(Part 3) Best gastronomy essays books according to redditors

If you want to get royally pissed off at our government and the food industry, I highly suggest reading both The Omnivores Dilemma and Food Politics.

The general run down is: You're eating garbage, and you have been for a long time, and when people try to properly educate the masses (including children), you better believe you're going to be greeted with massive opposition from food industry giants and their lobbyists.

This book:

Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3E4XN4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Cm7EDbV36GPZ1

It really flipped my perspective. You're right, it's a social taboo. And like a lot of taboos, once you try to look at it objectively, it suddenly doesn't make much sense. Reading about the cultures who have regularly depended on insect protein and considered it completely routine made me wonder how we developed such a repugnance for them while still thinking it's a great idea to eat animals. Suddenly it all seemed so...reasonable.

do you have any idea what soap operas she watches? A lot of the ones my mom watches are based on stories by Jin Yong

Also if you happen to be Cantonese, I got this book for my mom for mother's day and she really loved it. (it's in English and Chinese and has both recipes and stories from Hong Kong)

Having grown up near Los Angeles, I've come to deeply appreciate the different styles of Mexican cuisine that are present in the city. Over the years, it simply became unfair to lump all food that had semblance to Mexican cuisine into one category, so there was a movement that began a few years ago with acclaimed food writer Bill Esparza and legendary food critic Jonathan Gold to distinguish the various styles from each state in Mexico in the city. There was also a new style of Mexican that emerged over the years in L.A. called Alta California that was a sort of haute cuisine approach to Mexican cuisine. When it comes to "Mexican food chains", I definitely feel they have their place, but it comes back to the notion of lumping these chains into one generic category, which many people unfortunately do. That's my one issue with even mentioning the word "Mexican" to describe the food sold in these spots.

For further research, I recommend a few sources:

Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America by Gustavo Arellano

L.A. Mexicano by Bill Esparza

The Migrant Kitchen, S2, E1: Alta California

Taking a break from Emilie Autumn's The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls to read The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT,DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Kim, Behr, and Stafford (it is supposed to be "the" book on DevOps, and I'm in a position where I may be able to transition to a role heading that way, so I figure I should read up):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZRBLHO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

I also need to stop being lazy and open up my shiny, new copy of The Cooking Gene, by Michael Twitty (I've been freinds with him for over 12 years and have been looking forward to this book for a while - he writes and educates a lot on our contributions to Americas culinary history, so I'm excited to see the fruits of his labor):

https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Gene-Journey-American-Culinary-ebook/dp/B01BSJIBJI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1502629183&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Cooking+Gene

Food in History

In the Devil's Garden

Both of these are really interesting. I especially liked In the Devil's Garden, which is about the history of forbidden foods.

What's the book about spices you're reading? That sounds interesting as well...

Her most famous cookbook is The Taste of Country Cooking, which is still in print. You may also be interested in this book of essays and remembrances about her.

Photo found here, it was one of several taken by John T. Hill.

Hey anytime. There's also another book too.

I've added one of the meals from the first book to my repertoire and my wife loves it. It's so easy too. Here it is. Note that there's two instruction sets, "For 4" and "For 50" 'madon.

Here's how I do it and it turns out perfectly.

-Cut three big peppers in half (green/red/yellow preferably), cut the halves into thick slices.

-Cut a bag of baby potatoes in half.

-Cut one onion in half, cut the halves into thick slices.

-Preheat oven to 450

-Cover cookie sheet in aluminum foil

-Mix and spread everything into a thin layer on cookie sheet.

-Sprinkle with black pepper

-Lightly drizzle olive oil over all of it

-Put in oven for 25 minutes

-Take it out of the oven, place 10-12 Italian sausages on top and let it cook for another 12 minutes.

-Rotate sausages, let it cook for another 10 minutes or until sausages are brown.

Makes a good breakfast, lunch for work, or supper. Two sausages and a scoop full of veggies makes for a good meal.

For Indian food, r/IndianFood is a helpful community. This is a list of various cookbooks by Indians, aimed at Indian home cooks.

https://www.amazon.com/INDIAN-Cookbook-Maharashtra-Watering-Cuisines/dp/151908997X
https://www.amazon.com/Saraswat-Brahmins-Cookbook-Annapoorna-Nayak-ebook/dp/B01EDUWGMC
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Marathi-Cookbook-Kaumudi-Marathe/dp/0143068024
https://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Treasures-Marathwada-Mai-Deshpande-ebook/dp/B012FC31RE
https://www.amazon.com/dp/9384625213
https://www.amazon.com/dp/817991755X
https://www.amazon.com/dp/8175251743
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1596636629
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0141000872
https://www.amazon.com/dp/9381626995
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140271848
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Sindhi-Cookbook-Aroona-Reejhsinghani/dp/0143032011
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0615676073
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143029509
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140255656
https://www.amazon.com/dp/9351567079
https://www.amazon.com/Kerala-Kitchen-Hippocrene-Cookbook-Library/dp/0781813441
https://www.amazon.com/Dastarkhwan-e-Awadh-Cuisine-R-K-Saxena/dp/9351773884
https://www.amazon.com/Benares-rasoi-Cuisine-Collection-Varanasi/dp/8171676103
https://www.amazon.com/Ruchira-Selected-Maharashtrian-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/8129129736
https://www.amazon.com/Raschandrika-Saraswat-Mahila-Samaj/dp/8171542905
https://www.amazon.com/Bengali-Five-Spice-Chronicles/dp/0781813050
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-North-East-Cookbook/dp/0143030272

