Cultural studies: food and society Books

Book SynopsisAn account of the controversies surrounding the fast-food industry, which has become the most significant culinary trend of our time.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor such a small fish, the herring has played an enormous role in history. Since the Middle Ages battles have been waged for it; international economic alliances have formed over it; a number of major cities owe their initial prosperities and structural foundations to it. Unquestionably, political powers have risen and fallen with the herring's own rise and fall in population. In Herring: A Global History Kathy Hunt looks at the environmental, historical, political and culinary background of this highly prolific, delicious and easily caught fish. It will appeal to food lovers, history buffs and anyone who has ever eaten British kippers, German Bismarcks, Dutch matjes or Jewish chopped herring.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe small but mighty shrimp, or prawn, has lured diners to the table for centuries. These primordial-looking creatures spend their short lives out of sight, deep on the ocean floor, yet they have inspired an immense passion among many cultures. They are also at the centre of some of our most pressing environmental and human rights concerns. In this lively and entertaining book, Yvette Florio Lane embarks on a culinary and historical tour of the production and consumption of the beloved crustacean from earliest times to the present day, incorporating fascinating lore, unusual recipes and compelling images. Essential reading for foodies and food historians, Shrimp demonstrates that the enormous desire for this favourite shellfish has always come with a high price tag.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBerries are enmeshed with human history. Widely available in nature, they have been part of the human diet for millennia, and today they inspire everything from lip-gloss flavours to amusement parks. However diminutive their size, berries are of such significance to Northern and Eastern Europeans that picking them in the wild is `everyman’s right’, interwoven with their cultural identity, but some berries can be deadly. In Berries: A Global History, Heather Arndt Anderson relates the story of how humans came to love these tiny, bewildering fruits. Readers meet the inventor of thornless brambles, learn ancient fables and berry-lore, and discover berries’ use in poisonous witches’ brews and modern superfood health crazes. Featuring a selection of historic and original recipes for berry-lovers to try, this is a witty and lushly illustrated ramble through the curious history of our favourite fruits, which will appeal to food lovers and social historians alike.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhether it's a homemade strawberry shortcake in summer or a chef's complex medley of sweets, dessert is the perfect ending to a meal. Most of us, even those who seldom indulge, have a favourite dessert. After all, sweet is one of the basic flavours and we seem to be hard-wired to like it. Yet while everyone has a taste for sweetness, not every culture enjoys a dessert course at the end of the meal. And desserts as we know them - the light sponge cakes, the ice creams, the steamed plum puddings - are neither as old nor as ubiquitous as many of us believe. Jeri Quinzio traces the history of desserts and the way they, and the course itself, have evolved over time. The story begins before dessert was a separate course - when sweets and savouries were mixed on the table - and concludes in the present, when homely desserts are enjoying a revival, and as molecular gastronomists are creating desserts an alchemist would envy. An indulgent read, for all those with a curious mind and a sweet tooth.Trade Review`Dessert is a perfectly delightful romp through the history of puddings and cakes and custards, everything from syllabubs to strawberry ice cream. Bring a big spoon.' - Ken Albala, food historian and Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California

Read more less

Book SynopsisGin is a drink deeply rooted in British culture. From ‘Dutch Courage’ to ‘Gin Soaked’, our language is full of expressions which reflect our gin drinking heritage. In the early eighteenth century, Britain was gripped by the Gin Craze, when the drink was dubbed ‘mothers ruin’, before becoming more respectable as advances in distilling led to a drink of higher quality and improved flavour. This led to the construction of lavish 'gin palaces' in the Victorian and Edwardian era. In recent years a twenty-first century renaissance in gin drinking and craft gin production has led to the drink once again rising high in the national consciousness. Uncovering the mysteries of gin manufacture and production, as well as its fascinating history, this book is a complete guide to Britain’s tipple of choice.Trade ReviewThis book is crammed full of fascinating information about gin... and reveals your favourite spirit to be a drink with more of a colourful and exciting past than you could ever imagine. * The Scottish Gin Society *A great introduction to gin and its past. [...] Moses Jenkins reaches out to the reader [...] with a clarity that makes the book approachable and interesting in equal measure. * Gin Magazine *Table of ContentsIntroduction Gin Production Early History of Gin Mother’s Ruin: The Eighteenth Century Rising Quality: The Nineteenth Century Rise, Fall and Rise Again: Gin in Modern Times Further Reading Places to Visit Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHave you ever wondered what Queen Victoria ate for breakfast? Or pondered over George V's preferences for pudding? Straight from the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, this fascinating collection offers an extraordinary insight into royal gastronomy, featuring exclusive photographs, recipes, anecdotes and menus that span three generations of royal dining.This compilation offers a unique glimpse into the intimate affair of afternoon tea in the Royal Household, as well as the more formal proceedings of a state supper, alongside a brief insight into the history of royal cooking. Featuring a selection of menus used at actual royal events, alongside a series of exclusive private photographs of the royal family, this new insight into the world of royal dining will give you the inspiration you need to transform your own dinner parties and afternoon luncheons, enabling you to create exquisite dishes and decadent desserts that are truly fit for a king and queen.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSpanning 65,000 years, this book provides a history of food in Australia from its beginnings, with the arrival of the first peoples and their stewardship of the land, to a present where the production and consumption of food is fraught with anxieties and competing priorities. It describes how food production in Australia is subject to the constraints of climate, water and soil, leading to centuries of unsustainable agricultural practices post-colonisation. Australian food history is also the story of its xenophobia and the immigration policies pursued which continue to question the image of Australia as a model multicultural society though the history ends on a positive note as Indigenous peoples take increasing control of how their food is interpreted and marketed.Trade Review"A thorough examination of Australia's culinary history. . . . Divided into ten chapters and organized historically, the book describes the foodways of the first peoples, the colonization of Australia, during wartime and between wars, Federation, post-colonialism and modernity; it ends with the themes of Australia as a foodie nation and millennial reckonings. . . . A skillfully written overview of Australian food history, detailing the evolution of Australian foodways and agriculture while acknowledging the contributions of the many cultures that make up contemporary Australia." * Digestible Bits and Bites * "A comprehensive history of the food of Australia, from its beginning with the First Nations people 60,000 years ago to 2020." -- John Newton, author of "The Oldest Foods on Earth: A History of Australian Native Foods" "A masterful overview of Australian food history and foodways, including their social and political implications and the influences of scientific and technological advances. From millennia-old fish traps to television's MasterChef Australia, by way of damper and mutton, lamingtons and Anzacs, it charts the evolution of Australian food and agriculture, acknowledging the contributions of the many cultures that make up contemporary Australia." -- Barbara Santich, professor emeritus, University of Adelaide

Read more less

Book SynopsisA thoughtful consideration of taste as a sense and an idea and of how we might jointly develop both. When we eat, we eat the world: taking something from outside and making it part of us. But what does it taste of? And can we develop our taste? In Taste, Sarah Worth argues that taste is a sense that needs educating, for the real pleasures of eating only come with an understanding of what one really likes. From taste as an abstract concept to real examples of food, she explores how we can learn about and develop our sense of taste through themes ranging from pleasure, authenticity, and food fraud, to visual images, recipes, and food writing.Trade Review"This engaging book . . . invites rumination on the familiar saying, 'We are what we eat.'" -- Carolyn Korsmeyer, author of "Making Sense of Taste" and "Savoring Disgust "

