Harold McGee – Page 2 – Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones

November 15, 2015

My Tongue As A Sandwich With A Glass of Burgundy

Miley Cyrus has a famous tongue. So do Mick Jagger and Albert Einstein. Merriam-Webster defines a tongue as a tapering flame, long narrow strip of land projecting into a body of water, a moveable pin in a buckle. François Rabelais has Pantagruel cover an army with his tongue to protect them from a rain storm. … Continue reading My Tongue As A Sandwich With A Glass of Burgundy

January 4, 2015

An Anatomical Theater With Chopped Chicken Liver On Toast (Part 2 Of A Meal)

I’m teaching a class this Spring semester called The Anatomical Theater. On Tuesdays we’ll discuss Western Art, the Classical Age, and the finer points of beauty and ugliness (thank you Bottichelli and Metsys); then, on Thursdays we’ll view the human body cut open, organs removed and replaced, invisible stitches making all whole again. Once and … Continue reading An Anatomical Theater With Chopped Chicken Liver On Toast (Part 2 Of A Meal)

December 27, 2014January 4, 2015

Thoughts of Gallows, Ossuaries, Bourdain, Zombies and Cézanne As I Once Again Prepare Roasted Bone Marrow (Part One Of A Meal)

To further my French studies, Natalie Holstein-Charron has lent me Alistair Horne’s Seven Ages of Paris. I truly admire the tenacity the Parisians display in executing each other from the time of Philippe Auguste in the twelfth century to the notorious Cardinal Richelieu in the sixteenth. And I haven’t yet reached the Revolution! Here is … Continue reading Thoughts of Gallows, Ossuaries, Bourdain, Zombies and Cézanne As I Once Again Prepare Roasted Bone Marrow (Part One Of A Meal)

September 18, 2014

Protein Of The Soul

Francisco Goya’s still-life, A Butcher’s Counter. A sheep’s head and sides of mutton. Painted between 1810 and 1812. Painted during the ano del hambre in Madrid when thousands starved to death. This was the time of Napoleon’s invasion, time of Desastres de la Guerra. In our featured painting, protein is the key molecule, movement. In … Continue reading Protein Of The Soul

September 15, 2014

Bowls Of Sugar And Cocaine, While Reciting The Song Of Songs With Odysseus, Penelope And Neil deGrasse Tyson In Bed.

Growing up in the 70’s in middle America, breakfast cereal provided me with a philosophy of pleasure. Of course the sugar, but also the sweet beauty of packaging captivated me and schooled my budding aesthetic sense on not what’s in the box, but on the bright colors, solid lettering, and promotional pitches. A “Glow in … Continue reading Bowls Of Sugar And Cocaine, While Reciting The Song Of Songs With Odysseus, Penelope And Neil deGrasse Tyson In Bed.

September 13, 2014September 13, 2014

Fats, Gods, and Fire

I consider Harold McGee a Moses of Food, that is, he’s come down from the mountain with tablets announcing what cooking is really about, and what natural laws we should follow. Concerning the Holy Tablet of Fats, here are his words from On Food and Cooking, Fats and oils are members of a large chemical … Continue reading Fats, Gods, and Fire

September 9, 2014

Water, Water, Every Where, And Always A Drop To Cook

The final chapter of Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, in Moses-like fashion, declaims the basis of all cooking: “The Four Basic Food Molecules.” Water, fats and oils, carbohydrates and proteins. H2O, of course, makes up not only most of what we eat, but our own bodies as well. As McGee states, Leaving aside the … Continue reading Water, Water, Every Where, And Always A Drop To Cook

August 29, 2014

Why A Food Blog? Roux And A Symposium . . . Or How I Dance, Talk, And Brown Butter At The Same Time.

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.

July 12, 2014

Gastronomic Dreams: From Brillat-Savarin to Jorge Luis Borges With A Number Of Stops Along The Way.

A dog barks, the Lute Suites of Sylvius Leopold Weiss drift through an open window, and I pour a Stone Brewery Russian Imperial Stout and light an Alec Bradley American Sun Grown cigar. I’m sitting on my back patio in the evening, contemplating the life of the gastronome. Actually, this could also be the opening … Continue reading Gastronomic Dreams: From Brillat-Savarin to Jorge Luis Borges With A Number Of Stops Along The Way.

July 5, 2014

“Dad, It Tastes Like Blood!” Alchemy And Briny, Smokey Crustaceans And Suids. Oh My!

The Hermetic science par excellence is alchemy; the famous Emerald Table, the bible of the alchemists, is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and gives in a mysteriously compact form the philosophy of the All and the One. That which is above is like that which is below . . . . And as all things have … Continue reading “Dad, It Tastes Like Blood!” Alchemy And Briny, Smokey Crustaceans And Suids. Oh My!