Good Times at Green Lake or Food

Good Times at Green Lake: Recipes for Seattle's Favorite Park

Author: Susan B Banks

"Charmingly blended here are the history and attractions of Seattle's popular Green Lake Park combined with menus and recipes to enrich the enjoyment of social gatherings. In addition to more than fifty enticing recipes, the book is embellished with historical and contemporary photographs depicting the delightful community of Green Lake, which for the past century has attracted recreationists in the urban Seattle area." "The food offerings are intended to enhance events and festivities in this or any other neighborhood setting. For more than a hundred years, Green Lake has been a gathering place for ethnic reunions, picnickers, performers, rowers, and exercise buffs. Good Times at Green Lake is for those who want to intertwine good local stories and fine food."--BOOK JACKET.

New interesting textbook: Human Cardiovascular Control or Preparing for Weight Loss Surgery

Food: A Culinary History (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism)

Author: Jean Louis Flandrin

When did the custom of meals served at regular hours begin? At what time did humankind rise to the table and commence eating with individual plates and utensils? Since when have we begun to speak of "cuisine" and to judge our foods, their methods of preparation, and manner of consumption on social criteria of gastronomic merit? In this rich, illuminating book an array of authorities explore the history of food from prehistoric times to the present day.

In the process, they dispel many of the myths about our culinary heritage that food lovers have come to take for granted:

• Those who believe pasta originated in China and was brought to Venice by Marco Polo will find another story here.

• The notion that flaky pastry dough was invented by Claude Lorrain is shown to be a spurious auxiliary to the renowned seventeenth-century painter's resume.

• The illusion that pâté de foie gras was invented in Strasbourg, France in 1788 is shattered by evidence of its existence much earlier in the eighteenth century.

• The original recipe for chocolate -- served as a beverage -- contained chili instead of sugar, and the eventual addition of sugar by the Spanish made both sugar and chocolate hot items throughout Europe.

In the course of this major intellectual endeavor the writers explore dietary rules of ancient Hebrews and the contributions of Arabic cookery to European cuisine, detail the table etiquette of the Middle Ages and the beverages of colonial America. They reflect on the McDonaldization of culture and on the burgeoning popularity of foreign foods in our times.

Food: A Culinary History is a testament to thediversity of human cultures across the centuries. Exploring culinary evolution and eating habits in a cornucopia of cultures from ancient Mesopotamia to modern America, from the Byzantine Empire to Jewish Mediterranean culture in the Middle Ages, the book is a rich banquet for readers. Culinary customs, the writers reveal, offer great insight into societies past and present -- from agriculture to social life, from religious beliefs to our most unreflected habits. Consider the development of the use of individual place settings in the Middle Ages -- as one writer here contends, the Black Plague may have been responsible in large measure for the decline of communal dining and the increase of space between diners.

Introducing the history of food into the realm of popular discussion, Food: A Culinary History is an extraordinary reading experience, a delicious intellectual feast for food lovers around the world.

Lingua Franca - Jacques Pepin

Essential reading for the historian and the lover of social studies as well as the modern cook and gourmet.

Lingua Franca - Julia Child

A delightful store of knowledge for anyone who loves to read.

Salon - Gavin McNett

There's a riff in one of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books that reduces the progress of civilization, from stone axes to starships, to a journey through three basic questions. "How can I eat?" wonders the primitive. "Why do we eat?" muses the philosopher. And finally -- eternally -- "Where should we have lunch?" (The answer, which Adams neglects to give in the text, is almost always Bahn Thai, on Route 22 in Green Brook, N.J.) But these aren't the only interesting questions on the subject. Somewhere in the middle of humanity's long struggle out of the darkness and toward a nice order of beef with red curry sauce came a reckoning with these: What is it, anyway, that people like to eat? When did they start eating that way? And how do they go about getting it all on the table?

