What the Ancient Romans Ate

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0226290328/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="A Taste of Ancient Rome" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z9ZF5PRTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br /><br />I read Giacosa's <span style="font-style: italic;">A Taste of Ancient Rome</span> quite a few years ago, and recently found a really nice used copy of the hardback edition. So I just reread it. I was amazed that I remembered it so well, but it's totally absorbing.<br /><br />The author's main message is that most days most Romans ate very very simple food. The banquets with vast numbers of dishes and the over-the-top recipes for flamingo tongues, camel toes, and little song birds were in some cases exaggerated, in others reflective only of very ostentatious events put on by show-offs. Of course I remember the dormice roasted on a stone and coated in poppy seeds and honey: the Romans loved dormice and they fattened them for the table in funny little jars. Of course I remember some of the satiric scenes from literature where the cook would say he forgot to gut a whole roast pig -- and then he'd slit it open to show all kinds of sausages. I have kept these images in mind ever since I first read the book.<br /><br />Plain wheat, spelt, or barley porridge with vegetables; many egg dishes; flavoring with garum, a fermented fish sauce; ordinary cured olives; and mainly vegetarian foods seem to have been the real Roman diet. They drank water or wine (often spiced in a wide variety of ways). They viewed milk to be the drink for children and people who lived in the country. And quite a few Romans wrote about food, giving this author plenty of material, not just the recipes from the famous Apicius.

What the Ancient Romans Ate

I read Giacosa's A Taste of Ancient Rome quite a few years ago, and recently found a really nice used copy of the hardback edition. So ...

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"The Food Snob's Dictionary"

I recently read all the definitions in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Food Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Gastronomical Knowledge</span> by David Kamp and Marion Rosenfeld.<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0767926919/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="The Food Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Gastronomical Knowledge" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gxamY4XdL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br /><br />This is a fun read. The authors list food snob topics from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Acme Bread Company</span> to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Zingerman's</span>. The overall attitude of the book is by necessity snarky and superior, but I found it bearable since I share a lot of their dismissive analysis of food snob concerns.<br /><br />I particularly liked the little supplementary lists. For example, "Faux Food Snobbery: Six Foods that Non-Snobs Mistakenly Believe are Snobworthy (and That Snobs Can't Be Bothered With)" -- truffle oil, Earl Grey tea, broccolini, kiwi fruit, Chilean sea bass, and Bell peppers in colors like orange and purple. Or the list of appropriate ways to refer to "Esteemed Food Personages in Conversation with Other Food Snobs," which includes "Bud" for Calvin Trillin and "Simca" for Simone Beck. Or the list of films that "All Food Snobs Must Profess to Have Seen" -- including two of my favorites, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Tampopo</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Babette's Feast</span>. Actually, I did see most of these, though I doubt if I fit their definition as a food snob.<br /><br />I was going to cite my favorite definition, but I can't decide which one it is. I'll just mention the entry for the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Super-Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara</span>, which is renowned because Julia Child used to eat there. The authors write: "Though the torn-canvas roof and lines out the door suggest an enervating exercise in underwhelming reverse chic, the tacos -- made with thick, homemade corn tortillas... -- are actually good." They don't even mention that these tacos are made by an elderly woman while you wait (and the line behind you waits). Or that there are other taquerias in Santa Barbara where the lines are shorter. I was last there in 2003, maybe it's different now.

"The Food Snob's Dictionary"

I recently read all the definitions in The Food Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Gastronomical Knowledge by David Kamp and Ma...

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What we ate this weekend

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVA7LvborPua4fLM8a6eoU3jfg540UJKi492EtVjXtU9NIlpB8v-LrdQ3KUYSS77xQxAc6CeYWgEl_3sVFO-k3JeDxiBK8d4gk9Q8r-TXgcNWmMF0sk9VNTculk5gieNIGCiAD-xJv7ca/s1600/boeuf.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560376777680965842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVA7LvborPua4fLM8a6eoU3jfg540UJKi492EtVjXtU9NIlpB8v-LrdQ3KUYSS77xQxAc6CeYWgEl_3sVFO-k3JeDxiBK8d4gk9Q8r-TXgcNWmMF0sk9VNTculk5gieNIGCiAD-xJv7ca/s400/boeuf.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>Carol made a stunningly gorgeous boeuf en croute for dinner on Friday night; a mushroom sauce and another sauce were also on the menu. She also made a delicious soup, an inventive kale salad, and a nutmeg-flavored cake. A splendid meal! She's simultaneously creative and patient: a winning combination. I don't have anywhere near the patience needed for such things.

What we ate this weekend

Carol made a stunningly gorgeous boeuf en croute for dinner on Friday night; a mushroom sauce and another sauce were also on the menu. She a...

