Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Special issue of Space and Culture: Food Mobilities

Space and Culture
February 2007, Volume 10, No. 1


Sarah Gibson
Food Mobilities: Traveling, Dwelling, and Eating Cultures
Space and Culture 2007 10: 4-21.

David Bell and Joanne Hollows
Mobile Homes
Space and Culture 2007 10: 22-39.

Ian Cook and Michelle Harrison
Follow the Thing: "West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce"
Space and Culture 2007 10: 40-63.

Viv Cuthill
Consuming Harrogate: Performing Betty's Café and Revolution Vodka Bar
Space and Culture 2007 10: 64-76.

Jennie Germann Molz
Eating Difference: The Cosmopolitan Mobilities of Culinary Tourism
Space and Culture 2007 10: 77-93.

Sally R. Munt and Katherine O'Donnell
Pride and Prejudice: Legalizing Compulsory Heterosexuality in New York's Annual St. Patrick's Day Parades
Space and Culture 2007 10: 94-114.

Mehnaaz Momen
Remembering Laredo: Spatial Reflections
Space and Culture 2007 10: 115-128.

Claudia Bell
Local Claims to Fame: Rural Identity Assertion in New Zealand
Space and Culture 2007 10: 129-132.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Food: The History of Taste

Food: The History of Taste
Edited by Paul Freedman
California Studies in Food and Culture, 21
University of Califorina Press, 2007
Expected Date: 9/07



This richly illustrated book is the first to apply the discoveries of the new generation of food historians to the pleasures of dining and the culinary accomplishments of diverse civilizations, past and present. Editor Paul Freedman has gathered essays by French, German, Belgian, American, and British historians to present a comprehensive, chronological history of taste from prehistory to the present day. The authors explore the early repertoire of sweet tastes; the distinctive contributions made by classical antiquity and China; the subtle, sophisticated, and varied group of food customs created by the Islamic civilizations of Iberia, the Arabian desert, Persia, and Byzantium; the magnificent cuisine of the Middle Ages, influenced by Rome and adapted from Islamic Spain, Africa, and the Middle East; the decisive break with highly spiced food traditions after the Renaissance and the new focus on primary ingredients and products from the New World; French cuisine's rise to dominance in Europe and America; the evolution of modern restaurant dining, modern agriculture, and technological developments; and today's tastes, which employ few rules and exhibit a glorious eclecticism. The result is the enthralling story not only of what sustains us but also of what makes us feel alive.