A book recommendation

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I'm reading a very illuminating book--The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past, by Taras Grescoe. I have it on my phone (Kindle app) as a library book via the Boulder (Colorado) Library, a wonderful option for me given that I have no access otherwise to good books. The premise is that industrialized food production has caused a significant loss of quality and flavor, along with producing an alarming degradation of the environment. We're poisoning the world, and the result is tasteless food loaded with pesticide residue. The loss of more flavorful, older varieties of food--vegetables, cheese, pigs--in the name of "feeding the world" has brought about a situation that seems untenable. It also tends to drive out small producers who are trying to maintain those older, more tasty, varieties. The chapter on garum, the fermented fish sauce that the Romans and Phoenicians made, is particularly amusing. The author attempts to make the stuff and finds that the process is absolutely disgusting. The conclusion is that Thai fish sauce (especially Red Boat 45) is not only easier and more available but also an equivalent taste without the nastiness of buckets of fermenting fish.

 

This is why I buy heirloom varieties as often as possible, and order seeds of those varieties from Seed Savers Exchange and similar organizations that try to maintain the good tasting foods that we may remember from our youth. I'm not the only one who's noticed that those grocery story tomatoes taste like cardboard. Sure, they look good but the taste is disappointing at best. Talk about empty calories! I'll never be able to grow my own food in sufficient quantities, but I do what I can.
 

[liuzhou]

23 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

The chapter on garum, the fermented fish sauce that the Romans and Phoenicians made, is particularly amusing. The author attempts to make the stuff and finds that the process is absolutely disgusting. The conclusion is that Thai fish sauce (especially Red Boat 45) is not only easier and more available but also an equivalent taste without the nastiness of buckets of fermenting fish.

 

Having visited fish sauce manufacturing places in both Vietnam and Thailand I can say the process is just as disgusting, but someone else's problem. I'll sticking with my bottles.

 

P.S. Red Boat is Vietnamese. Not Thai.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Having visited fish sauce manufacturing places in both Vietnam and Thailand I can say the process is just as disgusting, but someone else's problem. I'll sticking with my bottles.

 

P.S. Red Boat is Vietnamese. Not Thai.

 

Ah, you're right. Thanks for the correction.

[kayb]

I am seriously considering this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Filled with recipes I will likely never make, as I do not keep truffles and such on hand. it DOES have a new Bruno short story included. Perhaps I will send a link to my kids.

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

I am seriously considering this. Filled with recipes I will likely never make, as I do not keep truffles and such on hand. it DOES have a new Bruno short story included. Perhaps I will send a link to my kids.

 

 

Enablers R Us. I'm going to skip the book and go right for the "house."