DIGEST: Gastronomica

[Carrot Top]

"Feast for the Eye" - on Zhan Wang - The photo of his work did not spark me into wanting to read an article that has phrases like "expansive worldview with subjects ranging from economics, theology, sociology, urban planning, and architecture to formal art issues . . ." because I start to feel as if I need to put my smoking jacket on, if I had one, to be able to sit sturdily enough to eat the words and digest them in little bites. I think I've seen better images of his work somewhere, though, so have been made curious to see if I can find them.

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I realized what it was about Zhan Wang. It was not the photo in particular, but rather, the work he was displaying. There is another series of his that I prefer to this one, but it is not food-oriented, but rather based on huge silver rocks that he has placed as landing in unexpected places with a sort of gigantic-thing Richard Serra-like tension but with added silliness somehow.

Here is something from the Williams College site on him and the particular exhibition covered in Gastronomica. You can also find information on an upcoming exhibition at Williams on Gerald and Sara Murphy, who are covered in one of the other articles in this Gastronomica.

[srhcb]

Being an early riser, I found myself at 6:30 this morning outside my Ford, Lincoln/Mercury dealership which doesn't open until 7:30. I had my copy of Gastronomica with me, so I just opened it up and started reading.

The article I read was "They Eat Horses Don't They - Hippophagy and the French" by Kari Weil.

This piece was very well researched and scholarly without being pedantic, and examined the historical, psychological and practical aspects of dining on horse which are particular to the French, with even a bit of humor thrown in!

It reminded me of the "old" Gastro. I hope this bodes well for the remainder of this issue, as well as future offerings.

SB

[Carrot Top]

The article I read was "They Eat Horses Don't They - Hippophagy and the French" by Kari Weil.

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That's the one that most sparked my interest, too. Based on your recommedation, I'll dive in.

When I lived in Paris, there was a boucherie chevaline around the corner from my apartment that was on its last legs. (Heh.) It was only open one day a week, Thursdays. I never did buy anything there.

Would you eat horse, SB?

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There's also a review of Fat Guy's book in the review section in back.

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I also have to admit to blinking several times in surprise at the back cover, an upscale version of WPA-like art and rhetoric, this time selling slowfoodusa. org.

[srhcb]

When I lived in Paris, there was a boucherie chevaline around the corner from my apartment that was on its last legs. (Heh.) It was only open one day a week, Thursdays. I never did buy anything there.

Would you eat horse, SB?

I don't recall having knowingly done so, but I'd have no compunction about it, having never been particularly enamored of the creatures.

(It's also worth noting that horse fat is said to make the best pommes frites)

There's also a review of Fat Guy's book in the review section in back.

I haven't made it to the reviews yet, but in the past I have purchased several books based on reviews in Gastro. In fact, one could maybe even justify a subscription to Gastronomica based solely on it's function as a journal of food book reviews.

I also have to admit to blinking several times in surprise at the back cover, an upscale version of WPA-like art and rhetoric, this time selling slowfoodusa. org. 

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I'll admit that the back cover design caused me almost as much consternation as the hole riddled rolling pin on the front. Although I support slowfood in principle, and have several friends involved in it, I've often been uncomfortable when they skirt political issues only peripherally associated with food.

Now that I think about it, that may also be my objection to recent issues of Gastronomica? While I'm hardly apolitical, (I've managed several successful State Legislative level campaigns for friends), I prefer my food literature served sans rhetorique politique.

SB (pardon my French )

[Carrot Top]

Haven't read up on horsey yet but just polished off "Having What She's Having" by Scott Korb, a story that links his life of vegetarianism and veganism and self-denial with religion and religious yearnings that then becomes an upside-down tale when he comes to the realization that he wasn't doing what he had told himself he was doing in his food choices for some long time, in terms of becoming the sort of person he wanted to be "through food".

A good story.

[Carrot Top]

Today I read in Borborygmus "Food for Thought: A Video Art Sampler" by Yael Raviv which describes the video pieces recently presented at the Media Center of the Jewish Museum in NYC. All on food, semiotics, gefilte fish, Abbie Hoffman, immigrants, recipes, and Jewish identity and culture. I loved it, lots to think about, would love to see the videos.

"Food Podcasts" by Anna Shih made me more interested in food podcasts than I have ever been to date. A good history and detailing.

Orts and Scantlings Mark Morton's Table Manners had me laughing aloud.