It's taken us a surprisingly long time to begin answering them. Although for decades anthropologists have been trooping around the world, poking their noses into people's huts, yurts and lean-tos and solemnly scribbling down what they've found bubbling in the cooking pots, it's only recently that a number of academic subdisciplines have begun to deal with the culinary arts as a force of history and culture rather than simply as a means of sustenance or a point of philosophy.

Food: A Culinary History is a Franco-Italian anthology that sums up the progress to date from the historians' end of the trenches. It begins with the Stone Age and travels through to the present day, devoting several chapters along the way to the cuisines of each of the major European and Near Eastern civilizations. This isn't the only such collection to have come from the academy: Other food anthologies with colons in the title include Alan Beardsworth's Sociology on the Menu: An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society; the interdisciplinary Food and Culture: A Reader, edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik; and Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat, by cultural geographer David Bell. (All three are published by Routledge.)

But Food: A Culinary History excels in its thoroughness, its epic sweep and its rootedness in culinary tradition. (The French and the Italians have, after all, always taken food seriously.) It's also a pleasure: Once you get caught up in the story, the only signs that you're reading what's essentially a collection of academic papers are the occasional reference to the canonical structuralist theorist Claude Levi-Strauss and the occasional clunky academic pun. (The title of Levi-Strauss' book, The Raw and the Cooked, apparently presents a constant temptation.)

So while it's not often that one gets to say this, thank goodness the academics have arrived. Culinary history and sociology have traditionally been the preserve of gastronomes such as Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and M.F.K. Fisher, and amateurs such as Reay Tannahill. And while they've often produced brilliant, wonderfully readable books (Tannahill's Food in History combines some of the encyclopedic wallop of Brillat-Savarin with some of Fisher's unerring poise), a good deal of what they've written is, unfortunately, mucked up with centuries of hearsay, legend and other people's bad research.

Fisher, the doyenne of modern food writing, fell prey to a number of culinary red herrings, including the misconception that Roman patricians ate stupendous ceremonial banquets every evening and the notion that a medieval aristocrat could eat many times what a modern person can. The old "Marco Polo brought noodles from China to Italy" legend has been repeated until it's become accepted as truth; and the old story about the Greeks having two meals a day, one a kind of porridge and the other a kind of porridge, is more generally believed than what the Greeks themselves had to say about the issue.

Food: A Culinary History gives us a far more nuanced and common-sensical take on things. Marie-Claire Amouretti lets Hippocrates speak for the Greeks, who enjoyed a varied, fairly refined cuisine, especially in the cities. Florence Dupont describes a Roman vernacular cuisine with an Epicurean sense of moderation: Even the rich ate mostly vegetables, and meat was considered a pleasurable folly. Those lavish banquets, Mireille Corbier explains, were enmeshed in a complex system of social custom. Massino Montanari describes the slow transition from the semiagricultural hunting and gathering diet of the early Middle Ages to the starchier menu of feudalism, in which meat and conspicuous gluttony became marks of status.

The essays are somewhat uneven (the clunky stylists here, Corbier among them, aren't always well served by the translations), and the closer the story comes to the modern era, the more it comes to focus on issues of food production, economics and demographics -- which are compelling enough, but not in the prurient, foodie way that spying on people's kitchens and shopping lists is. Rather, they're compelling in a negative way: After having explored what -- and how -- the world used to eat, the pitiless journey through the rise of processed food and into the era of Coca-Cola and McDonald's leaves you wishing that you could go back and explore the "Where should we have lunch?" question further, with Hippocrates himself, over a bottle of wine and a big plate of whatever he's having.

Jacques Pepin

From the Bible and ancient Egypt to the ‘banquets´ of the Middle Ages and the ‘McDonaldization´ of Europe, Food: A Culinary History covers the immense history of the table throughout the world. Well researched and scholarly, it is essential reading for the historian and the lover of social studies as well as the modern cook and gourmet.

