"Dangerous Tastes offers a fresh perspective on these exotic substances and the roles they have played over the centuries. The author shows how each region became part of a worldwide network of trade - with local consequences ranging from disaster to triumph."--BOOK JACKET.
The champion of uncelebrated foods including fat, offal, and bones, Jennifer McLagan turns her attention to a fascinating, underappreciated, and trending topic: bitterness. What do coffee, IPA beer, dark chocolate, and radicchio all have in common? They’re bitter. While some culinary cultures, such as in Italy and parts of Asia, have an inherent appreciation for bitter flavors (think Campari and Chinese bitter melon), little attention has been given to bitterness in North America: we’re much more likely to reach for salty or sweet. However, with a surge in the popularity of craft beers; dark chocolate; coffee; greens like arugula, dandelion, radicchio, and frisée; high-quality olive oil; and cocktails made with Campari and absinthe—all foods and drinks with elements of bitterness—bitter is finally getting its due. In this deep and fascinating exploration of bitter through science, culture, history, and 100 deliciously idiosyncratic recipes—like Cardoon Beef Tagine, White Asparagus with Blood Orange Sauce, and Campari Granita—award-winning author Jennifer McLagan makes a case for this misunderstood flavor and explains how adding a touch of bitter to a dish creates an exciting taste dimension that will bring your cooking to life.
This resort has the recipe for disaster! Nancy’s thrilled that she, Bess, George, and Hannah will be attending the grand opening of the newly renovated Gourmet Getaway. Not only will they be able to eat four-star meals prepared by master chefs, they’ll get to take cooking classes with them, too. But before the table’s even set, problems start plaguing the resort, both in and out of the kitchen. Nancy can’t believe it’s just bad luck, but who’s causing all the problems? Nancy puts her cooking on the back burner so she can devote her attention to solving the mystery. Can she manage to find out who’s behind the trouble before more sabotage is served?
“Essential reading for anyone who has ever loved a Manhattan.” —Wine & Spirits Vermouth is hitting its stride—again. The cocktail resurgence has put a spotlight on an often-overlooked ingredient in some of the most iconic cocktails of our time: vermouth. It appeared in America in the 1860s, reigned supreme in drinks like the Manhattan and the Martini, then fell out of favor during the counterculture days of the 1960s. But with artisanal cocktails now the rage, interest in vermouth is at a peak. After all, without it, your martini is merely a chilled vodka or gin. More and more cocktail lovers are requesting more than a whisper of vermouth in their drinks. In fact, it’s touted as a low-alcohol alternative to sip on its own, or, if the ratio is tweaked, as tasty way to lighten up more traditionally strong drinks. Vermouth has a rich history, deeply intertwined with that of America, and, here, expert Adam Ford offers the first-ever detailed look into the background of this aromatized, fortified wine, as well as its rise, fall, and comeback in America. With bold and delicious cocktail recipes?there are twists on the classic Boulevardier, a once-forgotten Brooklyn Cocktail, and a refreshing White Negroni?and color photographs throughout, Vermouth is a must-have book for anyone interested in drinking, or learning about, great cocktails.
"John Varriano's book is not only a delightful read but draws fascinating parallels between two hitherto disparate fields: art history and the history of food in the Renaissance. Outstanding scholarship that opens whole new venues of inquiry."--Ken Albala, author of Eating Right in the Renaissance and Beans: A History "Art history and food history have traditionally been separate disciplines, parallel universes. In this book John Varriano makes a cosmic leap and lures the two into a stimulating, provocative, and always entertaining study--a tasting menu of gastronomic and visual delights."--Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food "With wit and erudition, John Varriano shows us how broad cultural relationships can be drawn between the developments of Italian Renaissance art and the period's growing and changing interest in food. Enlightening and fascinating details greatly enhance our understanding of the roles that taste and temptation played in creating the early modern world."--David G. Wilkins, co-editor of History of Italian Renaissance Art "Appetites for palate and palette are both whetted in Varriano's urbane and thoroughly magisterial study. What could be more satisfying than to feast on food and art together at the same historic table?"--Patrick Hunt, author of Renaissance Visions
The people of ancient India turned to their physicians (vaidyas) and wise seers to make their bodies, minds, and spirits happy with a system of diet, healing, and health maintenance called Ayurveda (knowledge of life), which is based on nature and its healing power. Food was analyzed based on taste, digestion, and “gastric fire” (agni), or the ability to digest and assimilate food. This time-tested system of healing is based on what, when, and how we eat and is documented in the Vedas (books of ancient knowledge). A Happy Body Is a Healthy Body reveals that most diseases can be traced to an improper diet. Fortunately, nature’s gift to us is food, herbs, and spices to promote healing – as long as we know how to use them. Drawing on three decades of research, Mahendri Arundale provides more than a plant-based cookbook of recipes and instructions, which would be valuable in itself. She also reveals priceless Vedic knowledge that has endured for thousands of years. The book also includes a self-assessment to help you discover your body’s energy type, so you take full advantage of rejuvenating recipes and find simple ways to relax when stressed.
During the 17th century, England saw foreign foods made increasingly available to consumers and featured in recipe books, medical manuals, treatises, travel narratives, and even in plays. Yet the public's fascination with these foods went beyond just eating them. Through exotic presentations in popular culture, they were able to mentally partake of products for which they may not have had access. This book examines the "body and mind" consumerism of the early British Empire.
Olives, bread, meat and wine: it is deceptively easy to evoke ancient Greece and Rome through a few items of food and drink. But how were their tastes different from ours? How did they understand the sense of taste itself, in relation to their own bodies and to other modes of sensory experience? This volume, the first of its kind to explore the ancient sense of taste, draws on the literature, philosophy, history and archaeology of Greco-Roman antiquity to provide answers to these central questions. By surveying and probing the literary and material remains from the Archaic period to late antiquity, contributors investigate the cultural and intellectual development towards attitudes and theories about taste. These specially commissioned chapters also open a window onto ancient thinking about perception and the body. Importantly, these authors go beyond exploring the functional significance of taste to uncover its value and meaning in the actions, thoughts and words of the Greeks and Romans. Taste and the Ancient Senses presents a full range of interpretative approaches to the gustatory sense, and provides an indispensable resource for students and scholars of classical antiquity and sensory studies.
At once familiar and exotic, spices are rare things, comforting us in favorite dishes while evoking far-flung countries, Arabian souks, colonial conquests and vast fortunes. John O'Connell introduces us to spices and their unique properties, both medical and magical, alongside the fascinating histories behind both kitchen staples and esoteric luxuries. A tasty compendium of spices and a fascinating history and wide array of uses of the world’s favorite flavors—The Book of Spice: From Anise to Zedoary reveals the amazing history of spices both familiar and esoteric. John O’Connell’s erudite chapters combine history with insights into art, religion, medicine, science, and is richly seasoned with anecdotes and recipes. Discover why Cleopatra bathed in saffron and mare’s milk, why wormwood-laced absinthe caused eighteenth century drinkers to hallucinate and how cloves harvested in remote Indonesian islands found their way into a kitchen in ancient Syria. Almost every kitchen contains a bottle of cloves or a stick of cinnamon, almost every dish a pinch of something, whether chili or cumin. The Book of Spice is culinary history at its most appetizing.
A history of the British Empire told through twenty meals eaten around the world In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through twenty meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world. In The Taste of Empire, Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain's global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.