Moreover, "when thou hast blowne thy nose, use not to open thy handkercheif, to glare uppon thy snot, as if thou hadst pearles and Rubies fallen fry thy braynes"

(Just one small bit of advice on manners offered from history )

"How Caviar Turned Out to Be Halal" was a fascinating look at the trade in caviar in post-1979 Iran. I generally find it difficult to focus on these sorts of essays but this one was human enough in scope that my attention did not wander. Really good story about a real-life current-day religious/political/food/human diorama.

Essay "The Prize Inside" by Toni Mirosevich, a philosophic table dream. I liked it, of course.

"Twain's Feast" I couldn't get into, but I've eaten too much Twain indirectly. I like him straight up.

Horsey Story as noted above was interesting in terms of focus on why we eat certain things and not others, with lots of words that have scholarly meaning to define pets or not pets or things that we eat or don't want to. The part about how in times past in France a law was passed to prevent butchering meat animals in the streets (as had been commonplace previously) so that the populace would not have dire and similar thoughts about each other and about their rulers was my favorite fact learned from this piece.

This is up to page 53. About halfway through.

I'm pretty happy.

[Carolyn Tillie]

It is interesting that this thread is a bit alive again. As I indicated some time back, I never bothered to renew my subscription but I'm wondering if this new issue is worth reading.

On another note, I received a very interesting e-mail several months ago that I will post here:

Dear Ms. Tillie,

I just read your digest review of Gastronomica, in particular this line from Nov. 18, 2003 in which you wrote:

"Sophisticated by Leila Crawford

A limited essay on how trying new dishes makes one sophisticated. Not nearly as well-written as Delicacy by Paul Russell which appeared in the first issue."

Although biographical details are listed on the contributors' page, you apparently didn't realize that Paul Russell was an award-winning author of four novels and a full professor of English at Vassar College, while Leila Crawford was a 5th grader and only ten years old.  So, yes, Paul's essay is considerably better written than Leila's, as you'd expect it to be.   

Unfortunately, because of the vagaries of Google, your criticisms come up first when one searches "Leila Crawford Sophisticated," as Leila herself was embarrassed to discover while trying to show her first publication to a friend of hers.  The reason that I'm writing to you directly instead of sending an outraged correction to your digest is I'm hoping you'll correct the Nov 18, 2003 entry yourself. 

I appreciate that your reading and reviewing Gastronomica in just a few days was a huge task, but please don't leave an unfair criticism as one of the most public ways that the world will remember Leila's first publication.  She deserves to be proud, not embarrassed.

Thanks in advance.

Dean

I advised Dean that there is no way for me to edit an entry that is four years old but that he was more than welcome to post his concern here within this thread. Apparently he chose not to do so but I thought it an interesting comment to add.

[srhcb]

"Sophisticated by Leila Crawford

A limited essay on how trying new dishes makes one sophisticated. Not nearly as well-written as Delicacy by Paul Russell which appeared in the first issue."

I advised Dean that there is no way for me to edit an entry that is four years old but that he was more than welcome to post his concern here within this thread. Apparently he chose not to do so but I thought it an interesting comment to add.

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I think Dean should have advised Leila to be proud to have been compared to a published professor without the "only ten years old" caveat?

SB (wouldn't be ashamed to be compared to either Professor Russell or Leila )(or Carolyn, for that matter )

[srhcb]

(The article about horse meat) reminded me of the "old" Gastro.  I hope this bodes well for the remainder of this issue, as well as future offerings.

SB 

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Although I had intended to, at least, comment on the Mark Twain article in the Spring 2007 issue, it seems like once "the bloom was off the rose" my enthusiasm for Gastronomica reading waned once again.

And today, the Summer 2007 issue arrived!

SB (still hoping .... against hope )

[Carrot Top]

The Twain article was most commentary-worthy, SB. Particularly so, I thought, in terms of how he thought of his country's food and how "we" (generalized) now think of our country's food.

Also interesting to note the foods that really no longer are generally available, that he felt so strongly meant home to him.

It's not too late. Time is a flexible thing.

(I would consider doing it, but my time is completely filled right now waiting for Top Chef to come on then thinking and talking about it for the rest of the week. )

Edited August 27, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[srhcb]

The Twain article was most commentary-worthy, SB. Particularly so, I thought, in terms of how he thought of his country's food and how "we" (generalized) now think of our country's food.

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To tell the Truth, I was never a big Mark Twain fan until I watched the Ken Burns PBS show about him.