Herbert Kupferberg

A massive but tasty compendium called Food: A Culinary History demonstrates that the art of dining has gone through some astonishing changes through the centuries.

Eugen Weber

Vastly informative. . . . Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari have done a marvelous job of making all these aspects of food history make sense from prehistory to the present.

Julia Child

Now that gastronomy and the culinary arts in general are finally being accepted as legitimate academic subjects, it is time we had available to us a copious and worthy sourcebook. The Flandrin and Montanari Food: A Culinary History is exactly what we have needed. Literally overflowing with facts, anecdotes, and histories, it is a major compendium for those in the profession as well as a delightful store of knowledge for anyone who loves to read.

Michael Frank

The dense, illuminating, sometimes delightful, occasionally maddening collection of essays and papers introduced and edited by Flandrin and Montanari. . . aspires to be nothing short of a complete history of man's experience and conduct at the table. . . A cornucopia of captivating, subtle, myth de-bunking information, research and insight.

Nach Waxman

When two of Europe´s great food historians collaborate to edit a major collection on food and culture, past and present, there is much to celebrate. From the cuisine of ‘les temps prehistoriques´ to the food of today (‘le hamburger et la pizza´, more than forty scholars explore a huge range of fascinating topics. . . . A fine book that will bring enlightenment and pleasure to all those who can eat and think at the same time.

Journal of Social History

Food: A Culinary History is essential reading for students of the rich and influential culinary tradition rooted in the Mediterranean. It is provocative in providing a framework for a more general history of European foodways.

Library Journal

This English-language edition of L'Histoire de l'alimentation (1996) is an entertaining and informative addition to the study of food and the customs that surround it. The 40 essays comprising this volume were written by historians from various countries and focus primarily on the food history of Europe. The essays are arranged by time period, from prehistoric to modern times, with the bulk of the work concentrating on the medieval period and before. Introductory essays for each section provide a brief overview of the time period and its issues. This is an excellent compilation of consistently well-written articles on a wide range of topics, including the dietary rules of the ancient Hebrews, the origins of the restaurant, and the contribution of Arab cooking to European culture. Recommended for anyone interested in European social history in general and food history in particular. [Bibliographical references and index not seen.]--Mary Martin, Manchester, NH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

YA-The editors have diligently researched and presented the evolution of food, meals, and eating customs from the first prehistoric hunters to the fast-food chains of today, and show how they all have had an impact on culture in general. The fact that social status, geography, diseases, families, and religion have influenced the history of food is also covered. For example, the Black Plague is credited for the use of individual portions rather than a community plate. The chronologically arranged essays are written by different experts in the fields. While the emphasis is strongly European, some Asian influences are mentioned. Although written in a sophisticated manner, this is a thorough, up-to-date overview of a universally appealing topic.- Myra Tabish, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Booknews

Flandrin, scholar and founder of the international review , and Montanari, a specialist in foods of the Middle Ages at University of Bologna, bring together a number of gastronomical specialists to explore culinary evolution in cultures as diverse as ancient Mesopotamia, the Byzantine Empire, Renaissance Italy, and modern America. Articles explore the diversification of foods as the world has become more global, from the first excursions into neighboring villages, to the "McDonaldization" of modern culture. Several long held assumptions about our culinary heritage are rearranged, and new paradigms for how and why we eat what we do are introduced. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

What People Are Saying

Julia Child
A delightful store of knowledge for anyone who loves to read.