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The wide, wide world

In the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> today: an article about a Brazilian town where eating a particular species of ant is a tradition: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/world/americas/05ants.html?_r=1">Pesticides Threaten Ant-Eating Tradition in Brazil</a>. I appreciated the tone of the article, which describes the ant-hunting methods of the people in the town without prejudice against their choice of food. They enjoy the flavor. That's it. Although I have no particular wish to taste this, I am very interested in how varied human nutrition can be.<br /><br />I've read other books and articles about foodways that challenge my comfort levels. One is:<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sharks-Fin-Sichuan-Pepper-Sweet-Sour/dp/0393332888/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294236260&sr=8-3"><img alt="Product Details" border="0" class="" height="160" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LXM0f6B9L._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160_.jpg" width="160" /><br />Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China.</a> The author, Fuchsia Dunlop, describes her process of learning to cook and eat a number of foods that are unusual in her native England and elsewhere in European food traditions, but completely common and appreciated in China. The reader gets a positive picture of how another culture might differ in a basic way about food.<br /><br />I've also read a book about Australian natives' annual feast on the Bogong moth. These moths were gathered during their migration. Moth hungers roasted the moths individually on a hot stone; "their peanut-sized abdomens are full of protein, with an oily texture and a taste not unlike roast chestnuts." As many as 500 people from different tribes would gather to eat moths during the season when they were available. People from many tribes also socialized, exchanged goods, and arranged marriages. Needless to say, these customs are no longer possible in modern Australia. (<span style="font-style: italic;">Moth Hunters of the Australian Capital Territory</span> by Josephine Flood, 1996)<br /><br />It's a wide, wide, world.<br /><br />UPDATE: For a much more amusing version of weird things people eat, see <a href="http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2011/01/the_five_worst_canned_foods_yo.php#more">this</a>.

The wide, wide world

In the New York Times today: an article about a Brazilian town where eating a particular species of ant is a tradition: Pesticides Threaten...

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Food as Architecture

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTv1r1jUW6QZk5ngOy7XqbHX1o_KtGY04DqS-D7TxFRVebgwU_c0SNbYmJ3I1_r-GzDULRHAIQMiBZDiCYSGaOpm0Mwsxl1Jh7Gn5xMO3BsKTEuHsqhqCUXqMRkAeMBBJDPba1tYWa1ka/s1600/turkey4890.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557586930634951538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTv1r1jUW6QZk5ngOy7XqbHX1o_KtGY04DqS-D7TxFRVebgwU_c0SNbYmJ3I1_r-GzDULRHAIQMiBZDiCYSGaOpm0Mwsxl1Jh7Gn5xMO3BsKTEuHsqhqCUXqMRkAeMBBJDPba1tYWa1ka/s400/turkey4890.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 388px; height: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Traditional English Christmas dinner: roast turkey, apricot-bread stuffing, cranberry jelly, vegetables</span> -- that's how it was offered on the menu at the resort restaurant in St.Lucia where we spent Christmas. The turkey and stuffing were quite delicious; the broccoli and carrot a bit uninteresting; I did enjoy my meal.<br /><br />However, I found myself questioning why such a straightforward tradition needed such an elaborate and not very traditional presentation. The meat was rolled up around the stuffing, the cranberry sauce piled on top. A sprig of rosemary topped the cranberry jelly, its flavor not especially integrated into the food.<br /><br />Architectural presentations have been a restaurant fad for at least 25 years. At first this style characterized a certain type of edgy restaurant -- I recall being impressed by the sheer height of the decorations at the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, for example. Soon everyone was doing it. On the food channel, most demos end with the words "let's plate it up [pause for piling and pouring sauce and picking up a fork]. . .MMMM."<br /><br />No aspiring chef on TV or in real life would just place the food in neat, separate servings on a dinner plate, large or small. A large single-person platter is normal. On the platter's center stands a tall structure. The supporting layer is usually whole grain or mashed potatoes. Next probably a small wedge of meat topped or decorated with vegetables. Small green sprigs, halves of tiny cherry tomatoes, or other garnishes are applied selectively. In the 80's the garnish was often raspberries, but this trend has mercifully declined. Beyond the tower and the garnish, the vast remainder of the smooth china surface must be adorned with swirls of sauce. (Other than the Christmas turkey, most of my dinners in St.Lucia did have swirls of sauce.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccMWX52mHnTyCpJCzKFUS6aM_6_IM8pD_i3CtlTmLDH64KuVwPLvVymu3D_6AtJuJDBxXYFs_kRA2vziGhVxF9S5kW9pEWC3Lq55vQQokAmK0e3Z-6ZJG7tvxoth2kydPurplnmhcHY3f/s1600/duck0337.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557611963068689010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccMWX52mHnTyCpJCzKFUS6aM_6_IM8pD_i3CtlTmLDH64KuVwPLvVymu3D_6AtJuJDBxXYFs_kRA2vziGhVxF9S5kW9pEWC3Lq55vQQokAmK0e3Z-6ZJG7tvxoth2kydPurplnmhcHY3f/s200/duck0337.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" /></a>Cooking shows, blogs, dedicated books, and cooking classes show home cooks how to create food presentations on their own chinaware plates (preferably large, white, and square). When I made the Julia Child recipe for duck a l'orange, it occurred to me that this style had not yet been invented when her book was written in the early 60s, and when I served it, I simply placed the foods on a platter for serving. I've never learned the new way, just the old. Silly me!<br /><br />How many people study these blogs and shows and serve their family a little cylindrical tower of food with a sprig of rosemary? Or do they eat even traditional feasts from a plate piled to the rim with all good things? A plate that looks sort of like this version of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which is about the same as the English Christmas dinner:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGU2GPM9lcxp7zm3Ky8X8q1BCbb5RpBR9qy6E-KOBPFBAygDQsPbUP1pc4ZF5wbpyv9CuW6x1uDhqfvr4d64miqrY1LKHKRN9u2DH0Acl-2DJlIuJcd_KJGeDr8Z2tlRrPi4LmrUPNiW1P/s1600/turkey2009.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557605928636385090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGU2GPM9lcxp7zm3Ky8X8q1BCbb5RpBR9qy6E-KOBPFBAygDQsPbUP1pc4ZF5wbpyv9CuW6x1uDhqfvr4d64miqrY1LKHKRN9u2DH0Acl-2DJlIuJcd_KJGeDr8Z2tlRrPi4LmrUPNiW1P/s400/turkey2009.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px;" /></a><br />I guess the most extreme presentations in this field are dessert. An article in this week's New Yorker describes the extremest cases -- writer Adam Gopnik explored the architectural trend in dessert. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/03/110103fa_fact_gopnik">His description</a>: "three upright cylinders—small towers of something wrapped in something—with the tops sliced at an angle; a crumbly landscape of some kind; and a reflecting pool running around the edge."<span><br /><br />The food tower fad has been with us a long time. I wonder when it will be superseded by another trend.<br /></span>

