Back in my “Summertime Sadness” blog post I talked about a bunch of different topics, something I have been emphasizing more on in these recent posts, and given that it was recently Culinary Day, I wanted to talk more about food literature offered in our collection. Throughout this weekend there are many other unofficial holidays like July 26 being Tofu Day and July 28 being both Hamburger and Chocolate Days respectively. With that said, let take a bite out of some culinary history!
It is only fitting that I continue where I left off in the Summertime Sadness post by talking more about Nicole Cormier’s book “The $5 Meal College Vegetarian Cookbook.” In this cookbook, Cormier talks about all the tasty, cheap, and easy recipes that can be made by college students who follow a vegetarian diet.
Beyond just spicing up our lives, food has an amazing impact on the history of our cultures, and seeing as most Susquehanna students study abroad at some point in their four years here, it can be helpful to read up on some culinary tales. This is where Lucy Long’s “The Food and Folklore Reader” can come in handy as she explores food and fascinating fables from all around the world. Focusing more specifically on a singular continent, Edward Wang explores the cultural history of food throughout China, Japan, the Koreas, and more are explored, going into detail on how impactful flavors and spices have been in, “Chopsticks: A Cultural and Culinary History.“
Coming back to the melting pot of the world is “Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America” by Mayukh Sen. In this book, Sen recounts the importance of how different cultures mix and blend to create the culinary explosions that have taken over the United States. But some of the best foods can be plated in the fantastic Southern soul foods that have been massively impacted by Black Americans, a topic wonderfully explored in Anne Bower’s collection of short stories and family recipes in “African American Foodways.“
Yet culinary practices do much more than fill our lives with flavor, they effect the tides of history, a topic delves into in “A Taste for War” by William Davis, detailing the impacts food has on wars that form our world borders today. Beside the past that led to our culinary world today, food can also sway the outcomes of our future. In “Consumed: Food for a Finite Planet,” author Sarah Elton argues and attempts predictions about the future of our planet as populations rise and climate change disrupts the food production industries that exists today.
So far, I have talked mainly about history and culture, something that may not be as leisurely to everyone in the audience, but this is where I bring up M.F.K.’s revolutionary cookbook memoir, “With Bold Knife and Fork.” I read this book in my Multimodal Forms of Memoir class with Professor Glen Retief this past spring semester, and while I found this book to be a bit boring at times, it inspired an entirely new genre of memoir and non-fiction, bringing about some of the book I have even discussed today.
And to finish off, I find it only fitting to end on a sweet note. Everyone loves dessert, but not many understand the massive impact the sugar and sweets industry has on the world, from its dark origins tied to slavery to the modern labors found around the world today, Steve Almond exposes it all in “Candyfreak.”
In all, food is massively impactful on our society, after all it is one of the major needs that drives all of us. I hope that you find some of these books interesting and are able to reflect on some of your own family recipes and share them with others, because if one thing connects all of us, it is the wonderous world of sugar, spice, and everything nice.
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