Food Culture

Drink investigates the history of this Jekyll and Hyde of fluids, tracing mankind's love/hate relationship with alcohol from ancient Egypt to present day. Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the War of Independence, Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, slave trade, and failed experiment of national Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world's most famous drinks - and drinkers. Packed with trivia and colorful characters, Drink amounts to an intoxicating history of the world.

In 1949, a young Chinese housewife arrived in Taiwan and transformed herself from a novice to a natural in the kitchen. She launched a career as a cookbook author and television cooking instructor. Years later, in America, flipping through her mother's copies of Fu Pei-mei's Chinese cookbooks, historian Michelle T. King discovered more than the recipes to meals of her childhood. She found, in Fu's story and in her food, a portal to another time, when a generation of middle-class female home cooks navigated the postwar transformations taking place across the world.

The ultimate guide to Guinness and the history, culture, and facts to help you find the perfect pint—from the pub to the pour—wherever you are. Including the all-important elements to look for in a Guinness pour—from exact foam height and storage temperature to the crucial glass shape and settling time—as well as what to run away from when seeking a beautiful pint and a crème de la crème guiding list of pubs in New York and around the world, Ian shares his expertise from many a “pint of plain” sank and enjoyed.

In Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, Vandana Shiva explores the devastating effects of commercial agriculture and genetic engineering on the food we eat, the farmers who grow it, and the soil that sustains it. This prescient critique and call to action covers some of the most pressing topics of this ongoing dialogue, from the destruction of local food cultures and the privatization of plant life, to unsustainable industrial fish farming and safety concerns about corporately engineered foods.

Every country may have different foods, but almost all of them have a dish with noodles. All around the world, kids share their favorite regional pasta dish. What is your favorite sauce and noodle recipe? Do you share the same favorite as other kids from your country?

What’s for breakfast in Nigeria? Snack time in Germany? How about dinner in Vietnam? Travel around the world to learn about the foods and cultural practices that make up mealtime with this fascinating series. Each book includes a simple recipe for a representative dish. This volume includes Meals in Nigeria, Meals in Russia, Meals in Turkey, and Meals in Vietnam.

What’s for breakfast in Nigeria? Snack time in Germany? How about dinner in Vietnam? Travel around the world to learn about the foods and cultural practices that make up mealtime with this fascinating series. Each book includes a simple recipe for a representative dish. This volume includes Meals in China, Meals in Germany, Meals in India, and Meals in Mexico.

For most Americans in the 19th century, it wasn't what you ate, but how much you ate, that mattered. Late in the century, doctors wrote books like How To Be Plumb and the voluptuous woman was the ideal. The famed actress Lillian Russell, considered by many the epitome of beauty, weighed almost 200 pounds. Today, in contrast, Americans seem obsessed with calories, diets and slimness, and with eating healthful amounts of vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins. What sparked this remarkable revolution in the way we eat.

Wurgaft and White use vivid storytelling to bring food practices to life, weaving stories of Panamanian coffee growers, medieval women beer makers, and Japanese knife forgers. From the Venetian spice trade to the Columbian Exchange, from Roman garum to Vietnamese nuoc cham, Ways of Eating provides an absorbing account of world food history and anthropology. Migration, politics, and the dynamics of group identity all shape what we eat, and we can learn to trace these social forces from the plate to the kitchen, the factory, and the field.

The remarkable untold story of a network of amateur researchers who debunked the Warren Report, raising questions about JFK's assassination that remain unanswered to this day—a riveting history of obsession, heartbreak, and the myth of the great American century from an Atlantic staff writer...

A new American cuisine is forming. Animals never before considered or long since forgotten are emerging as delicacies. Parts that used to be for scrap are centerpieces. Ash and hay are fashionable ingredients, and you pay handsomely to breathe flavored air. Going out to a nice dinner now often precipitates a confrontation with a fundamental question: Is that food?

Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. In this updated edition of the classic work, Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous "Coffee Crisis" that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the "third-wave" of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs.

An illuminating inquiry into the complicated relationship between what we eat, what our mothers taught us, and what we believe about ourselves—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Women Food and God We see the world through our wounds, not as it really is. We see what we believe...

From The New York Times bestselling author of a Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing comes an update of John Steinback’s trip in Travels with Charley, a cross-country journey exploring modern America with Lauren Hough’s signature observational wit, searing social commentary, and perspective as...

Welcome to the Scotland Travel Guide, a meticulously crafted compendium that beckons intrepid explorers and culture enthusiasts to embark on an unforgettable journey through the heart of the Highlands and the storied cities that define this land. This guide is your passport to a realm where history echoes through ancient castles, where misty landscapes whisper tales of the past, and where vibrant cities seamlessly blend tradition with modernity.

Have you ever pondered... What led to the creation of the humble sandwich? Why does chocolate have that irresistible allure? What's the story behind our morning cup of coffee? Like the ever-curious, you've perhaps questioned the origins of these everyday items on your plate. Prepare yourself for an enlightening journey as you uncover your favorite foods' unexpected and perhaps slightly peculiar history.

Between 1850 and 1950, experts and entrepreneurs in Britain and the United States forged new connections between the nutrition sciences and the commercial realm through their enthusiasm for new edible consumables. The resulting food products promised wondrous solutions for what seemed to be both individual and social ills.

Often blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans, fast food restaurants like McDonald's have long symbolized capitalism's villainous effects on our nation's most vulnerable communities. But how did fast food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods in the first place? In Franchise, acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders, who believed they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality.

You probably don't realize that your supermarket is filled with foods that have a military origin: canned goods, packaged deli meats, TV dinners, cling wrap, energy bars…the list is almost endless. In fact, there's a watered-down combat ration lurking in practically every bag, box, can, bottle, jar, and carton Americans buy. Anastacia Marx de Salcedo shows how the Department of Defense Combat Feeding Directorate plans, funds, and spreads the food science that enables it to produce cheap, imperishable rations.

‘You shouldn't be with a Chinese girl…that should be my girl,’ a man in Singapore allegedly said this to a Chinese-Indian couple as he spat towards them. In a world brimming with such prejudice and cultural tensions, a remarkable phenomenon emerges: nearly one in five marriages in the USA...