Table of Contents:

Introduction to the Original Edition
One: Prehistory and Early Civilizations
Introduction: The Humanization of Eating Behaviors, by Jean-Louis Flandrin
1. Feeding Strategies in Prehistoric Times, by Catherine Perles
2. The Social Function of Banquets in the Earliest Civilizations, by Francis Joannes
3. Food Culture in Ancient Egypt, by Edda Bresciani
4. Biblical Reasons: The Dietary Rules of the Ancient Hebrews, by Jean Soler
5. The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians: The Early Mediterranean Diet, by Antonella Spano Giammellaro
Two: The Classical World
Introduction: Food Systems and Models of Civilization, by Massimo Montanari
6. Urban and Rural Diets in Greece, by Marie-Claire Amouretti
7. Greek Meals: A Civic Ritual, by Pauline Schmitt-Pantel
8. The Culture of the Symposium, by Massimo Vetta
9. The Diet of the Etruscans, by Giuseppe Sassatelli
10. The Grammar of Roman Dining, by Florence Dupont
11. The Broad Bean and the Moray: Social Hierarchies and Food in Rome, by Mireille Corbier
12. Diet and Medicine in the Ancient World, by Innocenzo Mazzini
13. The Food of Others, by Oddone Longo
Three: From the Late Classical Period to the Early Middle Ages (Fifth--Tenth Centuries)
Introduction: Romans, Barbarians, Christians--The Dawn of European Food Culture, by Massimo Montanari
14. Production Structures and Food Systems in the Early Middle Ages, by Massimo Montanari
15. Peasants, Warriors, Priests: Images of Society and Styles of Diet, by Massimo Montanari
Four: Westerners and Others
Introduction: Food Models and Cultural Identity, by Massimo Montanari
16.Christians of the East: Rules and Realities of the Byzantine Diet, by Ewald Kislinger
17. Arab Cooking and Its Contribution to European Culture, by Bernard Rosenberger
18. Mediterranean Jewish Diet and Traditions in the Middle Ages, by Miguel-Angel Motis Dolader
Five: The Late Middle Ages (Eleventh--Fourteenth Centuries)
Introduction: Toward a New Dietary Balance, by Massimo Montanari
19. Society, Food, and Feudalism, by Antoni Riera-Melis
20. Self-Sufficiency and the Market: Rural and Urban Diet in the Middle Ages, by Alfio Cortonesi
21. Food Trades, by Francoise Desportes
22. The Origins of Public Hostelries in Europe, by Hans Conrad Peyer
23. Medieval Cooking, by Bruno Laurioux
24. Food and Social Classes in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy, by Allen J. Grieco
25. Seasoning, Cooking, and Dietetics in the Late Middle Ages, by Jean-Louis Flandrin
26. "Mind Your Manners": Etiquette at the Table, by Daniela Romagnoli
27. From Hearth to Table: Late Medieval Cooking Equipment, by Francoise Piponnier
Six: The Europe of Nation-States (Fifteenth--Eighteenth Centuries)
Introduction: The Early Modern Period, by Jean-Louis Flandrin
28. Growing without Knowing Why: Production, Demographics, and Diet, by Michel Morineau
29. Colonial Beverages and the Consumption of Sugar, by Alain Huetz de Lemps
30. Printing the Kitchen: French Cookbooks, 1480--1800, by Philip Hyman and Mary Hyman
31. Dietary Choices and Culinary Technique, 1500--1800, by Jean-Louis Flandrin
32. From Dietetics to Gastronomy: The Liberation of the Gourmet, by Jean-Louis Flandrin
Seven: The Contemporary Period (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)
Introduction: From Industrial Revolution to Industrial Food, by Jean-Louis Flandrin
33. The Transformation of the European Diet, by Hans Jurgen Teuteberg and Jean-Louis Flandrin
34. The Invasion of Foreign Foods, by Yves Pehaut
35. The Rise of the Restaurant, by Jean-Robert Pitte
36. The Food Industry and New Preservation Techniques, by Giorgio Pedrocco
37. The Taste for Canned and Preserved Food, by Alberto Capatti
38. The Emergence of Regional Cuisines, by Julia Csergo
39. The Perils of Abundance: Food, Health, and Morality in American History, by Harry A. Levenstein
40. The "McDonaldization" of Culture, by Claude Fischler
Conclusion: Today and Tomorrow, by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari