Reddit mentions: The best gastronomy history books

Regarding kettlebells- it's unlikely at your current fitness level that your doctor will be cool with a swing progression, but I think farmer's walks and turkish getups could be great for you. Think about your muscle-building efforts in terms of the five fundamental human movements: Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, and Loaded Carry. Push is like a bench press, overhead press or pushup. Pull is like a row, or pullup. Hinge is a deadlift, kettlebell swing, or good morning. Squat is self explanatory, and Loaded Carry is like a farmer's walk. Ideally to make a balanced routine you'd get some work done in every category over the course of a week.

How much food: There are many TDEE calculators out there- I'd reccomend plugging your stats into a few to see what you get. Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is how many calories you need to eat to stay the weight you currently are. (Note: your TDEE is not your BMR (Base Metabolic Rate). Your BMR is what you would need to consume to maintain weight if you were in a coma and absolutely not doing anything.) To stay the same weight, you track your calories to try to hit that number, and weigh yourself regularly (I reccomend early morning before breakfast- makes it easiest to catch when the normal couple pounds of variation starts to drift) and put it in to myfitnesspal so you can see it on a graph. Tracking your weight and your calories is the only way to know if your estimated numbers are the correct TDEE for you.

This last bit can be confusing. There's the obvious issue with correctly estimating your exercise when you put it into the calculator- what does 'three times a week' really mean? But there's also the tracking calories accurately issue: You know how you sometimes hear people say 'I only eat 1100 calories a day, but I just can't lose weight!' Welllllllll.... no. They are either not recording food they eat, or not recording it correctly. Food labels can be up to 25% off, and it's very easy if you're measuring in anything other than grams (looking at you, myfitnesspal listings for 'one chicken breast'. Not helpful) to be off by quite a bit. But what you can be is consistent. If your daily calorie count is consistently wrong by 300 calories, your weight probably won't move much. (500 calories one way or the other off of your TDEE is about the right amount to gain or lose weight.) So what you do is watch your weight to see what's actually happening. If you don't see any movement over the course of a couple weeks, then you change your calorie goal for the day with the knowledge that it's a bit like aiming for a target with a gun that pulls to the left. In order to hit the target, you're overcompensating by aiming 'too far' to the right.

Macros: Depends on the kind of exercise you are doing, but for now when you're setting up your myfitnesspal goals I'd suggest trying for an 50% carb, 25% protein 25% fat split. This is actually a pretty high carb ratio, but probably less than you are currently eating. When you adjust to it, try to increase your protein and fats. And do try to get your carbs from 'complex' sources. Get your sugar bundled with some fiber like it is in fruit and whole grains. (There's a whole deep and I think very interesting rabbit hole about grain and how we process it interacts with our bodies. Basically grain is pretty okay, but what we do with it to make it into modern bread is pretty terrible.)

Okay, that was probably super overwhelming, but I wanted to give you a good base of understanding.

TLDR: On a daily basis, it looks like this. You've calculated your TDEE, decided you want to gain weight so you're eating goal is 500 calories over that. Before breakfast, you weigh yourself and put that into myfitnesspal during breakfast computer-time, during which you can also enter breakfast (probably the same thing every day, or one of a couple of common things, so easy to enter) and lunch (which you precalculated when you made up the big batch of it on the weekend.) Then you have a pretty good idea of what macros you need to 'fill in' with, and can make educated decisions about snacking and dinner. Maybe once a week look at your weight and food graphs, and see if you are hitting your goals, and what you might want to adjust.

Fiber is actually pretty easy to get enough of if you eat fruits and veggies. But if you have yogurt for breakfast, soup and sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner, you can find yourself in trouble even if you're 'eating healthy' and at a good weight. If you're worried about it, there's nothing wrong with taking a fiber supplement. I actually buy psyllium husk and mix it into my morning yogurt- I rather like how it thickens up the texture. But you can also take it in pill form, both work.

While we're on the topic of supplements- there are only a couple that have any proven health benefits to a basically healthy person. Vitamin D has good data, as does fish oil. Unless your doctor tells you that you do, you don't need a multivitamin. I also suggest eating probiotics- the data coming out on the gut/brain connection is really quite compelling, and home-made saurkraut/kimchi/preserved lemons/kombucha is actually dead-easy to make if you're interested, and can be a nice 'Wow, you made that?!' confidence boost.

Books that helped me learn:

• Enter the Kettlebell by Pavel
  
  
• The Well Fed books you're already looking for
  
  
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
  
  
• Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett
  
  
• The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

Well, I'm half-Chinese. I'll give you two cookbook recommendations which are full of recipes which really resonate with that part of my background:

• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. While I'm generally not big on Chinese cookbooks not specializing in one or two regional cuisines, this book gets a pass because it's so organized and pedantic. It builds itself up from simple to complex and includes recipes which build on each other. It also features a large section on ingredients. An additional pro is that it includes the Chinese characters which makes it easier to find the proper product at your Asian grocer. I love it so much that I lugged this book to Taiwan with me and used it as my cooking guide/reference.
  
• Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. Of all the regional Chinese cuisines with which I have experience, I love the multi-layered flavors of Sichuan the most. It was through Dunlop's book that I first discovered this magnificent cuisine and it encouraged me to discover some of the Sichuanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Instructions are clear and she does a great job bringing Sichanese food to life. An absolute must own if you are at all interested in regional Chinese food. Her book on Hunanese food is also pretty killer.
  
  In addition to the aforementioned Chinese food, I'm just a fat piggy who loves to eat. Here are a few more recs:
  
  
• Thai Food by David Thompson. This is the bible of Thai food for English speakers. It's nearly 700 pages long and not a page is wasted on fluff. It's more than just a cookbook, it's a anthropological study on Thai people, their history and the way they eat. An immense book. If you are more into pictures, check out his book on Thai Street Food.
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. This was the book that really unlocked Vietnamese food for me. I adore how many fresh herbs/veggies are used and how it creates a complex, yet light, cuisine. And don't get me wrong when I say light...it's as full flavored as can be, but without heaviness. In the interim since this book came out, others have showed up on the market which are as good (see Charles Phan's recent book), but Nguyen's book will always have a special place in my heart.
  
• ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller. Thomas Keller is arguably the most important American chef of the past 20 years, so when he turns his sights on homestyle food, you can be sure it's done with correct technique and style. While this book isn't as notable as TFL cookbook or his sorta primer on sous vide cooking, I'm including it because it has recipes which people will actually use. Unparallelled technique, good recipes and delicious food equal a winning cookbook. One note: it's not dumbed down and some of the recipes take time, but everything I've ever made from it has been great.
  
• Alinea by Grant Achatz. {Disclaimer: I worked for Grant Achatz for a couple of years.} Everyone should own at least one cookbook which is completely out of reach, but serves to inspire. When you flip through this book, your jaw will drop and you will wonder, multiple times, "WTF?!?!?!" It's an amazing testament to how open and possible American cuisine is at the moment and you'll do yourself well to flip through it. Additionally, the photographs and the book itself are phenomenal. The paper, in particular, is well worth the price of admission. It's sexy shit, yo.
  
  Feel free to drop me a line if you need more recommendations. I've got quite the cookbook collection (I love to cook, it's not just cookbook porn) and love to share my thoughts.

Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.

With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.

Japanese

Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.

If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.

Chinese

What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.

For your reading pleasure:

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.

Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.

Go forth, make bao.

Korean

Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.

You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.

Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.

Thai

David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.

Vietnamese

Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.

TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?

Hi, I'm a farmer although I do not have pigs. This is a really smart question to ask instead of jumping to conclusions.
I'm going to massively over simplify things there but...

Animals don't really have a "role in society" like you put but they do serve a function in an ecosystem. No ecosystem on earth exists without animals.

In nature when you have a monoculture (one species) that is how you spread disease. Nature loves diversity but in our farming practices because of industrialization we have massive farms with one crop so we can use machines efficiently.

You need to have diversity on a farm to break pathogen outbreaks. Imagine you had cows in a barn and they got sick and pooped everywhere all winter. Well if you bring in a new batch of cows they are just going to get the same disease. Most diseases don't transfer across species so if you bring in another species between cycles you can efficiently manage pathogens naturally.

A pig has the ability to root around and turn over ground. They are natures plow, their noses are absolutely amazing. They also eat anything so they can literally turn waste (food scrap or poop) into meat. Pigs tend to live in the forest in nature so they root around in the forest soil and turn over all sorts of things. They clear out waste and create space for new life to flourish, helping the forest or ecosystem stay healthy.

It is true what you say that farm animals have a purpose but they exist on the farm to be used for work then eaten. The domesticated animals we have now are very far removed from their wild ancestors.

One thing to think about with pigs is that they do not sweat, they control their body temperatures by creating mud wallows where they roll around in and cool off. But because they don't sweat toxins can accumulate in their body.

In Stoicism there is a word "Arete" that means excellent character. For a pig to have arete it would have to be outside with the ability to root around somewhere and socialize with other pigs. If someone does eat meat, as long as the pig got to live with arete and was killed in a humane manner it should be well within most peoples ethical frameworks to eat.

If you want to learn more there are 2 awesome books I have read on pigs. I really enjoyed Lesser Beasts, the author goes into detail about how much the ancient romans loved pork. He even mentions Seneca in it.

Lesser Beasts: https://www.amazon.ca/Lesser-Beasts-Snout-Tail-History/dp/0465052746

The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: https://www.amazon.ca/Marvelous-Pigness-Pigs-Respecting-Creation/dp/1455536970

Hey, thanks for your comments :-)

I'll definitely take on board what you've said about freezing the meat. I actually did freeze it for about 10 mins as it said to do that in the book, but I had no real frame of reference for when it said 'slice thinly'. To me, the way I'd sliced it was quite thin, but obviously I can see now that it's actually rather thick for this particular dish. I will take into account what you say here about using a long knife as well. What's butcher paper by the way? Can that be bought in most supermarkets?

I'm not sure what the brand of the noodles was. The noodles were something of an after thought and I didn't get the right ones. I'd spent quite a long time finding a butcher's that had bones that I could use for the broth, and when I finally managed to get them (had to go to three different butchers and drive around quite a bit before I managed to get what I needed) I didn't have much time left, so just got the best match for the noodles I could find.

I'll make sure to use the proper fine rice noodles in the future.

I didn't use thai basil (what's the difference between thai basil and standard basil? Is there a significant difference?), but we did actually use fresh mint and we also had lime.

I actually scooped a large amount of fat out of the broth as it cooked, but left a little bit in. I'm pretty sure the recipe said a little bit is ok, but again, I had no real frame of reference so made my own call on that. I'll remove as much as I can next time then.

It was all done with beef bones, so no chicken stock or anything like that. I'll write up the blog article tomorrow if I can, so you'll be able to see the full process from start to finish. I took pictures at each point along the way, so you'll be able to see exactly how I made it then.

The blog is called 'cooking from books', and the idea is actually to take recipes in published books and then cook them and post the results up for everyone to see. I came up with the idea after I started trying to learn cooking but found some books had no pictures in them, or only showed the very final product - I felt like it could be useful for other people, and it'd also push me to cook more stuff and try new things :-)

This is the book I got the recipe from

and this is my blog :-)

One final comment - would you be ok with me possibly using your comments here (and subsequent comments) in the article itself? I'm going to mention that I first found out about pho on reddit in the article, and it'd be cool to say how I posted up the results and got some good feedback from you guys :-)

Thanks!

This has become a trendy topic recently, and there's been a lot of great material published. Here are a few books I'm a big fan of:

Cwiertka, Katarzyna J. Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity. London: Reaktion Books, 2006. This book has really stayed with me. It traces the imperial, military, economic, and political roots of the modern Japanese diet and then follows its export internationally. I love this book.

Norton, Marcy. Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: a History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008. I've only read an article on chocolate that later made its way into this book, but it was fabulous. Not only an eye-opening exploration of chocolate's pre-colonial and colonial history in the New World, but a wonderful treatment of its introduction in the Old World. Norton does a fabulous job of demonstrating the complexity and multi-directionality of colonialism here, and of defending the place of taste within that history.

Mintz, Sidney W. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Penguin Books, 1985. This is an absolute classic. Mintz is an anthropologist, and this is an anthropologist's history of the role of sugar and the taste for sweetness in a multi-century sweep of world history. Mintz does so much here. Such a must-read.

Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. Tastes of Paradise: a Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. This book is fun and readable, but not super scholarly. There are plenty of big provocative claims that make you rethink the use of stimulants in Europe -- but some of those claims need a bit more research, I think.

Gewertz, Deborah, and Frederick Errington. Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the Pacific Islands. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. And why not a Pacific-centered book? This is also written by anthropologists. It focuses on Papua New Guinea and New Zealand -- and Tonga a bit -- and explores the flap food trade in Oceania. Flaps are fatty portions of sheep that are extremely unhealthy and are variously seen as cast-off waste food, a symbol of neo-colonialism, and a route toward some version of "the good life." Great book -- even if it has more questions than answers.

Hope that helps. There are plenty more. Let me know if you're interested in something specific.

I'm a mathematics major working in computer science who reads anything that isn't nailed down and is very active in the SCA (historical re-enactment).

I basically stumbled onto this without looking for it. I got bits and pieces from books about other topics entirely and had an epiphany.

Jared Diamond's "Guns Germs And Steel" is about the history of warfare and spends a few chapters talking about how agriculture is a very important weapon of war. It compares and contrasts the ability of nomadic and agrarian peoples to store calories and how that in turn dictates the range of their raiding bands. An army, after all, runs on its stomach and logistics is critical. In doing this it spent some time talking about how nomadic people's collect food and a few pages noting that women do most of that. Which was the exact opposite of what I'd thought to be the case because - like everyone else - I'd been immersed in popular culture that worships hunting and assumes men have always played the economic roles they play today.

That prompted me to dig deeper into that leading to reading various studies about how aboriginals spend their time to validate Diamond's claims and they confirmed him. The Grandmother Hypothesis and studies showing health and survivability of primitive children are not correlated with having a father but strongly correlated with having a maternal grandmother pretty much nailed it and completely shifted my view.

What got me thinking about the definitions of hunting and gathering was that there doesn't appear to be a solid agreed upon scientific definition for them. I'd look specifically for examples of women hunting out of curiosity and when I'd find them ... I would disagree with the papers. Sure, Mardu women bring home a lot of meat. Their environment is chock full of lizards. Lizards everywhere. You can't swing a basket without having it fill up with lizards. Is that "hunting"? ... No ... I don't think so. And this author counts fishing as hunting(in a tribe where men do it a lot) while that author counts it as gathering(in a tribe where women do it a lot) and that author puts it in a third category entirely ... there is some obvious bullshittery going on here but I myself couldn't decide if its hunting or gathering.

Then I read The Omnivores Dilemma and it has a chapter on mushroom hunting. The author described in great detail the massive difference between harvesting domesticated plants ... plants that want us to take their fruits ... and hunting wild plants that don't want to be found by us. He ardently defended the term "hunting" over "gathering" for seeking out wild truffles by describing the difficulty he experienced in doing it.

That made it click. The difference between hunting and gathering is the likelihood of failure. Once I applied that definition to it it became very easy to classify a given activity as hunting or gathering.

SCA life, as well, makes you realize that the past is a different time with different social dynamics. Being in a space with lots of people who practice traditional crafts and seeing how their work is respected contrasts hugely with modern life. In modern life we look at a sweater knitted by your grandma as a crappy horrible gift that you only wear when visiting grandma to make her feel good. In the SCA there are people who spend entire events chatting by a fire while spinning thread or weaving clothe and they are immensely popular with a queue of people a mile long who want some of their output to make garb with. Their work is highly valued and grants them high social status. I'd be perfectly happy with the "traditional" division of labor if women's work paid as well and had the same social status it had before we mechanized it.

Edit It took about two years between starting to think about it in GG&S and having the epihphany while reading Omnivores Dilemma. Another important book in the middle was Mismeasure of Man. Its about the junk science people engage in when trying to justify the current social order. By focusing on historical divisions that are no longer sensitive subjects (like today in america we think of a person of English descent and a person of Irish descent simply as White whereas once this was a bitter divide with english people comparing irish people to animals and insisting they were inherently less intelligent etc) it is able to highlight just how stupid people can be when trying to "scientifically prove" that the dominant social group is dominant because of inherent superiority. The reason I remember the Mardu paper so clearly is that I read it right after Mismeasure and having just read Mismeasure the political agenda of the Mardu paper author was painfully obvious. It was clear the author was pushing a feminist agenda by trying to get women in on the mantle of hunting. See! Women hunt too! Look at these women hunting! I could see how I wanted to jump on that train and shout, "Women hunt too!" but I was also painfully aware how if I did I'd look as silly as the people who Wanted To Believe papers dissected in Mismeasure because the argument wouldn't convince anyone who didn't want it to be true already. The things we honor, idealize, and romanticize about hunting ... simply don't apply to picking lizards up off the ground and eating them. That they are made of meat is a technicality. I couldn't articulate why it wasn't really hunting yet, but I knew I wasn't happy with calling it hunting and felt drawing attention to the Hunting Women of the Mardu was a bad political argument.

Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.

For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).

Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.

Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.

And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!

Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.

Jane Grigson's English Food (1979) is probably as close as you'll get to an English Mastering the Art. It's as much a history and anthrolpological study of English food as it is a collection of recipes, but its recipes are extensive and excellent.

Elizabeth Luard's The Old World Kitchen (1987), which ranges across the European continent, nonetheless contains a fine, idiosyncratic collection of English recipes in its midst (and is probably the best single-volume reference of old world peasant cooking traditions).

The incomparable Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977) covers every inch of the English bread-making tradition, from milling wheat to presenting at the table. David's attentions were usually focused in a more southerly direction -- the foods of France, Italy -- but she treats the baking traditions of her home nation with as much detail and respect as she does those of more foreign locales

If you want a more contemporary, chef-y book, check out Fergus Henderson's more recent The Whole Beast (2004), which is delicious, detailed, and delectable.

And finally, if you want something a lot more chef-y, Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck Cookbook (2009) will show you contemporary English gastronomy at its most ambitious (but also, maybe, its most pretentious). It sure is pretty to look at, tho.

I pretty much only read non-fiction, so I'm all about books that are educational but also interesting :) I'm not sure what your educational background is, so depending on how interested you are in particular subjects, I have many recommendations.

Naked Statistics and Nate Silver's Book are both good!

Feeling Good is THE book on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is good, as is Eating Animals (granted, Eating Animals is aimed at a particular type of eating)

Guns, Germs and Steel is very good.

I also very much enjoyed The Immortal Live of Henrietta Lacks, as well as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman :)

edit to add: Chris Hadfield's Book which I haven't received yet but it's going to be amazing.

I disagree with this and with /u/flyinggeorge, by a little. It is fun and easy to poke fun at people about what is or isn't natural but that's just to say that (a) people have an exceedingly poor grasp of chemistry, and (b) definitions are hard.

But on the other hand it's really easy to do this: how much work, and of what sort, has something undergone between its creation and your consumption? The more work, and the less comprehensible the work is to the consumer, the more industrial / processed the ingredient is.

Take Chez Panisse, or St. John.

I can look at the menu and tell you pretty well exactly what everything is and how it's made, and my knowledge of chemistry fell off around the same time I could drive a car. I'm willing to bet that I could go into the kitchen and somebody would know where everything, or nearly everything, was sourced.

Take sweet potatoes or shrimp I can get at the farmer's market. I can tell you the same sort of stuff - how it was grown/caught, by whom, and how it got to my plate. If you're eating with me and I'm serving you that, you can ask and I can tell you a pretty good history of the food from seed / egg to stomach.

Compare a steak (or if you prefer, a bag of greens) from the grocery store: I know what it is, but I don't know - and probably don't want to know - where it came from, or how the cow/greens was/were treated en route.

Compare American cheese: I think we'd all agree it's one step further removed from the steak / greens because the ordinary consumer probably can't tell you how it's made, much less where.

Now where does "swiss or cheddar" fall? It depends, right? Take Rogue River Blue, for instance. I can tell you how it's made, from what it's made - even which cows (generally) produce the milk. And it's done the same way, roughly, as cheese has been made for a long goddamned time. So near as I can tell, it's closer to the sweet potato / shrimp.

Which is why I asked about the Chez Panisse example - I'm willing to bet that most of the folks here, if we were eating at Chez Panisse and a dish came out with American cheese on it, we would be a little bemused, because however you define 'natural,' that's not it. If rogue river blue comes out, you're probably OK with that. Why? One fits in the idea of what Chez Panisse is all about; the other does not.

Now, I'm not meaning to make a normative judgment. If you went to Alinea or the Fat Duck, you'd hardly be surprised to find cheese + sodium citrate, and you'd be less surprised if you couldn't learn about the origin of every ingredient. They're all great places, but they do different things.

This is all just a longwinded way of saying "just because definitions are squishy doesn't meant they're meaningless."

Edit: tl;dr: Maybe 'natural' means 'I know what this is and where it comes from.'

Double edit: typos / clarity

Triple edit: it occurs to me that I'm borrowing, heavily, from Michael Pollan's argument in The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Ancient Roman cooking had lots of dips and breads, as well as roasts and, indeed, fish sauce. It's remarkable how much Roman cuisine resembles modern-day middle eastern cuisine, for example, in its use of dips. Olives, garlic, and onions were common flavorings, and lentils, chick peas, and beet leaves and other greens, were common as well. Olive oil and wine were ubiquitous. Meat and cheese would have been far scarcer than it is today. AgentPoptart did a fine job of explaining many of the details.

There actually exists a recipe book for Roman cooking available for purchase. An acquaintance of mine who is super hardcore about ancient Rome adapted it and other sources for his own recipe book, which I own in complete form and have somewhere around my house, but since I'm not sure I'd be allowed to share the whole thing, here's my favorite recipe of the lot, a sort of olive tapenade. It goes great on really dense, good bread.

Recipe for Roman Olive Spread ("Epityrum")

Recipe based on Dalby & Grainger, based in turn on Cato's De Agri cultura 119

8 oz olives (any kind, but kalamata are best)
4 tbs red wine vinegar
4 tbs olive oil
1 heaped tsp chopped fennel
2 tsp chopped cilantro
2 tsp chopped rue
3 tsp chopped mint (less if you're using dried mint)
1 tsp cumin

1. In a food processor, chop all the herbs together, as finely as possible.
   
2. Add the liquids and continue chopping.
   
3. Add the olives and chop to desired fineness.
   
4. Serve with bread and cheese.
   
   The dish is said to improve after a night in the fridge. It keeps for a very long time, as long as the solid parts are submerged in the liquid. You can add a bit of olive oil as necessary to keep the solid submerged.
   
   (Edited for formatting. Also, you know what, I'm going to ask this guy if I can scan and post his recipe book. Pending his permission and my ability to find it, I'll post it tomorrow night.)
   
   Edit: I've heard back from my friend, and he doesn't think it's a good idea to throw the recipes up on the internet because they're heavily derived enough from other books that he wants to avoid copyright claims. That being said, here's a few more resources for Roman recipes:
   
   Besides The Classical Cookbook, linked above, there's also Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens, by Mark Grant.
   
