"Everything we eat has a story. Knowing that story not only enhances the pleasure of the table, it also helps us regain a relationship to food---no longer as anonymous commodity, but as a critical part of our history, our culture, and the natural world we all come from. From almonds to wheat, Gregory McNamee tells us these stories with humor and intelligence in an engaging style that is both entertaining and enlightening." -- Michael Ableman, author of Fields Of Plenty: A Farmers Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It (Chronicle Books, 2005)
Gregory McNamee is a writer, editor, photographer, publisher, and publishing consultant. He is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, among them Blue Mountains Far Away: Journeys Into the American Wilderness, Gila: The Life and Death of an American River, and American Byzantium: The New Las Vegas. McNamee's work has appeared in such 5ournals and online publications as Science News, The Nation, Newsday, Discovery, The Los Angeles Times, Salon, and The Washington Post. He is a contributing editor to The Bloomsbury Review, a regular reviewer for Kirkus Reviews, and the literary critic and books columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. McNamee is also a consultant in world geography to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and a regular contributor to it and its online adjunct, Britannica.com. Please visit www.gregorymcnamee.com for more information. For news about this book, please visit http://moveable-feasts.blogspot.com.
Moveable Feasts is not an overall history of food; rather, it is an
easily readable history of selected foods with some recipes.
Starting with almonds and ending with wheat, McNamee discusses 30
foods such as eggplant, cranberry, honey, and olives. Each chapter
details the history of their production, culinary preparation,
evolution of use over time, some historical and contemporary
recipes, and a brief list of articles and books for additional
information. This book could be a useful addition to an extensive
food history or food science collection….General readers; lower-
and upper-division undergraduates.
*Choice*
All food is the product of history, but who ate the first tomatoes
and garlic, and how did they become so important in our diet and
ubiquitous at the grocery store? Writer, journalist, editor, and
critic McNamee presents a cultural geography of how food, such as
broccoli, corn, rice, and honey, has moved about the planet. Each
chapter contains a brief history of the food, basic nutritional
information, and trivia, spun together in a chatty, conversational
tone, followed by several recipes containing the featured
ingredient and suggestions for further reading….[t]his amusing
volume will likely appeal to casual readers; serious scholars of
food history, as well as those writing reports, will want to
explore further reading. For larger collections.
*Library Journal*
In delightfully readable prose, McNamee considers some 30 assorted
foods that make up a substantial part of the earth's comestible
bounty….Recipes accompany each entry, running the gamut from
ancient Roman and medieval through contemporary. Culinary
traditions include Iranian, Mexican, Italian, and Chinese. McMamee
imaginatively brings to life some archaic uses of Earth's bounty.
Succinct bibliographies offer readers further satisfaction.
*Booklist*
Of all the cultivatable ingredients, why have we chosen certain of
them and rejected others? McNamee evaluates 30 of the most
important ingredients, organized alphabetically, from almonds to
wheat. He looks at their scientific makeup and nutritional value,
as well as their social and culinary history and cultural
relevance….Each entry includes several recipes, culled from a
variety of contemporary and historical sources. The author's
research is exhaustive, his pages packed with fascinating detail,
and he does an excellent job of marrying the historical and
scientific aspects of each ingredient….Well-executed.
*Kirkus Reviews*
McNamee asks a question that has occurred to many people while
eating artichokes: how did humans come to consume certain foods and
why were they chosen over other foods? His answers draw on history,
anthropology, chemistry, biology and other fields and describe the
adaptation of 30 foods, including apples, bananas, chocolate,
peanuts, pineapples, tomatos and watermelons. The descriptions
include recipes from many culinary traditions around the world.
*Reference & Research Book News*
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