This is a set of cookbooks from the 1950s, and has limitations in language (but extensively covers the Tamil Brahmin cuisine).

https://www.amazon.in/Cook-See-Part/dp/819297605X
https://www.amazon.in/Cook-See-2/dp/8192976068
https://www.amazon.in/Cook-See-3/dp/8192976076

Happy reading.

2 suggestions:

White Trash Cooking: Surprisingly interesting both in recipes and accompanying text.

The Escoffier cookbook: The absolute classic that few people have. Good for recipes, amazing as reference.

I have 'The Pho Issue' from Lucky Peach:

> A striking number of pho restaurants hew closely to themes of sovereignty, referencing dates and figures that would be instantly recognizable to most anyone who knows Vietnamese history.

> Names like Pho Pasteur, Pho 54 and Pho Saigon serve as a way to reinforce and vet the anti-Communist credentials of the management [1954 Geneva Accords split Vietnam in two].

> In 1975, North Vietnamese seized Saigon. For those who were sympathetic to the fallen Vietnamese government, that meant exodus from the country. Pho 75s, Pho 83s and Pho 86s memorialize those years of departure and arrival in new homes.

I don't have a tried and true recipe but I just checked my copy of Pok Pok to see if there was a tom kha recipe, there isn't. So why am I writing this? If you're interested in Thai cooking I can't recommend Pok Pok highly enough.

It's a good read, even if you never cook from, but you should cook from it.

If you find a good recipe, put up some pics of the result and share with us!

If you "search inside" this book on amazon you can see their recipe for Tom Kha. It has galangal, kaffir leaves, fish sauce and chilis so how bad could it be?

Do ebooks count? I'm n addict!

Thanks for the contest!

For an even lighter read but still good check out Eugenia Cheng's books... (and YouTube videos)...

Beyond Infinity (Set theory and Infinity)

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Infinity-Expedition-Limits-Mathematics/dp/0465094813/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=how+to+bake+pi&qid=1555533568&s=digital-text&sr=1-3-catcorr

​

How to Bake π (category theory!)

https://www.amazon.com/How-Bake-Pi-Exploration-Mathematics-ebook/dp/B00TT1VLSG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=how+to+bake+pi&qid=1555533464&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-catcorr

​

The Art of Logic in an Illogical World

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Logic-Illogical-World-ebook/dp/B0791N8R3V/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=how+to+bake+pi&qid=1555533568&s=digital-text&sr=1-2-catcorr

But does he have bacon soap or bacon bandages?

Also, you get an upvote for introducing me to the phrase Bacon is Meat Candy

edit: item

Do you want fermented or brined?

I store my fermented in the fridge, but I live in hot places.

You can definitely pickle in a bucket. Do you have a cool, dark place to store them? Root cellar?

I suppose you could pickle by whatever method you want, then seal the jars, but it might affect the shelf life and texture of the finished pickles.

Are they specifically pickling cucumbers, or the larger, more tender kind?

Refrigerator pickles can last for months.

I like this Ebook (vintage text) for learning. https://www.amazon.com/Every-Step-Canning-Cold-Pack-Method-ebook/dp/B007987U7M

Man with a pan http://www.amazon.com/Man-Pan-John-Donohue/dp/B005UVQR3S

> I'm running out of food ideas.

www.amazon.com/Stir-Frying-Skys-Edge-Ultimate-Authentic-ebook/dp/B003IYI70A?ie=UTF8&keywords=chinese%20stir-fry&qid=1463754118&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

I've seen this book at Feltrinelli https://www.amazon.it/napoletanit%C3%A0-semiserie-napoletanit%C3%A0-consigliato-comodamente/dp/8890550406 , seemed interesting, but I haven't bought it yet. Not exclusively about learning the "dialect", I think, but still an interesting addition, I suppose. Other than that it should be helpful to to watch Neapolitan series like Gomorra or listen to music, like Xoor said.

Restaurant Success by the Numbers

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1607745585/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_1607745585

Running a Restaurant for Dummies

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118027922/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_szX-BbB2D5461

Front of the House

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1941868029/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_qDX-BbSZ4HSJZ

The "For Dummies" series is pretty good if you can look past the title. Every owner wants to run their business better, whether they've been at it for one year or twenty.