   Those who can read Latin can read the ancient recipe book by Apicius here. Most modern readers, however, would probably prefer Apicius: A Critical Edition, or, less expensively, Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today. There's also a Yahoo mailing list for Roman-style cooking enthusiasts.
   
   A note on fish sauce: my friend notes that liquamen (the general word for fish sauce, garum being a specific and expensive kind) can be easily substituted by using modern South-East Asian fish sauce, but if you can't find that, soy sauce usually does the trick.

I'm no food historian but I am immensely interested in the subject, so sorry to chime in!

A History of Food is a great book to start with, and really emphasizes the importance of grains and farming in our history.

Bite Size Vegan does a pretty great coverage of specifically vegans in history.

Jas Townsed & Son has a great channel about 18th century food history, and there are a lot of recipes that just happen to be veg or are very easy to veganize by using something like vegan butter.

The Hygeian Home Cookbook: palatable food without condiments, is the first known completely vegan cookbook and totally worth a read.

Whether it is actually better or not, that's highly debatable and according to taste. But the cuisine in London/ UK is not neglectable and has a very rich background.

One of the most influential chefs in the world such as Heston Blumenthal (which is largely inspired by Harold McGee, an American), Marco Pierre White (he partly wrote modern cuisine, also an awesome person to hear) and Michel Roux (both senior as junior) have worked their careers in the UK. Each of them have defined a part of cooking/ cuisine in their way.

Not to forget the Commonwealth as well indeed, which brought a lot to the UK.

Really been watching too much MasterChef UK/ Australia and to one of my cooking teachers who really loves to read about history/ science of food. Then again, it's awesome to hear and to know as food is a way of sharing love, express your creativity and bonds and is such an important aspect of our lives/ society/ culture.

Some books which are awesome and I also have in my collection are:

• The Fat Duck Cookbook (don't imagine creating a dish of it, it's more about the insight and the science behind the dishes as they are easily a couple of pages)
  
• On food and cooking
  
• The Devil in the Kitchen
  
• Kitchen Confidential
  
  Honestly, couldn't forget the latter of course.

I really like history books that don't at first seem to be history books, but are explorations of societies sometimes seen through the lens of a single important concept or product. For instance, Mark Kurlansky has several books such as Salt; A World History, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, The Basque History of the World, Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea that teach more history, and more important history than is usually taught in US public schools.

History need not be rote memorization of dates and figures. It can, and should be a fun exploration of ideas and how those ideas shaped civilizations. It can also be an exploration of what did not make it into the history books as Bart Ehrman's Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament or his Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why and Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels attest.

I don't wish to come across as too glib about this, but I feel like the average person might well retain more useful knowledge reading a book like A History of the World in 6 Glasses than if they sat through a semester of freshman history as taught by most boring, lame generic high schools. I feel like often the best way to understand history is to come at it tangentially. Want to understand the US Constitution? Study the Iroquois confederacy. Want to understand the French? Study cuisine and wine. Want to understand China? Study international trade. And so it goes. Sometimes the best history lessons come about from just following another interest such as astronomy or math or cooking. Follow the path until curiosity is sated. Knowledge will accumulate that way. ;-)

I've really enjoyed everything I've made from Viva Vegan, which is chock full of Latin food from Central to South America (so definitely different from a Mexican cookbook, and not Mexican food heavy in the slightest, so probably not a lot of overlap). It has more of a this is how my mom/abuelita/tia/o made it point of view than a this is how they made it ages ago because blah blah grow really well in this region kind of thing.

This one isn't vegetarian, but it's a great book anyway, and probably a good compliment to an actual Mexican food cookbook - Tex-Mex by Robb Walsh has history and historic recipes from Texas' chili queens, the original Ninfa's, and so many other huge Tex-Mex institutions in Texas that we, our parents, and grand parents grew up with. I'm vegan now, but frequently go back to this book when I want to make something at home that I could easily use seitan/jackfruit/Daiya/whatever in and could never get out at a restaurant.

How do you like Salud? I've been thinking about checking it out.

in medieval and tudor times this would certainly be true, but by the victorian period the spice world had drastically changed!

depending on where you lived in the world there may be wild herbs available to forage. mint, fennel, dill probably, garlic for sure all grow wild in the UK, or could be cultivated in gardens. in more arid places like the middle east/northern africa/the mediterranean things like rosemary, oregano, bay would be available.

and during victorian times spices would have been more available to people in the UK and elsewhere in europe because of colonization of india (which started in the 1600s ish, and would have been well established 200 years ago in the early victorian period.).

in medieval and tudor times spices would have been very expensive for sure, but once the east india company and the spice trade really gets rolling they become much more available. a lot of victorian cookbooks mention spices quite frequently, so one can assume they were being used regularly!

and if you're interested in salt, which victorians would have certainly eaten a lot of and been buying quite regularly, mark kurlansky's book "salt" (it's just called salt) is a truly fascinating look at the micro-history of salt!!

Ah, I love non-fictin as well. Though most of my favorites are more science oriented, there should be a few on here that pique your interest.

• Salt: A World History - A fascinating history of humanity's favorite mineral. Wars have been fought over it, it sustained whole economies ... you'll be surprised to learn just how much of human history has been influenced by salt.
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything - One of my favorite books. Bryson tells the story and history of science through amazing discoveries and stories about the quirky people who made them.
  
• Homage to Catalonia - A mostly auto-biographical account of George Orwell's time fighting for the communists in the Spanish Civil War.
  
• Capital: Vol. 1 Marx's seminal work and a logically sound criticism of capitalism. Whether or not you agree with his proposed solutions, his criticism is spot on. Depending on how leftist you are, you may have already read The Communist Manifesto. It's a nice introduction to Marx's ideas, but you should really go straight to the source and just read Capital.
  
• Why We Believe What We Believe - The neurology of belief, what could be more interesting? The authors go into great detail on how belief happens at the neurological level, as well as summing up nicely all sorts of findings from differing fields relating to belief. The most interesting part is the research the authors themselves conducted: fMRI scans of people praying, Buddhist monks meditating, Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and an atheist meditating.

Wow.

OK, so I'm not used to such reasonable and cogent responses on reddit. Especially since I was being all ass-holey. You'll just have to give me a moment or two.

...

OK, yes I read what you posted. To be honest, it struck me as being a bit defensive (not by you, but by those who have a chip on their shoulder concerning foie gras). I'll be even more honest... I don't like pate, so even if there was a "humane/free-range" variety of foie gras (and in fact, there is ), I still wouldn't eat it. I just listed it because, along with sow-stalls and battery farms, it's considered a poster-child example of the "evils" of modern industrial farming.

I'm an omnivore. I eat meat. I actually often consider going vegetarian for both health reasons (our guts do not handle the huge amount of meat with which we stuff ourselves) and for ethical reasons (I don't really like the idea of killing other creatures). But then I smell the wonderful aroma of a lamb roast, or friend bacon and my resolve crumbles. Therefore, when I do decide to eat meat, I make a personal decision to only eat meat and meat products that I know come from producers that minimize (or at least reduce) the suffering of the animals concerned. I'm sorry, but in all that I have read and heard, foie gras is a product that is produced cruelly. I will concede there is an interesting article here on this argument.

These are the same reasons I don't eat veal (animals forced fed milk; their locomotion reduced; quite often the flesh is dyed etc). It just doesn't appeal to me.

When I eat chicken, I choose free-range. The same for eggs and, most definitely, the same for pork. It's a personal decision and it's not something I crusade about or indeed try to convince other of. As such, I think I'm perfectly entitled to hold such views.

I read The Ethics Of What We Eat and I would recommend it as a reasoned and reasonable approach to this problem. I have heard good things about The Omnivores Dilemma, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Thank you for restoring my faith in reddit a bit.

I agree that we probably are coming from different sets of values, but I believe there is enough of an overlap for us to make headway. But there's only so much I can try to communicate through typed comments on reddit, so this will be my last post.

> but this is still based on a meat-inclusive diet so my point still stands that meat eating has been historically important to humanity.

The fact that it was historically important in no way justifies the continued eating of meat.

If we're talking about people in third world environments, of course I'm not going to deny them a potential food source. If this is about starvation, then it's about food. What you've been reading in my comments has more to do with the ethics of eating meat when there's so much more available to you (i.e. in the first world such as the US).

I think we're on the same page on managed commons. I just wish that the standards they're forced to follow were based on what's ecologically feasible than what the companies controlling food production/catching/distribution think makes a large enough profit. (I'm a capitalist as long as business practices are transparent.) (On another note, you might be interested in Dan Barber's TED talk for an idea on sustainable fishing practices. It's the sort of thing I think we're going to have to move towards.)

Clearly, our views on the nature of both human and animal rights are different. If you'd like to get a better look into the reasoning behind my thinking, these two books really made me change the way I view how humans produce and consume food. Give them a read if you're interested. They'll make much more articulate arguments than I'm capable of making.

Also, if you get a chance, I highly recommend this book if you're interested in global poverty. It blew my mind.

I am pretty sure that esdee is just a jackass who thinks s/he knows more than s/he does, but I suspect the point about nutritionists may be that it is a field of science that is still in its infancy.

I came to stop listening to nutritional science thanks to Michael Pollan's books. In Defense of Food is a great book that calls out nutritional science as little more than a ploy to move "value-added foods." It goes into why the science in this case is more a shot in the dark at keeping healthy than is asking your grandmother what to eat. (tl;dr version: Nutriotional science is too reductionist and focuses too much on specific molecules in food rather than heeding conventional wisdom of "if we survived on it for two million years, we should eat it." Pollan sums it up himself in only seven words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Oh, and avoid processed foods.) Great book. If you end up liking it, read Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan to enter the world of food politics.

"low-fat low-carb foods"? There pretty much is only carbs and fat. You could eat whey protein powders, but your body maxes out at about 40% protein, otherwise you'll just get rabbit starvation.

If cooking your fruits and vegetables works, then do that. Check out "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human", for some interesting evidence on how cooking can greatly increase the nutrient absorption of certain foods. For example, eating a raw banana you only absorb about 50% of the nutrients, cook that banana and you'll absorb about 99%.

If you have autoimmune issues, I'd also try elimination diets to see if certain foods are causing the problem. These may not be the same foods as are triggering your oral allergies, other foods can irritate the intestinal lining, creating a leaky gut, which will allow a lot of crap into the bloodstream which can in turn overwork the immune system. Also reduce your glycemic load, which puts tremendous stress on the immune system. There are lots of foods which people can be sensitive to, but doing a 30-day grain-free challenge is usually the best place to start, as it's far and away the most likely culprit.

For healthy eating, try coconuts: coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut milk, shredded coconut. It's all great stuff - can be used as a snack, and a very healthy source of energy.

Thanks!

• Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Cronon, William.
  
  
• Selling 'Em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food. Hogan, David Gerard.
  
  
• Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. Levenstein, Harvey.
  
  
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Pollan, Michael.
  
  
• Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed. Shiva, Vandana et al.
  
  
• The Jungle. Sinclair, Upton.
  
  
• Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras & the United States. Soluri, John.
  
  
• The Fruits of Natural Advantage: Making the Industrial Countryside in California. Stoll, Steven.
  
  
• Corn and Capitalism: How a Botanical Bastard Grew to Global Dominance. Warman, Arturo.
  
  Very cool to see the actual course listing information. I'd forgotten what it was like to flip through an actual paper course catalog with that kind of stuff in it. Thank god for the internet.
  
  Also, you helped me figure out what book I was trying to remember in this comment! It was The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. IIRC, it was an awesome concept and 75% of it was an absolutely fantastic read, but one of the sections (maybe the third one?) was bit uninspired. Still overall worth the read, for sure, just be prepared to slog through one section. (And don't skip it, because what it discusses is still relevant to the final section, even if it's not as entertaining as the rest of the book.) It's worth it in particular for anybody living in an industrialized "modern" nation; it provides some of the come-to-Jesus moments that we all need to hear periodically. It's not on the level of Fast Food Nation in that regard (which is required reading for every American and Canadian, as far as I'm concerned), but still.
  
  EDIT: And that helped me remember another book I've heard recommended, also by Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
  
  You're on a roll, friend.

I like thinking about culture. We tell the story of people, real and imaginary, and we should know where they come from.
I believe culture is driven by the head, the heart, and the belly. So if an idea comes into my head for a culture I ask five questions:

• What do they eat?
  
• What do they believe in?
  
• Where do they come from?
  
• Where are they going?
  
• What do they consider family?
  
• How do they court, marry, fu...nction in a relationship?
  
  You'd be amazed how much you can inform yourself there.
  
  That gives me a nice start. Then I start to ask other questions on themes. Ask the 5W1H (Who What When Where Why How) questions about 6 random subjects based on what you now know
  
  For instance, Death:
  
  
• Who handles the body?
  
• What is done with the body?
  
• When is this done?
  
• Where do they put a body?
  
• Why do they do these things?
  
  It's a never fails way of going about things. Now come up with the life of five people living in a society based on this information. Use Proust's questionnaire and Gotham's questionnaire to frame them.
  
  Do all of this with first thoughts. Look it over. Think about it. Look at common travel questions like "What's the best place to eat?" or "what should I not do to piss off the locals"?
  
  You can get the true feel for a society in hours. Then put your characters who are in that culture through those same questionnaires, same random questions. You'll know them from head to heart to belly, and you're golden.
  
  EDIT: I just saw some other information. DO NOT READ GENRE FICTION FOR WORLD IDEAS. Read history, philosophy, anthropology. Pick up a history of food ,Guns, Germs, and Steel, other books that give you overviews on specific topics in history and anthropology.
  
  Tolkien wasn't reading Kingkiller Chronicle, he was learning about hillbillies, ancient languages, and living in WW1 England. Pratchett was a polymoth. Heinlein dug in on so many topics it's unbelievable. Inform with ideas, write from your head and not someone else's.

Philosophy, writing, gaming, art (music, photography, /r/glitch_art). Honestly anything classified as a "soft science" kinda gets my motor going. I also really like anthorpology...specifically food anthro. I just started reading through Salt: A World History, and it's been interesting so far. From Amazon:
> In his fifth work of nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Salt is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.

How ancient are we talking? Apicius, I believe, had a cookbook from Ancient Rome. I believe this is the one I have at home: https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Apicius-Marcus-Gavius/dp/1903018447/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ancient+roman+cookbook&qid=1558107713&s=gateway&sr=8-3

​

Wasn't Apicius the cook who, as his very last act on this earth, served a grand dinner for a number of high profile guests... and then poisoned them, as well as himself, at the end? Not sure if the story is apocryphal or not, but it sounds good! Heck of way to go, chef!

​

Here's a site with some Roman recipes. Not sure how authentic they are: http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-life/ancient-roman-recipes.htm

​

Here are some recipes from around the time of the Byzantine Empire (again, I cannot vouch for the authenticity, but the PDF has some info on who created them, to our knowledge). I've made some of these and they are pretty good! http://nvg.org.au/documents/other/byzantinerecipes.pdf

​

Hope these help!

That is actually true, because happy = it grew up like a chicken should, the right food and freedom to move and have social chicken interactions. Makes for much better meat. These guys, made famous by the hugely successful book "The Omnivores Dilemma", use that simple truth for their commercial advantage.

If you don't want to read much, skip below to #7 and the helpful resources.

Food ("nutrition") sets your performance ("fitness") ceiling. It will define what you can achieve in the gym. If you want better performance, you'll have to eat better first. Period.

1. Forget calories. They're a giant red herring. In response to your question, others have brought up "calories in, calories out." This is such an oversimplification that's it's basically wrong. 500 doughnut calories =\= 500 sweet potato calories, NOT EVEN CLOSE. The sugar and other refined carbohydrates in a doughnut will break down to glucose very quickly, then spike your blood sugar. Next, insulin response rushes in and causes a few things, the blood sugar gets pulled into cells for use but also gets pulled into fat stores. Insulin promotes development of fat tissue. To simplify: some of the 500 doughnut calories end up used for energy very quickly after you eat it, the rest ends up stored as fat, but you'll absorb all 500 one way or another. Sweet potatoes don't spike your blood sugar because they're digested very slowly. You get a slow steady stream of carbohydrates (blood sugar) to use all day, especially during that workout. So long, in fact that you'll likely end up flushing some of the carbs 500 carbs in that sweet potato down the toilet because it won't stay in your body long enough to fully digest it (thank you dietary fiber.) To simplify, you'll absorb some and what you do absorb, you'll use to your benefit to crush WODs.
   
   
2. Focus instead on macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats). Which brings me to my next point...
   
   
3. You're going to have to "track." That means you're going to have to get a scale and weigh your food as you plate it for your meal.
   
   
4. Meal prep. Get a plan together. Then cook up some food and weigh off into containers. This will help stay on track. This is important because:
   
   
5. It takes about 2 weeks for all the hormonal changes to happen to your body when your start to eat better. That means no cheat meals. Cheat meals are for when you've reached your goals. They bog down your progress. Stay away as long as possible.
   
   
6. Regarding food, you should be buying groceries (veggies and fruit), meat, fish and some dairy. If it comes in packaging, you should probably avoid it (except obvious things like milk has to come in a gallon, duh). MOST IMPORTANTLY: NO REFINED CARBOHYDRATES. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. If it's made with bleached, white flour (often labeled "enriched"), sugar, high fructose corn syrup, rice syrup, agave nectar, rice syrup, and all the other misleading terms, then you simply don't eat it.
   
   
7. If you don't believe me about the above, don't take my word for it, go on YouTube and watch videos with the elite CrossFit athletes and watch what they eat and what their coaches (Ben Bergeron, coach to Katrin davidsdottir and a few other big names) has a bunch of nutrition related videos) tell them to eat. Mimic what they do. They don't eat that way because they're elite, they're elite because they eat that way (and train according obviously).
   
   Helpful resources:
   http://journal.crossfit.com/2012/03/nutrition.tpl
   
   In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143114964/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_q7qAH63DLB7ov
   
   Enter The Zone: A Dietary Road map https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060391502/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_GVpEDeq7jqJIA
   
   The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143038583/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jYyDDbGSYE54S
   
   Edit: spelling typos

[Health And Fitness: Running] The BibRave Podcast | Episode 27: Weirdest. Half Marathon. Ever

SFW

iTunes

Episode Summary
In Episode 27, Tim and Julia chat about a recent track Half Marathon they both ran. Yup - 52.5 laps, in the rain and cold, and it was awesome (at least Tim thought so. Julia however...).

Then they move to their second favorite subject, food! Tim and Julia talk about foods they are willing to spend more money on for quality, some of the differences between high/low quality foods, and they close with a bunch of useful takeaways on how they shop, plan their meals, and set themselves up to make good decisions. As often as possible... 😇

Episode Show Notes:

• The Bill Aronson Track Half (and the BATH reviews on BibRave)
  

• Run Oregon's BATH report
  
• Tim's 3rd place finish at the 20176 BATH
  
• Racing Weight
  
• Omnivore's Dilemma (not specifically discussed, but very relevant)
  
  Podcast Summary
  The BibRave Podcast is a show about all things running and racing! We cover a random assortment of topics, (almost) all of which relate in some way to running, runners, health, fitness, nutrition, races, and GEAR! If you like what you hear, please subscribe in iTunes and tell your runner buddies about us. Thanks for listening!
  
  Twitter //
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  Facebook

Check out Jon Ronson! I've only read two of his books, The Psychopath Test and Lost at Sea, but they were both really good.

Here are a couple daily show interviews about the books if you want to get a feel for them. They're super entertaining. He's also had a couple segments on This American Life about similar subject matter.

On a different note, Salt is also way more interesting than it has any right to be.

There are others but oh god I really need to be studying for my exams.

Himalayan pink salt is just halite anyway, and halite is trash quality salt, often contaminated with heavy metals, lead, etc, and a byproduct of metal/mineral and fossil fuel mining/extraction. Cheap table salt is usually halite, makes me sick to my stomach and triggers migraines. I now avoid halite if I can.

Heavy Metals Contamination of Table Salt Consumed in Iran

Cheap but decent quality sea salt is only a dollar or two more than table salt (halite) and doesn't make me feel like trash, in fact the complete opposite. Good quality sea salt, harvested and evaporated properly, helps alleviate nausea, is an excellent topical and oral antibiotic, reduces inflammation, migraines, and bacterial infections. Good quality saline keeps people alive in hospitals, is one of the most frequently used mixtures in hospitals. Bags of saline.

The type of salt and where it's sourced from matters just as much as the authenticity and source of honey, for very similar reasons: pure honey is also an antibacterial and helps alleviate some health problems, whereas counterfeit honey is high-fructose corn syrup etc and causes bacterial infections and a host of health problems.

Anyway. Sorry for rambling. Had some sinus problems years ago and got into neti pots and saline rinses and discovered not all salts are created equal.... and tumbled down this \^\^ rabbit hole.

This is a great book.

https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

This is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

On a salt-related note: there's an amazing book about salt that's actually super interesting, if anyone is interested! https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496595383&sr=8-1&keywords=salt+a+world+history

I am by no means a Chinese food expert, but I do spend way too many hours investigating and browsing cookbooks (I own over 150).

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China is not by a native Chinese author but she lives in China and the food is absolutely her passion. She pours her soul into this cookbook. My understanding is everything including the illustrations were done by her.

What's neat about this book is it covers all the geographies of China including ones that don't really reach the Western world.

Edit: wanted to add like another poster pointed out this really only whets your appetite recipe wise - there's just too much to cover but she does a phenomenal job explaining the high level differences between regions.

The Oxen at the Intersection: A Collision (or, Bill and Lou Must Die: A Real-Life Murder Mystery from the Green Mountains of Vermont)

I love this book because it is short but very thoughtfully written. It discusses a pretty recent conflict between localvores and animal rights activists, and it covers how the attitudes and politics toward food and animals have been shaped over many generations. Here's a review of the book and a bit more about the situation.

Modern Savage: Our Unthinking Decision to Eat Animals is being released in a few days. I pre-ordered it because I know he concerns himself with the environmental as well as ethical problems with eating animals. He has a pretty active blog: www.james-mcwilliams.com

Also, the Food Empowerment Project is an amazing organization with lots of material on their site. They are concerned with animal exploitation, access to healthy food, and the marginalization and mistreatment of workers in the global food industries, especially women and POC. Their latest victory is getting Clif to disclose the countries of origin for their chocolate, which is frequently sourced with slave and child labor.

For a fun read, I love The Disappearing Spoon.

For a while, I've been meaning to read Salt which is another fun read.

I also just love the Periodic Table of Videos YouTube channel for other fun stuff.

Textbook-wise, you can't beat Stumm and Morgan or Metcalf and Eddy for your water chemistry/water treatment needs.

• The big name in the genre is Peter Singer's [Animal Liberation] (http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Liberation-Peter-Singer/dp/0060011572). Singer has had a number of titles to follow this original, and they are all worth reading in their own right.
  
  
• Another would be Michael Polan's [Omnivore's Dilema] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History/dp/0143038583/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51QJJGnAsaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR103%2C160_&refRID=0JY11DAZ0RT4P0PPBND5). Though not specifically about veganism, it endorses the lifestyle enough to warrant a read.
  