I'd always thought of Mark Twain as a bit too "popular", (rather like a Nineteenth Century Andy Rooney), probably based on the selections of his work I was forced to read in school.

I had certainly never associated him with food writing until seeing the Gastronomica article. The subject is deserving of an eGullet post, and I promise to tend to that matter before unwrapping my newest issue.

SB (Honest! )

[srhcb]

I had certainly never associated him with food writing until seeing the Gastronomica article.  The subject is deserving of an eGullet  post, and I promise to tend to that matter before unwrapping my newest issue.

SB (Honest! )

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I got about one-third through the article and lost interest.

About the only thing I found worthy of note was the inclusion of catsup on Twain's list of foods he remembered fondly while living in Europe.

SB (although it's placement on the list, seperated from "Mashed Potatoes" by just a period, might have interested MFK Fisher? )

[srhcb]

....  I promise to tend to that matter before unwrapping my newest issue.

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Having dispatched the Twain article to my personal dustbin of history, I opened the Summer '07 copy of Gastro.

I'm exaggerating only slightly when I say that nearly every title contains the word "politics".

There's a pretty good chance I won't ever pick up this issue again.

SB (and a real good chance I won't renew my subscription)

Edited August 28, 2007 by srhcb (log)

[Carrot Top]

It sounds like what was a special-interest publication to start with is aiming to be even more special-interest.

Is the journal of food and culture becoming the journal of food, culture, and politics?

That song from Mary Poppins is coming to mind. "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down . . ."

Not enough sugar in the recipe for the medicine to be palatable perhaps. Particularly for readers who have to get waders on and a big stick to walk with before approaching academic-style writing.

[srhcb]

Is the journal of food and culture becoming the journal of food, culture, and politics?

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One could say that politics is a component of culture, (too large a component in fact), and there are already plenty of publications covering that ground.

Gastronomica, for all its footnotes, used to have a feeling of playfulness about it which I found appealing. Now it seems to take itself far too seriously.

SB

[Carrot Top]

Gastronomica, for all its footnotes, used to have a feeling of playfulness about it which I found appealing.  Now it seems to take itself far too seriously.

SB 

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Well, it may take itself far too seriously (and I do know what you mean and am against dreary weightiness myself) but Gastronomica gave me a good laugh this afternoon.

As you know, I tried to order a subscription and after more than half a year with phone calls attached did not receive a single issue so cancelled it, asked for a refund, and the day after received my first issue.

I thought I was done with it. Hadn't re-ordered not from dislike but more from having too many good books and magazines already hanging around, easier to get to and indeed swamping me.

Today I got my second issue.

If I work this right, I can order it then cancel it for the rest of my life maybe, while still receiving issues.

I'll take a look at it later and see if I see what you see, SB.

[Carrot Top]

Having dispatched the Twain article to my personal dustbin of history, I opened the Summer '07 copy of Gastro.

I'm exaggerating only slightly when I say that nearly every title contains the word "politics".   

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The Twain article must have made you cranky enough to read really quickly, SB, for there is a reason for what you write above.

On a sweet little black ribbon like the wrapping on a box of chocolates, cuddling up to the right hand lower corner, are the words. "The Politics of Food Issue". It is subtle, this title, with only the word "politics" in red, the other words in white. Darling, really.

Looking through, we find a bit on a food historian; lots on farming; "Weighty Words" in orts and scantlings which I like:

A search for fat teacher results in 10,600 hits, while fat professor results in only 1,190

Fun stuff about words, gender, race, and social standing. That sometimes turns out in real life to be not so fun.

Articles on sugar, pomegranate, food provenance and history . . . "The Disappearance of Hunger in America" with a stunning photograph by Jacob Holt of a young child in front of a refrigerator which looks to be full of trash but which is the family's food . . . articles on the American farm and on the economics of empire and plants . . . here's one coming up that I really like: "Angels and Vegetables - A Brief History of Food Advice in America"!

I'm halfway through a general perusal of the journal (or not even) and do see many things I'll take a longer gander at.

How can one not read something titled "Angels and Vegetables" I ask you.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Carrot Top and Srhcb (since it seemed we three were the only ones reading the magazine) - This will have been the first issue since its inception I will not receive...

Do you think I should run out and buy a copy or am I okay going on in life in blissful ignorance?

[srhcb]

Carrot Top and Srhcb (since it seemed we three were the only ones reading the magazine) - This will have been the first issue since its inception I will not receive...

Do you think I should run out and buy a copy or am I okay going on in life in blissful ignorance?