Food as Architecture

Traditional English Christmas dinner: roast turkey, apricot-bread stuffing, cranberry jelly, vegetables -- that's how it was offered on...

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Here's to Julia Child

For New Year's Eve I decided to make a very retro dinner: duck a l'orange from the first volume of <span style="font-style: italic;">Mastering the Art of French Cooking</span>. I neglected Julia's suggestion of simple side dishes and made acorn squash with cranberry relish and kasha to go with it. Our friends Elaine and Bob brought appetizers (spreads from Detroit's fantastic Star Deli) and dessert (a rum cake from a bake sale, made by the wife of the Russian Orthodox priest in town).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312059041/" title="nyeve0329 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0329" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5285/5312059041_025e643115.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312648500/" title="nyeve0330 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0330" height="334" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5312648500_7d766170fe.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312058493/" title="nyeve0336 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0336" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5125/5312058493_7d2d4f79f7.jpg" width="333" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312648288/" title="nyeve0342 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0342" height="685" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/5312648288_5b760528d5_b.jpg" width="1024" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312649000/" title="nyeve0347 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0347" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5312649000_edf6c0d97f.jpg" width="433" /></a>

Here's to Julia Child

For New Year's Eve I decided to make a very retro dinner: duck a l'orange from the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooki...

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Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjroz0-eplZSr4-x3pke7rrc8ZWZwqaJuIhO76ij5PRhaIta6hZzmgXzeXM39tAMEa9dHwSZgA2iffPeiFLMAnRNxbIJEnKHgAyP40dLLHnYP42btsT9BHwN4WOhCYQFz3OUv6guAwDUhU5/s1600/venice4984.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556843749948775170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjroz0-eplZSr4-x3pke7rrc8ZWZwqaJuIhO76ij5PRhaIta6hZzmgXzeXM39tAMEa9dHwSZgA2iffPeiFLMAnRNxbIJEnKHgAyP40dLLHnYP42btsT9BHwN4WOhCYQFz3OUv6guAwDUhU5/s400/venice4984.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>Delightful meals eaten during a crime investigation are among my favorite features of detective novels. For Christmas, I received a cookbook based on the novels of Donna Leon and her detective Guido Brunetti of the Venice police. I could make the delicious meals that Brunetti's wife cooks, such as veal liver with polenta (p. 210) -- which sounded so good in <span style="font-style: italic;">Death in a Strange Country</span>. Or see if I could do better than Paola and Guido's daughter Chiara, who struggled to make mushroom-filled ravioli (p. 85) in <span style="font-style: italic;">A Noble Radiance</span>.<br /><br />I wasn't familiar with this series, so I purchased and read several of Leon's novels on my Kindle. Learning about the detective's favorite food before I read about the detective is really a total reversal! I'm so grateful to my friend Sheila who thought of this gift. Now I have both a Venetian cookbook and a new detective series to love.<br /><br />Brunetti's wife Paola makes food to rival the French home cooking of Madame Maigret, Simenon's detective. I think her cooking sounds better than the food made by Nero Wolfe and his chef. Brunetti's lunches and snacks in typical little Venetian lunch-counters and bars are different -- but make me recall the local color in Whataburger, where Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn eat in the novels of Tony Hillerman. Leon's novels are a bit mannered but nowhere near the exaggerated style of Robert Parker, whose detectives' food habits come close to parody.<br /><br />Food in detective fiction -- a glorious tradition!

Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch

Delightful meals eaten during a crime investigation are among my favorite features of detective novels. For Christmas, I received a cookbook...

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