Food Sites for August 2023
Monday, July 17, 2023
Crabapples, harbingers of the fruit bonanza to come.
“Hot, Hot, Hot”—it’s not just the title of one of our books (or a song played entirely too often at weddings); it’s what life is like these days. We might be tempted to call this period “our salad days”—but that phrase refers to something else altogether (and those salad days are so long gone that we can barely remember them).
Our memories, sad to say, are not forever.
Still, as I remarked to one of my correspondents, recently: “I spend a lot of thinking, and reading, and sometimes even writing, about memory.” Because, as writers, what tool is handier, and more often useful, than memory? The fact that the factuality of our memories is of questionable value in no way diminishes their story-telling utility. Mutability is the seasoning that gives re-telling its umami.
But I digress.
We’re back to real life (whatever that is)—which is to say we’re back to posting Substack pages:
“Call me Al...” wonders about an Arabic oversight;
“Something for Nothing...” introduces Unbelievable, with a kind of sales pitch;
“A Garlic-scented Memory” recalls escargot perdu;
“It Made Me an Offer I Couldn’t Resist” is just another short story;
“What is a Simile?” is, naturally, not what the post is about;
“What a Pity” offers tales of culinary disappointment.
and
“Passing Like Sheeps in the Night” ponders the proclivities of particular Pastoral poets.
Penwipe Publishing has released another of our books (The Long & Short of It: A Miscellany). It’s a collection of short stories and poems that—for some reason—have never appeared in print. In the interest of fair disclosure, a few pieces have appeared in pixels.
(feel free to make snide remarks that include the adjective “pixelated”)
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 online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner and other Substack pages. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, that’s mostly about our food writing.
August is when the garden kicks into second gear, so a few quotes about dealing with vegetal largesse (two on zucchini, alone, from ”Attack of the Squash People”) from On the Table’s culinary quote collection.
They’re coming, they’re on us, the long striped gourds, the silky babies, the hairy adolescents, the lumpy vast adults like the trunks of green elephants. Marge Piercy
You give and give too much, like summer days limp with heat, thunderstorms bursting their bags on our heads, as we salt and freeze and pickle for the too little to come. Marge Piercy
Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the essence of the fleeting moment. Elizabeth David
Gary
August 2023
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 Krishnendu Ray), 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 —
(Tedium’s history of the modern beer can)
Field Notes: On Native Grounds
(Elizabeth Pochoda’s article on Native American foods in The Magazine Antiques)
(Annie Ewbank’s Gastro Obscura article about edible flowers)
(Diana Hubble interviews Simon Spalding—author of Food at Sea: Shipboard Cuisine from Ancient to Modern Times—about the history of eating at sea, for GastroObscura)
Getting to the Heart of Mexico, One Chile at a Time
(Belkis Wille toured the country for The New York Times)
History in a Jar: The Story of Pickles
(Tori Avey’s account in The History Kitchen)
How Do Certain Foods Become National Dishes?
(Irina Dumitrescu’s review of National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home in The New York Times)
(Ian Seavey’s “Brief History of American Empire in One Cocktail” at The American Historical Association’s Perspectives Daily)
In Salts, a Pinch of Bali or a Dash of Spain
(Harold McGee’s “Curious Cook” column in The New York Times)
Quest to Save Chili Peppers, The
(Clarissa Wei’s New Yorker article about a Taiwanese seedbank)
Science of Spices, The: How Your Food Gets Its Flavor
(excerpt from Lessons from Plants, by Beronda L. Montgomery in The Conversation)
What Happened to Peanut Butter and Jelly?
(Ashawnta Jackson’s history of the iconic sandwich, at JSTOR Daily)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
9 Fascinating Foods with Royal Roots
130-Year-Old Menus Show How Climate Change Is Already Changing What We Eat
Amazon’s Problem with AI Copycat Cookbooks
Back Forty: They Only Want You to Believe It’s Food
Collection of Vintage Kitchen Gadgets Many People Would Not Know How to Use Nowadays, A
Dated but Not Forgotten, These Old Food Trends Deserve a Revival
Foundation for Food Politics, A
How a Solitary Monk, Known for His Soup, United a Community
How Basque Food Got to Northern Nevada
How the Bloody Mary Garnish Lost Its Mind
How to Actually Find Good Recipes Online
How to Be Alone (Actually Alone)
How to Make a Podcast (and Earn Money)
Inconvenient Truths about Food
Inside NASA’s Contest to Develop the Space Food of the Future
On U.S. Cuisine: All-American Food is Corporate Food.
Sustainable Food Systems: What, Why, & How?
Instant Pot and the Miracle Kitchen Devices of Yesteryear, The
The Washington Post’s Joe Yonan Welcomes Story Pitches, with Caveats
Three Sisters and 120 Sweet Potatoes: Mexican Farmers Embrace Maya Traditions
We’ve Officially Entered a New Era of “Cultivated” Meat Production
Whose Fault Is Obesity? Most of the Blame Rests with One Culprit.
Why Does Day Drinking Feel Different?
Wine Science Makes Some Peculiar Inferences
— podcasts, etcetera —
5 Iconic Hot Dog Toppings from Across the USA
Around the Table Podcast: Historical Recipes in the Digital Age with Elaine Harrington
Farm Mechanization in Harvesting and Grading
How Fine Dining in Europe and the US Came to Exclude Immigrant Cuisine
Modern Agriculture Harvesting Machines
Remembering Cara De Silva a Zoom Presentation
This Hot Dog Video Went Viral on Tik Tok
This Is Not a Joke: Chinese People Are Eating—and Poking Fun at—#whitepeoplefood
What Is Bourbon? Where Did It Come From?
— 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 are providing 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)
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)
The Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Unbelievable: A Modern Novella
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Hot Hot Hot/Risky Business
(Paper)
(Kindle)
The Long & Short of It: A Miscellany
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #274 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 ©2023 by Gary Allen.
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