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

…the seasonal zucchini glut hasn’t happened yet.

September is the beginning of serious harvesting… we’ve had the early lettuces and radishes, tomatoes and basil, and are bracing ourselves for the inevitable avalanche of giant cucurbits. “Après les courgettes,” as Louis  XV famously never said, “…les citrouilles.”

Since the last issue of these updates, we’ve been very busy (moving and adding a library to our new home)… but we’ve managed to post two more pages via Substack in our spare time:

“Loosing Literary Threads…” an early-American coincidence; and

“Kindred Spirits…” on literary and geographic coincidences.

You can, should you choose to, 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 includes food writing and anything else we manage to get into print. 

A few pre-pumpkin items from On the Table’s quote collection:

High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash. Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us? Annita Manning

 

The first zucchini I ever saw, I killed it with a hoe. John Gould

 

Gary
September 2026

PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or if you 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 Ruth Reichl)—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 make sure that your in-box will never be afflicted by these updates again.

— the new sites —

Before the Chilli Came: What Were We Actually Eating?

(the use of hot spices in pre-Columbian-Exchange Indian cooking)

Europe’s Regional Beer Styles, Mapped

(Stephen Bradley’s account of eight countries’ brews, at VinePair

Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries, The

(Ben Richmond’s Gastro Obscura article about Yaupon tea)

How Can White Wine Be Made from Red Grapes?

(Marshall Tilden III’s explanation in Wine Enthusiast)

Origins of the Package Store, The

(a liquor store, by any other name—according to Robert Moss’s Substack post)

Viva la Vida, Watermelons

(interpreting Frieda Kahlo’s last painting)

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

8 Foods People in the Odyssey Might Have Actually Eaten

Andouillette Does Not Travel, The

Architecture of Storytelling, The

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Courage to Be Yourself, The: Virginia Woolf on How to Hear Your Soul

Cultural Appropriation and Food: Where Is the Line?

Extreme Heat Comes for the Red Chile Capital of Pakistan

Food Heritage and Nationalism in Europe

How Georgia’s Winemakers Went Underground to Survive Soviet Occupation

Interview: Phoebe Tran on Bánh and Building the World of Bé Bếp

It’s Time to Give Up on the Nonstick Pan as We Know It

Most Iconic Seafood Shack in Every State, The

Muses? Memory? Muddling? Mystery? What 55 Authors Shared About the Writing Process

Navigating Food Trends as a Cookbook Author

Only Restaurant Employees Should be Writing about Food

Rise of Tablescaping Influencers, The

Rise of the $100 Hot Dog, The

Sales Are So Low, California Wineries Are Burning Their Vineyards

Test Your Tomato I.Q.

The Own and the Foreign. Traces of Local, Regional and National Cuisines in Medieval and Early Modern Recipes

The United States of Barbecue: A Regional Guide

This Classic Cookbook Chefs Swear By Is 50 Years Old

Very Useful Guide to Chinese Restaurants, A

Why the Best Writing Advice Is Often the Weirdest

Will AI Replace Wine Criticism?

Wine and Psychological Health

— podcasts, et cetera —

Confident Fiction Author, The

Everything You Know about Food Is Wrong

My First Culinary Job as a College Graduate

What Archaeology Reveals About Fast Food in the Roman Empire

Why 180°C is the Ultimate Baking Sweet Spot?

— 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)
(this newsletter updates the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is probably 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)

The Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Tabula Rasa, Baby: (Not Written in Stone)
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Unbelievable: A Modern Novella (the Extended Edition)
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Noirvella: The Extended Edition
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Inedible
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Hot Hot Hot/Risky Business
(Paper)
(Kindle)

The Long & Short of It: A Miscellany
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Beer Taste & Other Disorders
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Galloping Gourmand: A Culinary Collection
(Paper)
(Kindle)

Inedible: Cruel & Unusual Foods That Moms Used to Make and Inflicted on Young & Innocent Palates

(Paper)
(Kindle)

Substack Lightnin’: Volume One, The First Year

(Paper)
(Kindle)

Substack Lightnin’: Volume Two, Second Year

(Paper)
(Kindle)

Substack Lightnin’: Volume Three, Third Year

(Paper)
(Kindle)

Substack Lightnin’: Volume Four, Fourth Year

(Paper)
(Kindle)

Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...

...for the moment, anyway.

______________

The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #311 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.

As the author of this page—being a real living person—I have not used AI for any purpose (beyond routine spellcheck). Nor do I permit the use of any of its content for training of AI systems, or in the generation of AI content.

Copyright ©2026 by Gary Allen.