As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man." In fact, civilization itself began in the quest for food. Humanity's transition to agriculture was not only the greatest social revolution in history, but it directly produced the structures and institutions we call "civilization." In 36 fascinating lectures, award-winning Professor Albala puts this extraordinary subject on the table, taking you on an enthralling journey into the human relationship to food. With this innovative course, you'll travel the world discovering fascinating food lore and culture of all regions and eras - as an eye-opening lesson in history as well as a unique window on what we eat today.

    Even more delicious are the stories of the people who created, or served, or simply drank these drinks. As a hybrid of street-smart gumshoe, anthropologist and mixologist (The Los Angeles Times), Jeff "Beachbum" Berry is uniquely qualified to tell this epic story-with-recipes, lavishly illustrated with vintage graphics and rare historical photos.

    Focusing each chapter on the culinary and social history of one dish--such as fried chicken, chitlins, yams, greens, and red drinks--Miller uncovers how it got on the soul food plate and what it means for African American culture and identity.Miller argues that the story is more complex and surprising than commonly thought. Four centuries in the making, and fusing European, Native American, and West African cuisines, soul food--in all its fried, pork-infused, and sugary glory--is but one aspect of African American culinary heritage. Miller discusses how soul food has become incorporated into American culture and explores its connections to identity politics, bad health raps, and healthier alternatives. This refreshing look at one of America's most celebrated, mythologized, and maligned cuisines is enriched by spirited sidebars, photographs, and twenty-two recipes.

    Francis Lam pays a visit to the lauded but elusive Alex Lee; Peter Meehan talks life (and how it happens to a cook) with legendary pastry chef Claudia Fleming. Daniel Boulud and Michael Anthony school us in the art of omelet-making. Pulitzer-prize-winning writer Jonathan Gold and funny-as-hell artist Lisa Hanawalt hop on board as new columnists. And there’s a magazine inside the magazine, like a Russian nesting doll: with content culled from René Redzepi’s annual MAD food conference, which Lucky Peach had the honor of co-curating. The theme, this year, was GUTS, both literal and figurative. We heard from an array of speakers: chefs, of course, and activists, filmmakers, and a schoolgirl too. Their talks were inspiring for cooks, chefs, and eaters alike.

    Both the recipes and the factbook part are based on finds, literary sources, other contemporary sources and experimental archaeology.In the first part of the book the authors presents the food of the Viking Age. They describe what one may have eaten during the Viking Age, how the food was prepared and the practices that surrounded eating the food. This chapter is based on the yet to be finished doctoral thesis by Daniel Serra, archaeological finds from the period across Scandinavia and a range of various other sources.The second part is a cookbook presented as a journey through Viking Age Scandinavia with 42 different recipes divided into seven geographical areas. The recipes are based upon archaeological finds and experimental archaeology bound together by the combined archaeological and culinary expertise of Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg. Almost all dishes can be cooked just as easily in the kitchen as out in a re-enactors camp.In addition to the background material and the actual cookbook, there are some very interesting appendixes. Not only do we include an Encyclopedic part, which act as a quick reference guide to both food and cooking equipment, there will also be a list of plant finds and a reference for translation of plants, fish birds and other ingredients between English, Latin, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and German.

    Rather than serving something simple, hostesses arranged elaborate sweet tables, displays of ornate beauty and delicious edibles meant to leave guests with a lasting impression. A Sweet Taste of History will have the same effect, lingering in the minds of its readers and inspiring them to get in the kitchen. This gorgeous cookbook blends American history with exquisite recipes, as well as tips on how to create your own sweet table. It features 100 scrumptious dessert recipes, including cakes, cobblers, pies, cookies, quick breads, and ice cream. It includes original recipes from first ladies well-known for entertaining, such as Martha Washington’s An Excellent Cake and Dolley Madison’s French Vanilla Ice Cream. Chef Staib also offers sources for unusual ingredients and step-by-step culinary techniques, updating some of the recipes for modern cooks. This wonderful keepsake will bring a bygone era in America to life and inspire readers who love to cook, entertain, and follow history.

