Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones
Join us as we celebrate food, the dinner table, and quite likely empires, cannibals and magic fish bones!
The year begins with champagne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party (circa 1880-81) and new dietary guidelines. Well, something like that. Marion Nestle at Food Politics offers a review of the impregnable document: The 2015 Dietary Guidelines, At Long Last, while Mother Jones points out that climate goes missing in the document: There’s A Huge … Continue reading A Week Thinking About What We Eat
Oh, Louis Léopold Boilly, you’ve captured the rapture of a gourmand! My turkey still swims in its brine and the duck thaws on the black granite counter, but what about the stuffing and side dishes? First off, thank you Bon Appétit for your Cornbread, Chorizo, Cherry and Pecan Stuffing recipe, which I’m adjusting to Cornbread, Chorizo, … Continue reading Vegetables, Wine, Whiskey, Hell and Smoke Alarms
The Thanksgiving Turkey has arrived! Last night Greenling delivered a Bourbon Red Heritage, Free Range Turkey from Richardson Farms. Now, that’s a turkey! Bearing reddish plumage and first bred in Bourbon County, Kentucky the Bourbon Red sat on many a Thanksgiving table from the last decades of the nineteenth century all the way to World … Continue reading There Will Be Thanksgiving!
Above, the Fury of Achilles as painted by Coypel Charles-Antoine in 1737 captures the divine-infused killing spree the Greek hero embarks upon after his friend Patroclus is killed by Apollo, Euphorbus, and Hector. Quite appropriate for this post as Gabriela and I spent the week helping to create a midterm for three-hundred and fifteen Honors … Continue reading A Midterm, Two Ribeyes and Skeletor
Greenling has delivered okra! Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking tells us that “Okra comes from the annual plant Hibiscus (Abelmoschus) esculentus, a member of the hibiscus family and a relative of roselle and cotton. It originated in either southwest Asia or eastern Africa, and came to the southern United States with the slave … Continue reading Why A Food Blog? Roux And A Symposium . . . Or How I Dance, Talk, And Brown Butter At The Same Time.
What’s in a cooking pot? Here’s Rachel Laudan in Cuisines and Empires on the subject: The cooking pot, in which diverse elements were brought into harmony, symbolized culture and state. When the Greeks founded a new colony, they carried a cauldron and a spark of fire from the mother city. Confucians argued that the king … Continue reading Aaron Needs A Goat–I Have A Stew To Cook, Sins To Confess, And Côtes du Rhône To Drink. Let’s Here It For Family Bovidae!!
I’m reading a Chili’s Too menu at Bush Intercontinental Airport as the Bosnia/Nigeria World Cup game buzzes overhead and travelers from the states and the rest of the known world whisk in for a few sips of sacred water and then dash back out for their gates. I’m flying Spirit Airlines tonight which means I … Continue reading Traveling Through Food Wastelands, Blended Scotch, Uncle Tupelo, And Onto Good Soil.