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten for food aficionados everywhere, this book provides an entertaining look at the history and development of the key foods we eat every day. Mike Gibney, Professor Emeritus of Food and Health at University College Dublin, traces the story of food from early hunter gatherers through settled agriculture to the migration across Europe, and examines the influence early trading, imperial conquests and medieval exploration had on the food chain. Along the way Food through the Ages uncovers some fascinating nuggets: - Indian rice is fluffy to eat with the hand, while Chinese rice is sticky to eat with chopsticks. - In the Middle Ages it became fashionable to stuff boned smaller birds into bigger birds into even bigger birds and so on. This process, known as engastration, is still popular today in Cajun cuisine with Turducken, a hen in a duck in a turkey. - A passion for tea led two great powers, China and England, to engage in warfare - The popularity of the potato accounted for about 25% of the population growth in Europe from 1700 to 1900 - The Arabs brought pasta to Italy but the popular shaped pastas were most often produced in religious orders by nuns - The Jesuits and Dominicans argued bitterly over the perceived magical yet sinful attributes of Aztec chocolate. Professor Gibney explains the origins of commonplace foods, including bread, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, sugar, tea, chocolate and of course Ireland’s beloved potato. He defines a well-stocked larder and shows how the kitchen has changed over thousands of years, getting cleaner, less smelly, more reliable, less dangerous and more accessible to all.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMilk, poured over cereal in the morning and splashed in coffee, is part of daily life in the West. Though milk is the sustaining and essential food of all mammals, and worldwide demand for it is growing every year, the majority of the world's population cannot digest raw cow's milk. Of those that do drink milk regularly, most have never actually tasted raw milk; what is known as milk today is a heavily treated version far removed from its natural state. In "Milk", Hannah Velten explores the myths and misconceptions surrounding the drink. Modern milk processing produces a safe, clean beverage that is far removed from real milk straight from the cow, but advocates of raw milk long for the days before pasteurization, homogenization and standardization. Paradoxically, milk back then was likely to be even less natural than today: known as the white poison, and filled with additives to make it look like milk after extensive watering-down, it was bacteria-ridden and dangerous to the health of invalids and infants. Now that milk has cleaned up its act, it is considered a staple for a healthy and balanced diet. Velten investigates how and why conceptions of milk have shifted in the public consciousness, from the science of nutrition, to dairy industry advertising and government endorsements. "Milk" will surprise and entertain in equal measure.Trade ReviewBooks in Reaktion's Edible series are paragons of their type; concise and flavorful, jammed with interesting facts, period photos and just a handful of recipes, in case you want to "do it yourself". I recommend these books to foodies and academics alike. -- Robert Sietsema, restaurant critic for The Village VoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 The First Milk 2 The White Elixir 3 White Poison 4 Solving the Milk Question 5 Modern Milk Recipes Glossary Appendix References Select Bibliography Websites and Associations Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe occasions of celebration considered run from wedding breakfasts, birthday parties, Easter, harvest festival, and Passover, while the sorts of celebration include banquets, drinking bouts, the Icelandic thorrablot, and election day feasts. Authors include from America, Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, Anthony Buccini, Sharon Hudgins, Charles Perry; from Turkey, Aylin Tan and Priscilla Mary Isin; from England, Robert Appelbaum, Andrew Dalby, Christopher Grocock, Gillian Riley, David C. Sutton, and from Israel, Susan Weingarten.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking book, Jessica Martell investigates the relationship between industrial food and the emergence of literary modernisms in Britain and Ireland. By the early twentieth century, the industrialization of the British Empire's food system had rendered many traditional farming operations, and attendant agrarian ways of life, obsolete. Weaving insights from modernist studies, food studies, and ecocriticism, Farm to Form contends that industrial food made nature "modernist," a term used as literary scholars understand it stylistically disorienting, unfamiliar, and artificial but also exhilarating, excessive, and above all, new. Martell draws in part upon archives in the United Kingdom but also presents imperial foodways as an extended rehearsal for the current era of industrial food supremacy. She analyzes how pastoral mode, anachronism, fragmentation, and polyvocal narration reflect the power of the literary arts to reckon with, and to resist, the new "modernist ecologies" of the twentieth century.Deeply informed by Martell's extensive knowledge of modern British, Irish, American, and World Literatures, this progressive work positions modernism as central to the study of narratives of resistance against social and environmental degradation. Analyzed works include those of Thomas Hardy, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, George Russell, and James Joyce.In light of climate change, fossil fuel supremacy, nutritional dearth, and other pressing food issues, modernist texts bring to life an era of crisis and anxiety similar to our own. In doing so, Martell summons the past as a way to employ the modernist term of "defamiliarizing" the present so that entrenched perceptions can be challenged. Our current food regime is both new and constantly evolving with the first industrial food trades. Studying earlier cultural responses to them invites us to return to persistent problems with new insights and renewed passion.Trade ReviewFarm to Form is a well-written, solid piece of scholarship. The selection of writers and texts alone will make this book a must-read, and no one, to my knowledge, has explored to this extent how the rapid transformation of food production, distribution, and marketing touched the choices that writers made in shaping their work." — Bill Conlogue, professor of English, Marywood University and author of Working the GardenTable of Contents Introduction: Modernist Ecologies and the Food Politics of Empire Part I 1. Industrial Dairying, the Pastoral, and Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles 2. Food Chains and Refrigerated Time in E.M. Forster's Howards End 3. Wartime Rationing and Virginia Woolf's Aesthetic Ecologies Part II 4. Joseph Conrad and the Metabolism of Empire 5. Famine, Food Sovereignty, and the Irish Literary Revival Coda "From a Morning World" Acknowledgments

