Choice cuts: a savory selection of food writing from around the world and throughout history

479 Pages·2002·4.4 MB·English

by  Mark Kurlansky

A Ballantine Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group Copyright © 2002 by Mark Kurlansky All rights
reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in
Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Owing to limitations of space, permission acknowledgments can be found on
pp. 469–474, which constitute an extension of this copyright page.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
publisher upon request.
eISBN: 978-0-34545858-2
v3.1
My dear boy, when curds are churned,
the finest part rises upward and turns into butter.
So too, dear boy, when food is eaten the choice parts rise
upward and become mind.
—C U
HANDOGYA PANISHAD
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
INTRODUCTION: Better Than Sex
Gourmets and Gourmands
CHAPTER ONE:
Mark Kurlansky on Gourmets (1999)
Ben Sira Against Gluttony (second century )
B.C.
Le Mésnagier de Paris on Gluttony (1393)
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin on Gourmets (1825)
Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière on Gourmets
and Gluttons (1804)
Auguste Escoffier on the Art of Cooking in Modern
Society (1907)
Henri Gault and Christian Millau on Nouvelle Cuisine (1973)
Ludwig Bemelmans on Being a Gourmet (1964)
A. J. Liebling on Boxing Away Gluttony (1959)
Food and Sex
CHAPTER TWO:
John Ash on M.F.K. Fisher’s Warm Sandwich (1999)
M.F.K. Fisher on the Virility of Turkish Desserts (1937)
Emile Roumer on Peasant Love (c. 1930)
Brillat-Savarin on Women Gourmets (1825)
Grimod de la Reynière on Why Blondes Go Better Than Brunettes
with Food (1808)
M.F.K. Fisher on Bachelor Cooking (1949)
Memorable Meals
CHAPTER THREE:
Eating at Cab Calloway’s (1948)
Martial’s Dinner Invitation (first century )
A.D.
Herodotus on Egyptian Dining (fifth century .)
B.C
Plutarch on Lucullus Dining with Himself (first century )
A.D.
Frances Calderón de la Barca on Mexican Food (1842)
Lady Nugent on Overeating in Colonial Jamaica (1802)
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa on Sicilian Dining (1958)
Chiquart on Preparing a Royal Feast (1420)
Ernest Hemingway on How He Likes to Eat (1951)
Sarah Josepha Hale on Thanksgiving Dinner (1841)
Nelson Algren on the Land of Mighty Breakfasts (c. 1940)
W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice on Icelandic Food (1936)
Hooker on Icelandic Food (1809)
Martial on Applause for Pomponius (first century )
A.D.
Charles Dickens Dines at Delmonico’s, New York (1867)
Favorite Restaurants
CHAPTER FOUR:
Irving Berlin on Lunching at the Automat (1932)
George G. Foster on New York Oyster Cellars (1850)
Joseph Wechsberg on Tafelspitz at Meissl & Schadn in Vienna
(1948)
A. J. Liebling on Restaurant Maillabuau in Paris (1959)
M.F.K. Fisher on Monsieur Paul’s (1943)
James Beard on Meier & Frank’s in Portland (1964)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Café (1972)
Markets
CHAPTER FIVE:
Émile Zola on the Triperie at Les Halles (1873)
Edna Ferber on a Chicago Market Window (1912)
Claude McKay on a Fruit Stand in Harlem (1930)
Samuel Chamberlain on the Fish Market in Marblehead, Mass.
(1943) 95
Wole Soyinka on an Evening Market in Nigeria (1981)
Not Eating
CHAPTER SIX:
Sholom Aleichem on Yom Kippur (1902)
John Steinbeck on Starvation in California’s Harvest (1938)
Mencius on Feeding China (third century .)