  
• I personally liked [Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures] (http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Wise-Thoughts-Emotions-Creatures-ebook/dp/B00985DZQ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450016974&sr=1-1&keywords=animal+wise) by Virginia Morell.
  
  
  
• I haven't read it, but I've been suggested [Eating Animals] (http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51flAsKFoAL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=0JY11DAZ0RT4P0PPBND5) by Jonathan Safran Foer.
  
  There are a number of books on the topic of Evolution or Evolutionary Psychology that will provide a greater understanding of how connected and similar we really are.
  
  
  Hopefully this is something to start this thread off in a positive direction.

Oh wow, good luck with immigration!!

How do you feel about the They're Real mascara? I kind of love it. I also have the MAC Gigablack whatever and the Too Faced lashgasm - they are not quite as intense, but probably better for everyday wear.

That book looks great! I have Kitchen Confidential on my nightstand right now, and this!

This was read by Michael Pollan who wrote a book (The Omnivore's Dilemma) which is a pretty good narrative and comparison in what actually happens in industrial food (from the grain, to the meat, to the table), organic industry, sustainable farming and hunting/gathering your own food. It's well researched and very well written.

Another book that's also similar in topic, but specific to the history and current operations of industrial foods is Salt, Sugar, Fat. I would recommend both.

Edit: I think a lot of people are missing the point of the video. It's not about industrial food = bad. It's about having a relationship with the food that you eat, to treat it as an experience rather than calories. Seriously, try cooking! It's very rewarding when you happen to make something delicious and enjoy it by yourself or with others.

My dear friend, one can learn a lot about a culture by their history of food. Texas is known as a BBQ state. What you may or may not know, is that Texas was once part of Mexico and there is a Mexican influence, it's known as Tex-Mex. There is a guy named Robb Walsh who has written two great books on each topic. What I like about each book is they have recipes but they also have details history about how and why, with small stories about regardless of differences in color, culture or class, everyone loves great food.

I would suggest the following books for you to read:
Legends of Texas BBQ and The Tex-Mex cookbook

Salt goes back before recorded history, since it is vital to our biology. You can read an anecdotal history of how it has influenced world affairs in "Salt: A World History", which is a fun read.

Black pepper almost certainly rose to prominence on the European table as a status symbol, since all of it was brought overland from India via the silk road until the opening of sea trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope in the 16th century. It is useful for flavoring preserved foods (as part of the cooking/preservation process) and as medicine, and these aspects drove trade even to the extent of motivating Vasco da Gama's quest for a sea route to India at the end of the 15th century.

Dude. I fucking LOVE salt. There is this guy, Mark Kurlansky, who has written a world history about salt. He also wrote a similar book about cod (the fish). It isn't really a cooking book, per se, but it is one of the most fascinating things I've ever read. I picked it up and I think I read the entire thing in two sittings. Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407437929&sr=8-1&keywords=salt+a+world+history

Actually, if I didn't already give my copy away (I'll have to check when I get home) I'll mail you my copy. Great fucking book.

Start by walking. two miles. It's not as long as you think. After a month move up to three miles. do this until about five miles then start jogging portions of it and so on. This will put excersize into your life. Start cooking for yourself, and as you start take the time to learn about eating healthy. I recommend the book http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823 Cooking for yourself will also give you a sense of self reliance. As you start to eat more healthy I also recommend taking a multivitamin. I would recommend talking to your doctor too. Tell him what you are planning to do and that you are having energy problems. He will probably run some blood tests and do a physical. Make sure you are healthy enough to start a workout. The energy will come quicker than you think.

Upvote. Thanks for the link. Rob Walsh is one of the best food writers Texas has ever produced. Used to write for the Chron way back in the day, then was food editor for the Houston Chron later on. Always a great read.

His book on the history of Tex-Mex food should be required reading. He also is part owner of one of the best Tex-Mex restaurants in the state.

He's got a great blog, too. Covers many aspects of Texas food and food happenings in Texas. Goes way beyond Tex-Mex.

Food is a universal motivator. What if you had students research historical cooking? And after a week or two, you have each student bring in a recipe they've prepared from historical period/culture of their choice? And also give a presentation or write a short paper about how the food came about, or how it influence history and culture.

I've recently been trying recipes from this blog about recreating ancient Roman cuisine. Not exactly an academic source, but does cite the passages from Roman writings that inspire his exploits.

The book Salt: A World History would also be a great source, and is very easy-to-read and IMHO quite interesting. Many parts of it would make good excerpts for reading in class and introducing ideas. The same author has similar books on Cod and Oysters.

I'm no expert, I'm just stealing this idea because it's an assignment that I was given in High School, and was one of the most memorable and fun.

You rang?

I haven't read the book, but I've heard a couple interviews with the author through my various foodie podcasts. He seems cool, and he made bananas seem downright fascinating the entire time he was speaking.

Edit: I have read and would heartily recommend The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan if you're even a little interested in the genetic, behavioral, and political! manipulation of our food. Corn, in particular, as it's the backbone of the American food industry, but he covers a lot of ground. It's really eye-opening. Do recommend. (And any half-decent American library will have it, so awesome and free.)

Joel Salatin (the author) is a bit of a (admitted) nut job though. A lifetime of being the voice in the wilderness will do that to you.

I've seen him speak, and he's very persuasive. When he mentioned that raising animals on pasture produces meat/dairy with the optimal omega-3/6 balance for human health, it made my head pop.

For more on the benefits of traditional, natural ways of cooking, growing crops & raising animals, check out Michael Pollan's books: Omnivore's Dilemna and In Defense of Food.

These books have literally changed my life and my relationship to food - it's been a wonderful, rewarding experience.

When Borders went under I managed to score a brand new copy of this book for under $10 from my local one: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Duck-Cookbook-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/160819020X

I'm similar with not buying physical books very often anymore, but I make the exception for large coffee table books with beautiful illustrations; I love my kindle but it still can't replace the beauty and fun of having some of those around for guests to flip through etc.

I personally recommend All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China, by Carolyn Phillips.

It goes through the different regions of China and describes their food, different influences and flavors.

It has Uyghur food from Xinjiang, Hakka food from the South, Russian food from Dongbei.

It doesn't have pictures like some cookbooks, but the illustrations are charming and will explain how to do some more complicated maneuvers. I checked it out from my library a last year, and loved it so much that I bought it when it went on sale a little bit ago!

I'm about half way through
Hot Sour Salty Sweet

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1579651143/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487295574&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=hot+sour+salty+sweet&dpPl=1&dpID=51PvWRv8HXL&ref=plSrch

It's amazing, and gave me some recipes to finally make my parents love asian food! Seriously though, it has some beautiful stuff in it.

Yes, it's very "cheap" to feed livestock corn when we are spending billions of dollars every year subsidizing it. At least it looks cheap. This is a problem that has more external costs than are really accounted for. Cows fed on grains like corn shed harmful strains of E. Coli on a very large magnitude. The environmental impact of our livestock practices is phenomenal. Yes it would monetarily cost a bit more to produce crops and livestock in a responsible and sustainable way, but it would cut down on external costs that aren't normally taken into account when we purchase a burger at a local restaurant.

It discusses how much ethanol should cost to give the same cost per mile, but that's an old article. I merely posted it to make the point that their is less energy in ethanol, so you would have to use more of it to get the same desired effect. Honestly with how politicized ethanol has become I shy away from it (as a research subject). Personally I see it as a way to use the excess ridiculous amounts of corn we produce every year and to try and sway political support. But it's a skewed argument if you don't take into account the amount of money we spend on ag subsidies to produce the corn which is then mixed in with gasoline. It's a convoluted subject.

Not true. Our subsidies actually push the price of corn below the amount it actually takes to produce corn. No one can compete with that. If we didn't subsidize our agriculture than all farmers would be more or less on an even playing field (more or less depending on space for crops, technology of farm equipment etc.). Here is a video of an interview with a gentlemen who conducted a study on the very subject.

I'm not saying we should forgo advancement, but stripping away their ability to feed themselves (as a country) is not going to promote advancement. And since we are in a global economy, the price we set for corn has an effect all over the globe. Not just Mexico. No one can compete with artificial prices that are lower than production costs.

McDonald's is just an example. What I'm saying is our food isn't as cheap as we are led to believe. The vast majority of boxed/prepared foods in the middle isles of the grocery store have some form of corn in them. Here is a list of all the different kinds of corn products we make with corn. So all of these types of food look cheap, but we pay for them not only at the counter, but through our taxes and through the external costs associated with our agricultural and livestock practices. I guess why I brought up McDonald's is because it seems extremely cheap to go get a burger, fries, and drink for like $3 (dollar menu). But every part of that meal is saturated in corn products in one form or another. If you are interested in this subject I would recommend reading The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He attempts to trace the origins of the food we eat and continually finds himself drawing a line back to some corn field in the mid west.

I would be all for agricultural policies that work to feed malnourished people across the globe, or to build sustainable practices that enrich rather than deplete the land, but the current system mostly works to make more money. That's not always a bad thing, but the costs of our current system far outweigh any benefits to our society as a whole.

Have you read a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma ? If not, i think it would help you in this project. In it there is a section that talks about Polyface farm, a poly culture farm that employs natural symbiotic relationships (between chickens, grass, and cows, for example) that a farmer can use to keep soil healthy, spend less of animal feed, and essentially use the land to its greatest potential. I highly recommend it.

Not bad for a first attempt, don't be too hard on yourself!! I think you used bun instead of pho noodles and agreed the beef should be sliced thinner.


You have to buy the bible, this is my favorite Vietnamese cookbook and has the best pho recipe (grandmother-approved!!):


Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen

Oh and looks like the author posted the recipe on her blog:


Andrea Nguyen's Beef Pho Recipe

Off the top of my head:

The Psychopath Test is a wittily written personal study of detecting, treating and (possibly) rehabilitating psychopaths.

The Freakonomics books are written by both an economist and a journalist (so easy to read) and contain slightly left-of-centre economic theories with easy to follow research. These are excellent.

The Omnivores Dilemma is both engaging and though provoking. It's All about the production of food in the modern age. In particular, four different meals.

The Code Book is one of my all-time favourites. As the title suggests it's about all forms of cryptography. If you have a mathematical bent I also like Singh's book about Fermat's Enigma).

My personal favorite non-fiction books that sound incredibly boring, but are actually really interesting:

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky It's a book about salt! The history of salt, the cultural significance of salt, salt production through the ages, all about salt. It's amazing.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky It's the history of Cod! The author spends a good portion of the book talking about how Cod is both incredibly bland and tasteless, but also how western culture loves that bland fish and all of the interesting political movements for Cod.

And for a more serious topic: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich. This is multiple personal accounts of the Chernobyl disaster, all deeply interesting, and deeply sad. I'm only an episode into the Chernobyl HBO series, but I'm pretty sure that show is following some of characters from this book. It's a high quality book that I think is worth everyone's time, it doesn't go super in depth with the technology, just the human aspect.

I love documentaries, personally. :) I read a book that reads a lot like a documentary on salt... fascinating. I need to go buy all the artisan salts now.

If you like Tex-Mex, I recommend The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh. Interesting read, fun old photos, and really good recipes. I grew up in Houston, and moved across the country 16 years ago. These recipes take me right back to Texas.

Honestly, I'm not sure. It's really hard to figure that stuff out without writing, because spices aren't used in enough bulk to leave traces that we can find archaeologically, in most cases. I'm far from an expert on that particularly. I am aware of a study that found garlic mustard seeds in Europe approximately 6000 years ago (Saul H, Madella M, Fischer A, Glykou A, Hartz S, Craig OE (2013) Phytoliths in Pottery Reveal the Use of Spice in European Prehistoric Cuisine. PLoS ONE 8(8). They found them in residue on pottery fragments. As study goes on and methods improve to study residues with more regularity, we may find other spices that people used prior to the invention of writing.

I would certainly try a restaurant like that, even if only out of professional curiosity. As a matter of fact, there are several cookbooks that have attempted to reconstruct ancient cuisines:

Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine. This book draws heavily on a number of ancient recipes, including some from cuneiform tablets and tenth century cookbooks.

Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens. This provides some recipes enjoyed from the Roman period as well as some explanations of the food and some of the cultural connotations of the meals.

Perhaps the best-researched one is the one I will leave for last.

A culinary journey through time : a cookery book with recipes from the stone age to the middle ages. This book used actual archaeological findings, rather than textual findings to reconstruct some ancient recipes. Data was derived from methods such as soil samples, paleoethnobotanical research, and other scientific laboratory-based methods.

A lot of the better-researched/possible in the next 5 years stuff will have "speculative fiction" tacked on as a label instead of sci-fi. Just an observation.

In terms of very readable science nonfiction, you might try The Poisoner's Handbook, which is told in anecdotes about murder cases and the development of modern forensics in New York or Mary Roach's humorous essay collections in Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and others. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan was also quite readable and well-researched (about agrobusiness), but his other books get overly preachy, I think.

The Best Science and Nature anthologies are a good starting point when you're looking for new authors you click with too.

Please avoid requests for recipes for specific ingredients or dishes (unless it's obscure and Google has failed you) and prompts for general discussion or advice. As a general rule, if you are looking for a variety of good answers, go to /r/Cooking. For the one right answer, come to /r/AskCulinary.

This being said, generally speaking taco's and nacho's are both made from Masa flatbread which are called tortillas. Burritos and quesadillas are going to be made from a wheat flour based flat bread.

Though you will find Taco's south of the border, it looks like the cuisine you are actually interested in would be Tex-Mex or Southwestern US cuisine. Nacho's, Quesadillas, and Burrito culture is largely Americanized even though some of them still have roots in Northern mexico.

Additionally, Mexican cuisine is both diverse and very regional. The essential cuisines of Mexico is supposed to be a very good cookbook if English is your first language. It is by Diana Kennedy. I would not expect that it is really going to show you the kind of cuisine you are actually looking for though. Oaxaca Al Gusto was also highly recommended by Kenji of serious eats as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cuisines-Mexico-throughout-recipes/dp/0609603558/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Rick Bayless is another go to. Mexican Every day is another very highly rated cookbook for mexican cuisine.

https://www.amazon.com/Mexican-Everyday-Recipes-Featured-Season/dp/039306154X/?tag=serieats-20

I believe something like this though will be closer to what you are actually wanting.

https://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299551913&sr=8-1

First, get a good persian cook book: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1540326251&sr=8-2&keywords=new+food+for+life

​

My wife puts a couple tbls spoons of Rose Water in our water container, and we drink that. No sugar, and its delicious.

​

Buy Tumeric. Costco sells Tumeric pills for like $30/50 pills. You can buy it cheap.

​

Dried Mint and dried Shallots. Use the dried mint crumbled in your yogurt. Let the dry shallows soak in warm water, then chop, put in yogurt for a delicious dip.

​

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. A surprisingly fun read and interesting read.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. Another fun read. Touches on some great topics, like the "which came first: beer or bread" debate, but doesn't go into topics as deeply as I would have liked.

I haven't read these two yet, but it's on my list:

Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage

I won't attempt to pick one as the best, but here are some good resources:

• Madame H's Kitchen -- covers a wide variety of Chinese food. She has a book coming out in August.
  
  
• China Sichuan Food This site deals primarily, but not exclusively, with the food of Sichuan province, where the author lives.
  
  
• The Woks of Life Includes some Americanized dishes and a wide variety of more traditional Chinese cooking.
  
  
• Fuchsia Dunlop has written several excellent cookbooks and has a new one coming out in October.
  
  
• Garden Time Homemade Cuisine Most of these videos have an English-language version, or at least English subtitles. There are a lot of recipes that you won't find elsewhere, at least not in English.
  

I'd love a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma. I've been really interested in food and and how it effects us and how our diets can be better lately. I'm actively working on mine and this book has been on my list for a while. (I am happy with either hardcover or paperback, my only request is used books be in good shape)

Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal

> This is also probably the most boring aspect of eunuchs to me to be honest! It's like you study the history of steamships and everyone asks what iron they used.

There are people out there who would actually find the topic of your metaphor absolutely fascinating! That simple topic could provide a rich history of engineering, business, and politics. These books on the pencil and salt are just two examples of this.

Tastes of Paradise by Wolfgang Schivelbusch is an absolutely amazing book. The author explains that spices were thought to come from an Earthly Paradise mythically tied to the Garden of Eden and the quest to find it was central to Western history. Kurlansky's The Big Oyster, a history of New York City told through its relationship with oysters is wonderful. But I'm an oyster geek.

You really should buy The Medical Detectives. It's a great read and it's got several fascinating food-related stories/articles! You may also enjoy Salt which is a historical look at the world's most in-demand rock.

I haven't looked at a lot of alternatives, but I bought Into the Vietnamese Kitchen on a whim and haven't been disappointed. Well written and has nice pictures, each recipe has some backstory about its place in Vietnamese cuisine and culture.

For Italian cuisine, The Silver Spoon is often recommended as a cornerstone of Italian cooking, but I found it to be pretty unsatisfying, at least in the translation. Light on technique and a lot of recipes that may be authentic, but aren't something you're ever likely to make (assuming you can even find the ingredients).

Cooked food is absolutely easier to digest. As for the intestinal tract, my understanding is that it has shrunk since the invention of cooking, but you'd get a better answer from an evolutionary biologist. Richard Wrangham has an excellent book on the topic.

I was in the mood to experiment, so dinner was kind of late while I farted around...

1. Oyster Spring Rolls, a Southern Fujian dish from Carolyn Phillips' All Under Heaven. Damn... these were way better than I expected. I love oysters on the half shell but have never much enjoyed cooked oyster recipes. But these spring rolls really carried the oyster flavor perfectly without muddying it or burying it under other junk. Superb.
   
   
2. First shot at making my own Char Siu. I was lazy and just used Lee Kum Kee sauce instead of going crazy hardcore and searching out all the different components to do it from scratch. Maybe next time. Results were fine... not amazing, but bottled sauce and pork off the shelf at the market only take you so far. Certainly cheaper than ordering from the semi-local Hong Kong BBQ joint, and not much work. The leftovers from tonight will go into Singapore Noodles tomorrow and probably some Char Siu Buns and other goodies in the future.

There was this book list that was posted on the Google+ SCA medieval brewing boards...perhaps it can be of some help.

I also have these books: 1, 2,3, which have been some amazing and helpful resources. The feast of ice and fire book is good because it shows common medieval recipes and then their current-age counterpart.

The absolute best resource I've come across on the myriad regional Chinese culinary traditions is All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips. It's incredibly compare wove, covering the THIRTY-FIVE distinct food cultures that exist in China. I highly recommend this book.

I swear I'm starting to become a salt facts bot, but if you're interested in salt, you really should pick up Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. It's really fascinating!!

Here's a pretty good book on a pretty solid hypothesis.

I don't even know where to start...

• Organic food is expensive because it shows the real cost of producing food without using chemicals and fertilizers to cut corners.
  
• Organic food is smaller because it reflects a more realistic variation in fruit and vegetables. Standard produce is selectively bread and/or genetically modified for size and yield, not for nutritional content or taste or anything else. Just grow bigger, faster, so it can be sold for less while keeping profits up.
  
• Genetic modification is not the solution. It is in fact what causes so many of the "problems" traditional farms have. Growing crops in monocultures makes them extremely susceptible to pests since it's an extremely unnatural way for plants to grow. Further genetic modification introduces more weaknesses we don't understand into a system that could support its self very well before humans came in and tried to play $DIETY.
  
  If you're up for it, read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. A great read that explains all of this and much more.

If this is of interest to you, I recommend you read the book "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky. Among many other things, he goes into great detail about how salt has been used as a flavoring and preserving agent in condiments for millennia. He talks specifically about garum.

A really interesting history of Salt that I read a couple year's back is Kurlansky's (sp?) "Salt: A World History". It's pretty long, but I found it intriguing!

Edit: Here's an Amazon link - http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

Edit 2: He also has a couple of good books on Cod and Oysters!

Someone already suggested it, but I'd like to restate House of Leaves. Though perhaps it's not a good vacation book because it will suck you in and it's kind of a dark book.

The Xanth and Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony are really quick reads; they're corny as shit fantasy for teenage boys, but they got me through some rough years so I'll always have a spot for them. Also on the fantasy side, check out Hyperion.

On the nonfiction side: Stiff and Salt were both awesome. I've read a bunch of other books by the author of Stiff, and they're all worth it--she's very accessible and funny, but also serious and respectful of the topics.

Well, animals enjoy salt licks so people could see where they congregated and examine the area. Also salt changes vegetation patterns.

There is a great nonfiction book about human's relationship with salt by Mark Kurlansky. You could find that in the library and it would probably answer any other questions.

I think he gets the extreme importance of king corn.

When i read his book "The omnivores dilema",

http://www.amazon.com/The-Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History/dp/0143038583http://www.amazon.com/The-Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History/dp/0143038583


he spends a LOT of time going over corn's gigantic use levels in his books. from the difference between field corn and sweet corn to its use in tremendous amount of products and fast food to its use in additives. And then he also delves into feedlots and the massive corn use there.

he's very aware of the massive use of it currently.

you are right in that he seems stymied by what to do about that fact (If one considers current huge corn usage levels to be a "problem")

edit: It looks like that book is a little older though, so I might be assuming he still holds the same opinions that he did when he wrote that in 2007. He could possibly be more strident about things now and Im just not aware of his updated position.

That's because here in North America, all of our food has been invaded by the Subsidized Corn market. There's a really great book called 'The Omnivore's Dilemma', which does an amazing job outlining the history of Corn, what it is, what we use it for, and how it's aweful for feeding cattle.

You might be interested in reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Also, The Omnivore's Dilemma, by the same author. Both books are similar, though I find the latter to be a little more preachy. In either case, there's great information about the politics and marketing of processed food, the Western Diet, and the rise of obesity. In Defense of Food was an eye opener for me.

Salt is probably the most important of the luxury resources throughout history, so it's very accurate that it's the best one. There's an interesting read on it.

To add to what everyone else has said:
If you're interested in reading more about the history of spices, this book is pretty good. We had to read it for a World Civ class in college.

https://www.amazon.com/Tastes-Paradise-History-Stimulants-Intoxicants/dp/067974438X

There are plenty of books out there now that touch on this topic, but you should start with The Omnivore's Dilemma if this is a subject that is interesting to you. Really good read.

Edit: link

So, scattered across the world, there are salt deposits. These are normally form where the ocean water gets trapped and then evaporates, like a tidal region by the sea. However there are also large salt formations left from really ancient oceans that have evaporated entirely, like the salt flats in the southwest part of the US.

There is a great book called Salt which discusses this in great detail. His thesis is that these salt formations lead to the first groups of humans which stopped being nomadic and settled in one place. It is definitely worth the read.

The book Salt: A World History was pretty good, actually. I recommend it.

Just got this yesterday.

Hopefully I can start creating some of these wonderful dishes at home.

I loved The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He takes a thorough look at where our food comes from, and it is half scary but still offers a solution (kinda... would take a LOT of education to succeed which is unrealistic).

I was fortunate to receive some awesome stuff on my wishlist: a mandoline, Thermapen, and a 7 1/4 quart enameled Dutch oven.

I also got some cookbooks:
Persiana,
Food of Life, and
Ceviche: Peruvian Kitchen

Edit: formatting

> This is probably because they 'self domesticated' themselves thousands of years ago, and have essentially thrown themselves in with us.

This is basically what pigs did, too. I wish I could link to an article, but here's a great book on the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Beasts-Snout---Tail-History/dp/0465052746/

Biggest change you can make is stop supporting animal agriculture. This outweighs all transportation greenhouse gas effects including freight shipment by sea.


Beef is really the problem with the combined deforestation of grazing lands and land for planting feed crops. Plus the methane emissions, run off, and fresh water consumption for feed plants.


That pound of beef you buy for 1.99 in the US has huge externalized costs.


Fun fact, there are currently 99 billion domesticated animals, and the mass of humans and our domesticated animals makes up 99% of animal life biome on the planet.


Limit animal protein and eat close to the source and both you and the planet will benefit immensely.


Sources:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

https://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583


Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt3302820/


The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet Weight Loss and Long-Term Health

https://www.amazon.com/China-Study-Comprehensive-Nutrition-Implications/dp/1932100660

Michael Pollan's [The Omnivore's Dilemma] (http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1324994963&sr=8-4)
[Freakonomics] (http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324995084&sr=1-1)
Nathaniel Philbrick In the Heart of the Sea

Agree with others on Erik Larson, Mary Roach and Bill Bryson.

There's this, this or this - all have positive reviews. This is a very nice cookbook for Renaissance cooking.

They absolutely are--google "highways" and "indian trails" and you can find twenty local news articles about it from various locales in the United States. We built highways, and eventually big interstates, on top of the roads that we built on conveniently established tracks stomped down (and eventually ridden on, after horses were introduced) by Native Americans. Those Native Americans were, similarly, walking on top of game trails, which often went between important resource locations, like a good spring--or according to Mark Kurlansky, salt licks--or through or around obstacles in efficient ways.

We're driving 75mph on top of old, paved-over game trails. Not just deer, but buffalo or lots of other herd creatures--some of them may have been established previously by now-extinct megafauna. If the Interstate seems to not go exactly where you want it to, blame the woolly mammoths.

Oh, similarly, if you like this sort of thing, check out Craig McClain's instant-classic piece about how modern U.S. Presidential Elections are influenced by a 100-million-year-old coastline!

This message is going to get buried, but I hope by chance you read it. Two books on food changed my life and helped me eat a very healthy diet and lose weight and keep it off permanently:

http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266444146&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/1605297852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266444075&sr=8-1

>The thing is, that I would not mind slaughtering and eating my own livestock in order to put food on the table for my family.

Actually, people who say this usually do mind. I recommend you read The Modern Savage: Our Unthinking Decision to Eat Animals. The book analyses accounts of backyard slaughters on homestead blogs. One central result is that there is a distinct psychological process these people go through – and these are people who, at the end of the day, claim like you not to mind killing these animals. You'll see there's a great deal of self-delusion going on there.

Early Romans yes, later Romans, no. So, the simple answer is "yes", and this is why all the related words.

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0142001619

The link above is for Mark Kurlansky's book "Salt" that basically tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Sodium Chloride, but were afraid to ask.

He also has books on Cod (the fish), Birdseye (the guy who froze vegetables), and several others. He's a social historian who focuses on specific topics and then shows how they've connected history and the development of society throughout time. They're good reads if you're into learning about the details of common things that had a huge impact.

Grass fed tastes like beef is supposed to taste. Corn fed tastes weird.

Corn fed beef being as healthy for you as grain is as disputed as climate change. Here's some reading for you. I'll boil it down; cows evolved eating grass and we've been feeding them corn which causes all sorts of digestion problems, so we shoot them full of antibiotics and hormones to help them grow more quickly.

It's like you only eating popcorn when you evolved for a varied diet of vegetables meat and some fruit then needing to take all sorts of drugs to stay 'healthy'. How healthy would you be? Wouldn't it be better in the long run to eat right?

Watch this TED talk from a farmer who raises chickens fed grubs and bugs instead of grain.

Exactly. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's not an exaggeration to say it completely changed the way I eat. I didn't give up meat but I will only eat grass-fed, free range meat (hormone free, etc.). And I do eat a LOT less of it.

Factory farming and the USDA's complicity therein is a national disgrace. No other country has commoditized its food chain like the U.S.

No problem. I'll be posting more vegetarian dishes here (hopefully mainly vegan ones), Iranian cuisine is very veg friendly :) If you're into cookbooks, the famous anad amazing Iranian chef Najmieh Batmanglij has a released a book called Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies that has vegetarian recipes, shouldn't be too hard to veganize them

• Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick
  
• 1491 by Charles C Mann
  
• Omnivore's Dilemma and Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
  
  I found these books very educational. They definitely have changed my worldview on the history of agriculture, human ecology, and economics.
  They really make you think that if Anglo-Western style capitalism or agriculture were non-existent, the world would be just fine.
  
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Mayflower-Story-Courage-Community-War/dp/0143111973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321693822&sr=8-1
  
  http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/1400032059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321693987&sr=1-1
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321694010&sr=1-1
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Botany-Desire-Plants-Eye-View-World/dp/0375760393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321694049&sr=1-1

In my view, there is a huge disconnect between people and food in general (not just meat-eaters). A majority of people just do not realize what it takes to get food on the table and the process that goes into it. Our ease of access to food has a lot to do with it. Worse, because of the need to meet such a high demand for consistent food, we've been accustomed to eating the metaphorical pink slime that is/was chicken mcnuggets-type foods.

I think it's contradictory when people get squeamish during dissections or seeing a butcher/farmer do their work, but have no problem engulfing a whopper, some ribs, or a steak. Just my view.

A book I found really interesting was Omnivore's Dilemma and the typical documentaries like Food Inc are a good watch as well as long as you remember to not take everything they say fact or the norm and look past the sensationalism.

This book seems surprisingly interesting. Thank you!

I highly recommend reading Salt: A world history. This is one of the many accidental discoveries that happened due to the hunt for salt. Another interesting one is the discovery of natural gas in china that they ended up piping through bamboo and using for cooking etc.

Not precisely about 1912, but these two books provide great insights into food culture in the early 20th century.

• Mark Kurlansky, The Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food--Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation's Food Was Seasonal.
  
  
• Jane Ziegelman, 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement

If you'd like to read about it, this book is awesome

There's actually a surprisingly fascinating book on the history of salt as an economy.

In addition to the response below, it was very common to have shallow pools near the ocean, such that high tide would fill the pools, then the water would evaporate during low tide and the salt would be harvested. (edit: whoops, I read the other comment quickly and missed that it touched on this as well. However, this was not only done at warm climates; the book outlines a harvesting operation on the coast of France)

It also discussed how important salt was to meat economies, for example the ability to salt cod when it was caught in the northern Atlantic Ocean, for transport all across Europe.

They reference Michael Pollan "In Defense of Food" in the article. I am currently reading another book by Michael Pollan called "Omnivore's Dilema" which is an incredible book on the history and techniques used by modern farmers, both industrial and organic.

This guy knows what he is talking about. I really recommend the read if you are interested in where your food comes from, which I believe everyone should know.

Preservation. Refrigeration is a modern invention: butter used to be heavily salted to slow spoilage. When you wanted to use the butter, you'd wash the salt out with water to make it edible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJL-HYSlvRM The whole video is good, but the most relevant bit is at 7:30'ish.

https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

As for why we still have salted butter? It tastes good when used as a condiment.

"The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos" by Robb Walsh fits the description. It's full of stories about the history of Tex-Mex, and the recipes are pretty good, too.

https://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880

For what it's worth, my meals were

• flour tortillas
  
• refried beans
  
• huevos rancheros
  
• enchiladas
  
• tamales
  
  and I used the Homesick Texan's food blog and "The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos." Best sources, in my opinion. And the cookbook can go on my coffee table, too...

I had to read a book on the history of Salt for a history class in highschool. Fascinating subject, covered everything from how access to salt shaped societal and civilizational development to salt being used as a currency to how techniques for gathering/creating salt developed over time.

http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619 I recommend it.

That's because it's true for most meat in America. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but if you want to understand the food you are putting into your body I highly recommend reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polian.

But my answer is to just eat less meat.

Some cookbooks that I use or are on my wishlist:

• The Fat Duck
  
  
• The French Laundry
  
  
• Alinea
  
  
• Eleven Madison Park
  
  
• Quay: food inspired by nature
  
  
• Room for Dessert
  
  
• Murgaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking
  
  
• Saison
  
  
• Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen
  
  
• Le Cinq
  
  
• Coi: Stories and Recipes
  
  
• Massimo Bottura: Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
  
  
• Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste
  
  
• El Celler De Can Roca
  
  Great British Chefs also has some recipes from Michelin starred restaurants.

On an industrial scale, probably yes. On a small scale, it's more productive than ag farms.

Also, typically only outputs are considered - inputs like fuel, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are considered to be free, or that their enviromental impact (externalities like soil erosion, nitrate leaching, stream poisoning, etc) do not exist.

You may want to read The omnivore's dilemma. There's a chapter on farming the permaculture way, and how the efficiency, acre per acre, is better than the neighboring industrial farms.

Many people would have to return to the land, for it to be so. It's not a 'sexy' profession, and modern man is disconnected from what sustents him, but one way or the other, it'll happen.

It's even more than that - the first form of artificial food preservation (that is to say beyond letting grapes wither on the vine to make raisins or the spontaneous fermentation of fruit or juice and into intentionally creating an environment with which to preserve food in) was by the use of salt, often to promote lacto-fermentation. (The other contender here is smoking as a method of preservation of but whether it occurred by happenstance or by intention is anyone's guess.)

Many foods that you find today, especially sauces, pickles, and things that are (traditionally) sour were originally lacto-fermented with salt. Many foods today are still preserved in a traditional way. Some common ones are pickes (obviously) but also sushi, kimchi, soy sauce, tempeh, salted fish like rollmops, sauerkraut, ketchup, shrimp paste and so on.

Here's a video to get you started on the history of salt/lactic acid fermentation for food preservation and here's your further reading.

I haven't read At Home, so I'm not entirely sure what it's about, but based on the description on amazon it sounds like he uses everyday objects as starting points to discuss historical events. There are a number of similar books such as Salt and A History of the World in 6 Glasses. This genre is frequently referred to as "microhistory".

• "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond
  
• "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan
  
• "The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language" by Steven Pinker
  
  Isaac Asimov wrote quite a few books on physics, some more textbook-y than others.

Roman soldiers were paid in salt. Ghandi's uprising in India was because of salt. Roads in small towns and cities were based on on old indian trails, which were based on deer trails. At the end of every deer trail was a salt lick. Improvements in salt making made it possible to preserve fish and meat in salt, making the discovery of the new world possible.

Fascinating book: http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

Honestly, i don't read a ton of fitness books... just no need really, but i have read a couple good ones:

Born to run

Omnivore's dilemma

Eat and run

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford. An amazing tour of the cuisine of Southeast Asia. A mix of super-approachable and more challenging recipes covering everything from appetizers to desserts.

I also enjoy history of food books. However, not all of them have the cookbook aspect to them. Here are a few, I’ve read:

Milk: The Surprising Story...

Salt

Consider the Fork

Get a pestle and mortar (small as you can find), and dedicate it only to saffron. You'll want to make sure you grind it up so you can get the mileage out of it.

I use saffron for rice quite a bit. Make some basmati rice, take a portion of it (about 1/4 - 1/3) and put it in a bowl with some butter. Take a pinch of ground saffron and put it in a shot glass, then dilute it with just under boiling water (until the glass is 3/4 full). Put it in with the buttered rice and then stir it in with the rest of the (white) rice.