    In Dinner with Mr Darcy, Pen Vogler takes authentic recipes from the period, inspired by the food that features in Austen's novels and letters, and adapts them for contemporary cooks. The text is interwoven throughout with quotes from the novels, and feature spreads cover some of the key themes of food and eating in Austen's time, including table arrangements, kitchens and gardens, changing mealtimes, and servants and service. Whether you are hoping to beguile a single gentleman in possession of a substantial fortune, or you just want to have your own version of the picnic on Box Hill in Emma, you will find fully updated recipes using easily available ingredients to help you recreate the dishes and dining experiences of Jane Austen's characters and their contemporaries.

    Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, president of the Dorothy Parker Society, gives us an intoxicating new look at the doyenne of the ripping riposte through the lens she most preferred: the bottom of a glass. A bar book for Parker enthusiasts and literary tipplers alike, Under the Table offers a unique take on Parker, the infamous Algonquin Round Table, and the Jazz Age by profiling and celebrating the drinks that she, her bitter friends, and sweetest enemies enjoyed and discussed. Each entry of this delicious compendium offers a fascinating and lively background of a period cocktail, its ingredients, and the characters associated with it. The book also features a special selection of twenty-first century speakeasy-style recipes from top mixologists from across the country. A complete recipe with detailed instructions forms the centerpiece of each entry, and topping it off are illuminating excerpts from Parker’s poems, stories, and other writings that will allow you to enjoy her world from the speakeasies of New York City to the watering holes of Hollywood.

    A delicious and versatile fish, it can be used to make sashimi, cold smoked for lox, or shaped into a fishcake as an alternative to hamburgers. But while salmon is enjoyed all over the globe, it also swims at the center of controversy, with commercial fishing, global warming, and loss of freshwater habitats all threatening salmon populations and the ecological and health impacts of intense salmon farming under fire. In this beautifully illustrated book, Nicolaas Mink takes readers on a culinary journey from the coast of Alaska to the rivers of Scotland, tracing salmon’s history from the earliest known records to the present. He tells the story of how the salmon was transformed from an abundant fish found seasonally along coastal regions to a mass-produced canned food  and a highly prized culinary delight. Exploring the nutritional benefits of this fish, he examines recent studies that show how these benefits diminish in farm-raised salmon. With many delicious recipes, Salmon is the perfect gift for every fish lover.

    The book explores the innovation, history, economics, commerce, advertising, and marketing behind the toy's 50 year history.

    Try Chesapeake Cioppino, Cornbread with Crackings, Crab Salad Lettuce Wraps, Southern Fried Caprese Salad, Virginia Sea Scallops with Shallots and Walnuts, Sweet Potato Biscuits with Country Ham and Poppy-Mustard Butter, Oysters Bingo, Chili-Rubbed Pork Loin Roast with Wine Country Salsa, Indian Butter Chicken, Bourbon Balls, Black Cake, Peanut Butter Silk Pie, Monticello Apple Cake, and Bourbon Slush. You'll also find gorgeous full-color photography and profiles of 29 of the best chefs, farmers, innkeepers, winemakers, and artisanal food producers who contribute to Virginia's richly irresistible food culture.

    But over the last thirty years, the city seems to have banished animals from its streets. In Beastly London, Hannah Velten uses a wide range of primary sources to explore the complex and changing relationship between Londoners of all classes and their animal neighbors. Velten travels back in history to describe a time when Londoners shared their homes with pets and livestock—along with a variety of other pests, vermin, and bedbugs; Londoners imported beasts from all corners of the globe for display in their homes, zoos, and parks; and ponies flying in hot air balloons and dancing fleas were considered entertainment. As she shows, London transformed from a city with a mainly exploitative relationship with animals to the birthplace of animal welfare societies and animal rights’ campaigns. Packed with over one hundred illustrations, Beastly London is a revealing look at how animals have been central to the city’s success.

    The way Americans eat--and the disastrous health problems that can often result--is debated on daytime talk shows and in political arenas, written about in bestselling manifestos, and exposed in Oscar-nominated documentaries. Yet, despite all the attention from the media and the scientific community, few studies have looked seriously at the mass-market forces underlying our Western diet.In The Industrial Diet, Anthony Winson chronicles the forces that have transformed our natural resources into an industry that produces edible commodities, an industry that far too often subverts our well-being instead of nourishing us. Tracing the industrial diet's history from its roots in the nineteenth century through to the present day, Winson looks at the role of technology, population growth, and political and economic factors in the constitution and transformation of mass dietary regimes. In addition to providing new evidence linking broad-based dietary changes with negative health effects in the developed and developing world, Winson also outlines realistic and innovative strategies that can lead to a healthier future. A fresh new look at the degradation of food and the emergent struggle for healthful eating, this book is an eye-opening tour of the state of nutrition and food culture today.

