Saffron: The Gold We Eat
Once used as money instead of gold in Don Quixote’s Spain, saffron costs upwards of $1000 US per pound. Indeed, …
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Not Nuts (The Natural History and Far-Flung Adventures of the Lowly Peanut)
A nguba is an arachide is a cacahuete. Or Gedda, French, and Spanish for “pea‑nut,” if you prefer. Arachis hypogaea looks like a nut, tastes like a nut, but is actually not a nut at all. More like a legume or bean. The name “groundnut” tries to get the thing situated correctly but even that is incorrect. Botanically, peanuts belong to the beans/legumes clan and are NOT nuts. Gastronomically, peanuts can’t compete with those culinary wunderkind, caviar or truffles. But peanuts don’t aspire to knighthood or a title. In the U.S., peanuts usually take the form of peanut butter or salty snacks. However, peanuts have both an ancient history and a tremendous potential in the cookpot, nobility or not.
Idylls of Cuisine, #72
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
What’s New in Culinary Books
Pigs and hams, barbecue and ice cream — all are foods associated with joy and love and celebration. In the …
No More “Cookery”: New Library of Congress Subject Heading
Culinary researchers: The new, official Library of Congress subject heading for over 800 cooking and food-related subjects changed recently from …
Curl Up with a Nice Food Blog …
The creativity, wit, and wisdom of food bloggers never ceases to amaze me. And so today, I simply must let …
Tomatoes, Dust, and a Tasty Soupçon of Africa, Too
My nose burned a little and an odd sensation on my forehead no doubt meant more freckles popping out. I didn’t care. I sat right where I wanted to be on that late August day, in the dirt between two rows of leafy tomato plants. Red globes of all sizes dangled like Christmas ornaments from the plants, the vines sinking into the dust from all that ripe weight.
Idylls of Cuisine, #71
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
A Whiff of Madeleines and a Sniff of Curry: A List of Delectable Food Memoirs
Why do you love to read food memoirs? Barbara Frey Waxman attempts to answer that question in “Food Memoirs: What …
The Fiction of Food: Good Reads
A novel thing, novels about food? Not really, not any more. It seems like every publisher, and every writer, is …