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Carolyn,

I know there are at least a few other Gastronomica readers lurking here amongst the eGullet posters because I've had communications with them. (to say nothing of the 36,355 views) Why they don't feel comfortable expressing their opinions here has always been a mystery to me.

I could send you my copy of the Summer 07 Gastro for your perusal. Then you could decide if you wanted to keep your collection intact.

Or, you could wait until they have another back-issue sale? There was a flyer included with this issue offering these for $5/each. That's cheaper than a subscription, and most Gastro content has never really been very time sensitive.

SB (that is, unless they begin publishing commentary on electoral politics next )

[Carrot Top]

The question of why more people don't post in this topic is interesting. It doesn't look like there's a lot of discussion going on in the other digests either though. Maybe the perception of the digests is that they are reference tools, to be read but not commented on or discussed? That would fit in with the fact that the Gourmet topic I posted separately simply because I wanted to post my story has developed into a really interesting ongoing discussion of things that go on and with and in Gourmet. I think I fell into posting here myself sort of by accident, but it proved to be a happy one.

Do you think I should run out and buy a copy or am I okay going on in life in blissful ignorance?

It depends on where your head is at as far as this stuff goes at this moment. Life will obviously go on and you probably won't make some terrible faux pas at a cocktail party (do those things still exist? ) if you don't read this issue. On the other hand, there are articles here that do have a spark that is not found in the same way anywhere else. If indeed everything is art and then there is good art and bad art, then in the realm of food magazines, Gastronomica is better art than not. If there were a dividing line between things that are art and things that are not in terms of magazines, then I don't know that I'd put any other food magazines in the category of art besides Gastro, regardless of the parts of it that I personally have to walk past because of personality quirk or level of capability in terms of being able to read things that edge towards the academic.

If you are interested in "food politics" though, I'd say this issue would definitely be of great interest. My own level of interest in food politics is moderate. I have great difficulty in dealing with any form of politics that say they are politics. I prefer to follow and think about the ones that are unnamed and free-floating.

SB, I completely understand what you are talking about with the politics thing as opposed to food clear of it.

SB (that is, unless they begin publishing commentary on electoral politics next  )

I almost thought they were from your earlier reaction. I expected to find hidden agendas (which of course I am good at ) and partisan politics shaded as other things.

So far, I have not. Thank goodness.

Carolyn, I looked at the website and noticed that the Summer Issue is not listed with table of contents yet. I'll post the rest of what's in this issue a bit later.

And do take up SB on his offer to send you the magazine. It will make him happy, and we do need to have that happen tout suite. He tried to pawn off some issues on me last month in a PM and really I think he just wants to clean the house but feels guilty about getting rid of perfectly good reading matter.

[srhcb]

The question of why more people don't post in this topic is interesting. It doesn't look like there's a lot of discussion going on in the other digests either though. Maybe the perception of the digests is that they are reference tools, to be read but not commented on or discussed?

I suspect that might be the case, despite my own continuing pleas for more feedback.

On the other hand, there are articles here that do have a spark that is not found in the same way anywhere else. If indeed everything is art and then there is good art and bad art, then in the realm of food magazines, Gastronomica is better art than not.

I agree. That's why I feel so bad /get so mad when their content disappoints me.

SB, I completely understand what you are talking about with the politics thing as opposed to food clear of it.

I won't argue that food and/in politics aren't worthy topics for publication and discussion. I read several political journals which rarely cover food issues, and I wouldn't object at all if they did.

Personally though, I like to read about food to get away from politics.

And do take up SB on his offer to send you the magazine. It will make him happy, and we do need to have that happen tout suite. He tried to pawn off some issues on me last month in a PM and really I think he just wants to clean the house but feels guilty about getting rid of perfectly good reading matter. 

Maybe I'll have to "sweeten the pot", ie: throw something else in on the deal?

[Carrot Top]

Maybe I'll have to "sweeten the pot",  ie: throw something else in on the deal?

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Maybe. What're you offering, sweetie?

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Okay, here's more articles from this issue: "Kills a Body Twelve Ways" (bread fear and what to eat) (looks worthy of interest to me); "Policing Pleasure" (food, drugs and politics of ingestion) which asks and maybe tries to answer the question "Are we entering an era when government will define certain foods as unhealthy and therefore, illegal? And if so, how do we feel about his future healthy-food-only world?" (Hah! Illustrated by Bosch's The Seven Deadly Sins! )

From there we go to Tequila, Mexico then on to "Labor, Migration, and Social Justice in the Age of the Grape Boycott" then "Can't Stomach It" or 'How Michael Pollan et al. Made Me Want to Eat Cheerios' (ya gotta love it ) which has some lovely color photos of big tummies and behinds as decor to the article; then on to Vertical Farming which shows a vertical farming tower, very high-tech-looking, which is something about medical ecology.