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWe were undercapitalized, inexperienced, practiced democratic decision-making and some of us smoked dope occasionally. All elements that would make us grow as human beings and as business people. We ran a helluva show. In the spring of 1975, a free-spirited Jan DeGrass backpacked across Canada in search of adventure and greater meaning in life. When she arrived in Vancouver, she met a group of people committed to social change; together they reimagined the food industry in BC. In The Co-op Revolution: Vancouvers Search for Food Alternatives, author and journalist DeGrass writes about her journey as a founding member of the Collective Resource and Services Workers Co-op. Bounding to life during the heady, activist, grant-funded years of 19741980, the CRS Co-op became one of the most successful co-ops in BC and was committed to co-operation and worker ownership. While the decade of the seventies is remembered for its new wave of co-opsusually organized by a free-flowing collection of women and men in their twentiesCRS was unique in its success. Among its many accolades, it created the Tunnel Canary cannery, the Queenright Co-operative Beekeepers, Vancouvers popular Uprising Breads Bakery and a food wholesaler, which later became Horizon Distributors. The economic, political and social skyline of Vancouver was changing. For some, the co-op movement was about crushing capitalism; for others it was simply about buying cheap, wholesome food from people they trusted, and living in communal camaraderie. No matter the pursuit, co-operation was the answer.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisGreco-Roman diet and cuisine have recently received considerable attention, resulting in a wide array of studies on food production and consumption, cooking techniques, purchasing power and idealised diets. The current volume brings together a collection of papers investigating the nexus between food and identity in cross-cultural settings from Classical Greece until the rise of Christianity. Whenever different cultures engage in a process of exchange, food and cuisine are among the first aspects of identity to meet, clash and enrich each other. The authors analyse the various channels of mutual influence between different cultures and the deliberate choices made by producers and consumers. Because choice always carries information on people's standing in society, their willingness (or refusal) to adapt and their view on the 'other', this volume contributes to the study of cultural interaction and integration in Antiquity through the lens of one of the most accessible items of exchange, viz. food.

Read more less

Book SynopsisChinese cuisine has had a deep impact on culinary traditions in Southeast Asia, where the lack of certain ingredients and access to new ingredients along with the culinary knowledge of local people led Chinese migrants to modify traditional dishes and to invent new foods. This process brought the cuisine of southern China, considered by some writers to be ""the finest in the world,"" into contact with a wide range of local and global cuisine's and ingredients. When Chinese from Southeast Asia moved on to other parts of the world, they brought these variants of Chinese food with them, completing a cycle of culinary reproduction, localisation and invention, and globalisation. The process does not end there, for the new context offers yet another set of ingredients and culinary traditions, and the ""embedding and fusing of foods"" continues, creating additional hybrid forms. Written by scholars whose deep familiarity with Chinese cuisine is both personal and academic, Chinese Food and Foodways in Southeast Asia and Beyond is a book that anyone who has been fortunate enough to encounter Southeast Asian food will savour, and it provides a window on this world for those who have yet to discover it.

Read more less