    Each chapter is centered on an iconic Puerto Rican foodstuff, from rice and cornmeal to beans, roots, herbs, fish, and meat. Ortiz shows how their production and consumption connects with race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and cultural appropriation in Puerto Rico. Using a multidisciplinary approach and a sweeping array of sources, Ortiz asks whether Puerto Ricans really still are what they ate. Whether judging by a host of social and economic factors--or by the foods once eaten that have now disappeared--Ortiz concludes that the nature of daily life in Puerto Rico has experienced a sea change.

    The menus themselves would be useful enough for what they reveal about culinary culture in Russia, but Yuri Lotman's commentary is invaluable, dissecting the dining rituals and the social circles of the participants. Durnovo's menus and guest lists, interspersed with extracts from family letters and the leading newspapers and journals of the day, set in context the domestic and gastronomic underpinnings of life in this group at the heart of the Russian empire. Translated by Marian Schwartz (who has worked with M. Gorbachev and translated works by Tolstoy, Bulgakov and Lermontov), the book as a whole is annotated and introduced by Darra Goldstein, Founding Editor of Gastronomica and Willcox B. and Harriet M. Adsit Professor of Russian at Williams College. The book is illustrated with paintings and photographs that give a sense of the high society milieu in mid-nineteenth-century Russia.

    But spices have a history of doing much more than adding life to bland foods. They have been the inspiration for, among other things, trade, exploration, and poetry. Priests employed them in worship, incantations, and rituals, and shamans used them as charms to ward off evil spirits. Nations fought over access to and monopoly of certain spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, when they were rare commodities. Not only were many men’s fortunes made in the pursuit of spices, spices at many periods throughout history literally served as currency.           In Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World, Ben-Erik van Wyk offers the first fully illustrated, scientific guide to nearly all commercial herbs and spices in existence. Van Wyk covers more than 150 species—from black pepper and blackcurrant to white mustard and white ginger—detailing the propagation, cultivation, and culinary uses of each. Introductory chapters capture the essence of culinary traditions, traditional herb and spice mixtures, preservation, presentation, and the chemistry of flavors, and individual entries include the chemical compounds and structures responsible for each spice or herb’s characteristic flavor. Many of the herbs and spices van Wyk covers are familiar fixtures in our own spice racks, but a few—especially those from Africa and China—will be introduced for the first time to American audiences. Van Wyk also offers a global view of the most famous use or signature dish for each herb or spice, satisfying the gourmand’s curiosity for more information about new dishes from little-known culinary traditions.             People all over the world are becoming more sophisticated and demanding about what they eat and how it is prepared. Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World will appeal to those inquisitive foodies in addition to gardeners and botanists.

    Nonetheless, as author Erica Hannickel shows, this fantasy is deeply rooted in the history of grape cultivation in America. Empire of Vines traces the development of wine culture as grape growing expanded from New York to the Midwest before gaining ascendancy in California--a progression that illustrates viticulture's centrality to the nineteenth-century American projects of national expansion and the formation of a national culture.Empire of Vines details the ways would-be gentleman farmers, ambitious speculators, horticulturalists, and writers of all kinds deployed the animating myths of American wine culture, including the classical myth of Bacchus, the cult of terroir, and the fantasy of pastoral republicanism. Promoted by figures as varied as horticulturalist Andrew Jackson Downing, novelist Charles Chesnutt, railroad baron Leland Stanford, and Cincinnati land speculator Nicholas Longworth (known as the father of American wine), these myths naturalized claims to land for grape cultivation and legitimated national expansion. Vineyards were simultaneously lush and controlled, bearing fruit at once culturally refined and naturally robust, laying claim to both earthy authenticity and social pedigree. The history of wine culture thus reveals nineteenth-century Americans' fascination with the relationship between nature and culture.