"Understanding Receptivity to Genetically Modified Foods"; "Growing Resistance: Food, Culture and the Mo' Better Foods Farmers Market" which speaks of food justice and racial empowerment; "Risky Food, Risky Lives" on the 1977 Saccharin Rebellion; " 'Saving' Soul Food" (accompanied by Milton Bowens Southern Patterns and Rituals No. 2).

Yes, there's more. "A Heretic in the Church of Food" a personal essay about a guy who opens a restaurant which ties food ideas into religious concepts; then Ken Forkish (ha ha great name for a chef!) writes about his artisan bakery in Oregon.

Books in review include (this is not a complete list) "The Gospel of Food", "Omnivore's Dilemma", and "Market Day in Provence" by Michele de la Pradelle, "The Big Oyster", "Black Farmers in America" by Ficara/Williams; "A Baghdad Cookery Book"; and "Real Food - What to Eat and Buy" by Nina Planck.

Finish up with our dessert in lagniappe by jocelan hillton, which is a Happy Meal entitled "Happier Meal" a tiny handful of a tray with happy meal foods all out of felt.

[srhcb]

Maybe I'll have to "sweeten the pot",  ie: throw something else in on the deal?

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Maybe. What're you offering, sweetie?

Minnesota Wild Rice, hand harvested and parched (processed) by genuine Ojibway Tribe members, perhaps?

And, before getting into your nicely done "digest" of the current issue of Gastronomica, I'd like to point out that there have been nearly 70 views of this topic over the past 24 hours. (Big Brother is watching ) Even if several have been Carolyn, Karen and I checking on each others replies, that still leaves a awful lot of lurkers?

Okay, here's more articles from this issue: "Kills a Body Twelve Ways" (bread fear and what to eat) (looks worthy of interest to me); "Policing Pleasure" (food, drugs and politics of ingestion) which asks and maybe tries to answer  the question "Are we entering an era when government will define certain foods as unhealthy and therefore, illegal? And if so, how do we feel about his future healthy-food-only world?" (Hah! Illustrated by Bosch's The Seven Deadly Sins!  )

Other than the Bosch illustration, nothing there to entice me.

From there we go to Tequila, Mexico then on to "Labor, Migration, and Social Justice in the Age of the Grape Boycott" then "Can't Stomach It" or 'How Michael Pollan et al. Made Me Want to Eat Cheerios' (ya gotta love it  ) which has some lovely color photos of big tummies and behinds as decor to the article; then on to Vertical Farming which shows a vertical farming tower, very high-tech-looking, which is something about medical ecology.

Likewise, except possibly for the "lovely photos" of behinds, assuming the adjective "big" was in reference to the tummies only.

"Understanding Receptivity to Genetically Modified Foods"; "Growing Resistance: Food, Culture and the Mo' Better Foods Farmers Market" which speaks of food justice and racial empowerment; "Risky Food, Risky Lives" on the 1977 Saccharin Rebellion; " 'Saving' Soul Food" (accompanied by Milton Bowens Southern Patterns and Rituals No. 2).

No thanks.

Yes, there's more. "A Heretic in the Church of Food" a personal essay about a guy who opens a restaurant which ties food ideas into religious concepts; then Ken Forkish (ha ha great name for a chef!) writes about his artisan bakery in Oregon.

Perhaps.

Books in review include (this is not a complete list)  "The Gospel of Food", "Omnivore's Dilemma", and "Market Day in Provence" by Michele de la Pradelle, "The Big Oyster", "Black Farmers in America" by Ficara/Williams; "A Baghdad Cookery Book"; and "Real Food - What to Eat and Buy" by Nina Planck.

I've always considered the book reviews to be one of Gastro's strong points, and usually at least skim through them. I have purchased several books based upon these reviews.

(btw: CT's post may have set an eGullet record for highlighted double-underscored cites? )

Finish up with our dessert in lagniappe by jocelan hillton, which is a Happy Meal entitled "Happier Meal" a tiny handful of a tray with happy meal foods all out of felt.

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I liked that!

SB (has always been partial to felt )