimp and Prawns?
(Stacy Ballis’ answer at Food & Wine)
When Every Ketchup but One Went Extinct
(Sam Lin-Sommer’s Gastro Obscura article tells the story behid Heinz’s market dominance)
(Alex Mayyasi—at Gastro Obscura—wonders why no one is making great wine using grape varieties other than those originally from Europe)
Why Do (Some) Humans Love Chili Peppers?
(Gideon Lasco—a medical anthropologist—approaches the question globally at Sapiens)
Why There’s No “Dijon” in Dijon Mustard
(the BBC’s World Table rephrases and answers the old question, “have you any Grey Poupon?”)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
10 Best Food Commercials of the ‘90s, The
10 Fancy Foods Everyone Used to Think Were Gross
20 of the Most Beloved Types of Pizza from Across the US
23 Hot Dogs from Around the World That You Need to Try
Beer To Be Made from Yeast Swabbed from Roald Dahl’s Writing Chair
Chicago’s Beloved Italian Beef Sandwich Is Ready to Conquer America
How I Got My Job: Writing Children’s Books About Food
How to Get Published: A Book’s Journey From “Very Messy” Draft to Best Seller
“I Fail Almost Every Day”: An Interview with Samin Nosrat
In Praise of Single-Subject Cookbooks
Masculine Urge to Eat Raw Meat, The
Pirate Who Penned the First English-Language Guacamole Recipe, The
Pleasure to Burn, A: Why Do People Like Spicy Foods?
Recipe Convention that Dooms Home Cooks, The
Remembering Pop Icon Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022)
Rise and Fall of Pushcarts, The
Spice Routes: Claudia Roden’s Culinary Diaspora
Texas Barbecue Quest That Started It All
We Asked 10 Brewers: What’s the Weirdest Beer You’ve Ever Brewed?
Woke Food Lovers Have Lost Their Minds Over “Cultural Appropriation”
— podcasts, etcetera —
Billy Connolly Cooking on Parkinson 1982
Ep. 45: Chef Pati Jinich on Mexican Food
How We Figured Out Fermentation
Pleasure To Burn, A: Why Do People Like Spicy Foods?
Why Sour May Be the Oldest Taste
Writing About Food is a Thrill Like No Other
— 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 #264 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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