B.C
Brillat Martial on Not Being Fed (first century )
A.D.
Rants
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Pellegrino Artusi Against Frying Salt Cod (1891)
Elizabeth David Against the Garlic Press (1986)
Alexis Soyer in Defense of the Frying Pan (1860)
Grimod de la Reynière Against Peacocks (1804)
Ludwig Bemelmans Against Paris Waiters (1964)
George Orwell on Paris Cooks and Waiters (1933)
A. J. Liebling Against Food That Does Not Know Its Own Mind
(1959)
Karl Friedrich von Rumohr on Emotions to Be Avoided While
Eating (1822)
Martial Against Poetry at the Table (first century )
A.D.
On Bread Alone
CHAPTER EIGHT:
Galen on Refined Bread ( 180)
A.D.
Platina on Bread (c. 1465)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on Hot Biscuits and Dutch Oven
Rolls (1942)
Clementine Paddleford on the Best Buns of 1949
Elizabeth David on Toast (1977)
Mimi Sheraton on Bialys (2000)
The Mystery of Eggs
CHAPTER NINE:
A Baghdad Recipe for Onions and Eggs (1373)
Hannah Glasse on Making Eggs Large (1747)
Lydia Maria Child on Poached Eggs (1829)
Pellegrino Artusi on Drinking Eggs (1891)
James Beard on Scrambled Eggs (1974)
Angelo Pellegrini on Chicken Intestine Omelettes (1948)
Eating Your Vegetables
CHAPTER TEN:
Cato on Preserving Green Olives (second century .)
B.C
Pliny the Elder on Onions (first century )
A.D.
M.F.K. Fisher on the Dislike of Cabbage (1937)
Cato on Cabbage Eaters (second century .)
B.C
Elena Molokhovets on Borscht (1897)
James Beard on Radishes (1974)
Karl Friedrich von Rumohr on Cucumbers (1822)
Jane Grigson on Laver (1978)
Giacomo Castelvetro on Spinach (1614)
Karl Friedrich von Rumohr on Spinach (1822)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on Okra (1942)
Annabella P. Hill’s Gumbo (1872)
Giacomo Castelvetro on Artichokes (1614)
A Hill of Beans
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Galen on Beans and Peas ( 180)
A.D.
Waverley Root on Cassoulet (1958)
José Maria Busca Isusi on the Smoothness of Tolosa Beans (1972)
178
The Fish That Didn’t Get Away
CHAPTER TWELVE:
Alice B. Toklas Murders a Carp (1954)
Taillevent’s Oyster Stew (c. 1390)
Robert May on Oyster Stew (1685)
Anton Chekhov on Oysters (1884)
Eleanor Clark on Belons (1959)
Archestratus on Small Fry, Filefish, and Sowfish (c. 330 .)
B.C
José Maria Busca Isusi on Cod and on the Basque Problem (1983)
Tabitha Tickletooth on the Dread Fried Sole (1860)
Alexandre Dumas Père on Crabs (1873)
Peter Lund Simmonds on Land Crabs (1859)
Caroline Sullivan’s Jamaican Land Crabs (1893)
José Maria Busca Isusi on Eels (1983)
Ernest Hemingway on Fish in the Seine (1964)
Poultry, Fowl, and Other Ill-Fated Birds
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Anthimus on Chicken, Peacocks, and Other Domestic Poultry
(sixth century )
A.D.
Caliph al-Ma’mun on Chicken and Pistachios (1373)
Hannah Glasse on Turkey (1747)
Waverley Root on Guinea Fowl (1980)
F. T. Cheng on Bird’s Nest (1954)
Ludwig Bemelmans on Poulets de Bresse (1964)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on Killing Birds (1942)
Rawlings’s Blackbird Pie (1942)
The Meat of the Matter
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Plutarch on Eating Meat (first century )
A.D.
Claude Lévi-Strauss on Boiled vs. Roasted (1968)
Alexandre Dumas Père on Beefsteak (1873)
Anthimus on Eating Raw Meat (sixth century )
A.D.
Nelson Algren on Nebraska Buffalo Barbecue (c. 1940)
Samuel Chamberlain on the Sunday Evening Barbecue (1943)