Also, here's my favorite cook book that uses saffron.

I encourage you to read The Omnivores Dilemma and come to your own conclusion about whether the current standards are fair or not.

This book just came out this week and basically makes the case against "humane farms " and the growing compassionate carnivore justifications rather than typical factory farms.


I've only just started it but so far seems well written and researched.

Good article on a very important subject. For a lot more information on these topics check out Michael Pollan's books (particularly The Omnivore's Dilemma) and the documentary Food, Inc..

The good news is a solution exists that will still allow us to eat our bacon, but it's going to require breaking down the current industrial food system first. And for those of us with the income and means to start buying quality products (including meat) from our local farmers.

The book Salt: a world history is pretty cool.

Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
Link: http://amzn.com/0142001619

Well...OK, maybe I worded that poorly.

Food preservation was much more important for military applications than it was for everyday life. I.e., salt allowed provisions to last significantly longer, which meant that military excursions could last longer and go further (and cheaper!). Whereas from a civilian day-to-day standpoint its effects were significant but relatively smaller.

There's a reason in Rise of Nations Salt reduced the cost of infantry units.

I recommend this book: Salt: A World History.

The Big Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal is a book I dream about owning, but probably never will. The Fat Duck is probably more feasible. Hopefully this opens up a rabbit hole is your search.

http://masteringpersiancooking.com/2014/12/10/khoresht-gheymeh-bademjan/

You didn't mention split peas so it could've just been khoresht bademjan.
https://www.196flavors.com/iran-khoresh-bademjan/

I highly recommend the cook book Food of Life, if you're interested in other persian cooking. https://www.amazon.com/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X

The Omnivore's Dilemama. Salt. Both are great reads.

I like Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Her blog Viet World Kitchen is also good (I'm on mobile, otherwise I'd link). Most of the Vietnamese dishes I regularly make started with Nguyen's book or website.

EDIT: Links to both: http://www.amazon.com/Into-Vietnamese-Kitchen-Treasured-Foodways/dp/1580086659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449674932&sr=8-1&keywords=into+the+vietnamese+kitchen

http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook

Go big, or go home. =)

EDIT: Yay, I just learned there's a cheap version. No content was removed. http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Duck-Cookbook-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/160819020X

This is actually a really good book about salt. It was widely available in little shakers and otherwise, and the supply and demand of it changed world history several times over. He compares it to oxygen - it's something you take for granted but when you don't have it, it's suddenly very, very important.

http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346953278&sr=1-1

Although some of his research is being questioned by other anthropologists, Richard Wrangham has a whole book devoted to this, and is a very interesting read.

Ghost in the Wires - The story of famed hacker Kevin Mitnick

Any Mary Roach Book if you like Science

In the Heart of the Sea - The true story behind Moby Dick

The Omnivore's Dilemma - A great walk through our food landscape

Gang Leader for a Day - Behavioral Economist embeds with a Chicago Gang

Shadow Divers - My first audiobook. It's a thriller about a scuba discovery of a Nazi Submarine on the Eastern US coast.

The Devil In The White City - A story about a serial killer at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893

There is a whole book about the history of salt. It's been awhile since I read it but it's really good imo.

Amazon Linky

Another book to look into is The Omnivore's Dilemma. I've only read a few short excerpts, but those were quite good.

There was a really well written book about salt and its' various uses, https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619, not exactly an essential to a prepper's library, but an interesting read.

1491 http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/1400032059 and Tastes of Paradise https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.amazon.ca/Tastes-Paradise-History-Stimulants-Intoxicants/dp/067974438X&ved=0ahUKEwjystjTu7LKAhXHFT4KHbZ8DO8QFggnMAM&usg=AFQjCNEaVOPvnv3ttzbPXAqKv20S9BF-vA are my personal faves.

The best information you'll find related to garum is likely to come from Sally Grainger, who is a food historian and translator of Apicius, the oldest known cookbook. She has also translated numerous recipes and has a recipe for garum in one of her cookbooks. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooking-Apicius-Roman-Recipes-Today/dp/1903018447

Read your own page.

> "According to The Mayo Clinic and Australian Professor Bruce Neal, the health consequences of ingesting sea salt or regular table salt are the same, as the content of sea salt is still mainly sodium chloride.[11][12] "

Stop being scared of chemical names. CHLORIDE IS NOT A MAN MADE CONSPIRACY. You want to reduce your overall salt intake, great. But don't spout crap about a natural nutrient.

https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halite


https://books.google.com/books?id=_R00NqWST6MC&pg=PA248&dq=some+sea+salt+contain+sulfates&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTv_P-9bbUAhUU7GMKHd6WAJ44ChDoAQgxMAM#v=onepage&q=some%20sea%20salt%20contain%20sulfates&f=false

http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465013627

Great read.

Pop-culture summary: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2011/12/08/why-calorie-counts-are-wrong-cooked-food-provides-a-lot-more-energy/

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

Very entertaining read. I was surprised just how much salt has influenced world history.

Mark Kurlansky wrote one a few years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374257107&sr=8-3&keywords=salt

I read his book on Cod, which was surprisingly interesting, if not a bit exhaustive.

No, the correct answer from any historian would be that salt was used in the preservation of foods an the treatment of wounds, vitally important for armies. I recommend at least a casual perusal of salt.

I remeber seeing a book reviewed in New Scientist about the history of cooking, I think this is it. Haven't read it myself but it looks interesting if you want to find some answers about the origin of cooking food and how it intertwines with human history.

A bit longer, but all are solid suggestions, and although I could add two dozen more, I'm sure others will take up the cause.

• What the dog saw, by Malcolm Gladwell
  
  
• Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre
  
  
• 
  God is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
  
  
• The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris
  
  
• The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein
  
  
• Super Freakonomics, by Levitt & Dubner
  
  
• The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
  
  
• The Case for Mars, by Robert Zubrin
  
  
• The Value of Nothing, by Raj Patel
  
  
  

yup.

We take for granted how important salt is since it so ubiquitous.

Salt: A World History

Salt shaped cities and societies and industries.

Supposedly salt is so rare in the rain forests that certain natives have evolved to not sweat.

I loved People's History, Salt, The Cheese and the Worms, the Edmond Morris series on TR, Common Women, and Gender and Jim Crow.

NB: I'm done with the whole set now. A whole bunch of "blocks" seem to have gotten tangled up in the spam filter. With this subreddit's largely inactive moderation, I have no idea how to fix this. If you want to read all of my answers, go through the last few pages of my profile's submitted comments.

Second note: Since this has blown up on /r/bestof, I think I should clarify that the star/no-star thing isn't me trying to show off how how little I need to look up stuff because I'm all-knowing and infallible - it's to indicate that I HAVEN'T LOOKED UP THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION - I MIGHT BE WRONG. Common ones I've been corrected on are the // thing, the svchost thing, the trees-in-fields issue and the moustaches on cars. Bullets are blunt for aerodynamic reasons, Poseidon actually favoured the Greeks and it was all down to the son-killing. With that caveat in place, here we go:

Answers - first "box" (starred ones are ones I had to look up):

Why do whales jump*?
No-one knows exactly, though it's theorised that socialising is part of it, as its a far more common behaviour in pods than with lone whales.

Why are witches green?
There are theories floating around that it's to link them with death/putrefaction or plants/herbs. Personally, I think it's mostly because of the popularity of the film version of The Wizard of Oz, where the green skin was chosen partly to indicate she's a bad guy in a kid's fantasy world, and partly because it helped demonstrate their new Technicolour technology.

Why are there mirrors above beds? Ask your parents when you're older. Or don't, since you'll probably work it out by yourself by then. If you mean on the wall behind beds, I've never really seen this as common, but mirrors help to give the impression that the room is larger than it actually is.

Why do I say uh? This is a phenomenon called "speech dysfluency". Again, no definitive answer but often explained as placeholders while you struggle to find the word you use next. If you mean "why uh as opposed to, say, quorpl", different languages have different dysfluencies. You say uh/um because you speak English or another language that uses the same sound for this purpose.

Why is sea salt better? It's not really, it just has a cachet to it these days as panning is a more labour-intensive process and the added expense means more exclusivity. Prior to industrialised salt-making, people wanted finer-grained salt. There's a REALLY interesting book on the subject by Mark Kurlansky, if you want to know more about the history of the stuff.

Why are there trees in the middle of fields? They provide shade for field-workers during breaks. Less relevant now with increasing mechanisation, so most are there these days because they've "always" been there, and getting rid of trees is a bitch of a job.

Why is there not a Pokemon MMO*? The creator wanted (and still wants) to encourage people to play games with one another face to face. MMOs don't work like that.

Why is there laughing in TV shows? Because comedy shows with laugh tracks have historically outperformed those without them. People might bitch about them, the same way people bitch about trailers that give away too much of the story, but market research shows that you get more butts in seats regardless of the bitching, so that's the way they do it. I believe that the data on laugh tracks is coming back differently these days, which is why they're largely fading out.

Why are there doors on the freeway? Maintenance access. That or portals to alternate realities, depending on whether you've read 1Q84.

Why are there so many svchost.exe running? Failsafing. The svchost processes handle background services for the operating system. You have a lot of them because it means that if there's an error with one service (and hence one svchost process) it doesn't bring down the whole thing. There are other ways of handling this, but this is the way that Windows chose to go.

Why aren't there any countries in Antarctica? The Antarctic Treaty of (let me look it up) 1961 disallowed signatories from taking permanent territorial sovereignty of the continent. This hasn't stopped countries claiming chunks of land (including overlapping claims like the Argentine-British annoyance) but in practice access is shared for scientific research. Tat said, I expect that if it ever became economically worthwhile to actually start exploiting the resources in Antarctica, the Treaty would go up in a puff of smoke.

Why are there scary sounds in Minecraft? Because they add to a sense of danger, which gives a bit more of a thrill to players. It also gives another incentive to avoid Creepers, as the explosion scares the bejeezus out of me every time, even without the environmental damage.

Why is there kicking in my stomach? - you know those sticks you can buy that you pee on and get one line or two? You might want to go and get one of those. And then schedule an appointment with a doctor.

Why are there two slashes after http? Syntax - it separates the protocol being used (ftp being an alternative) from the address you're looking for.

The Food of a Younger Land, an amazing compilation of folk recipes and food travelogues by a team of WPA writers in the 1930s.

Slightly relevant and very fascinating is this book about salt: http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

All three of these diets are loosely true for various areas and periods of human history.

1. Hunter gatherer societies did eat lots of meat and foraged plants. This has generally been better for human health (the archaeological record shows us that the adoption of agriculture coincided with larger, less healthy populations). However, frankly this idea ignores all the historical and environmental context of hunter-gatherer societies. The hunter-gatherer diet requires a small, stable population. It can't support larger populations. Anyway, the point is moot because we don't really know what the paleo diet was, and the hunter-gatherer diet is completely unsustainable on a large scale.
   
2. As far as raw vegan diets...not sure. Are you sure you described raw veganism correctly? I'm not very familiar with it. AFAIK ancient veganism has been sporadic and largely confined to Greek philosophers and India? Not terribly certain on this point.
   
3. Your descriptions are pretty vague, but #3 is especially vague. Which humans when? Potatoes and corn only existed in the New World until extremely recently in human history, though they were both extremely important to many Central and South American civilizations. I'm not so sure about rice but I don't think it was consumed outside of Asia for most of history?
   
   If you're really wondering who is right or wrong, I think what's important to take away here is that humans haven't had one diet throughout our evolutionary history. Different diets have been necessary/possible in different environments, and changed depending on population needs etc. I highly suggest reading An Edible History of Humanity if you really want to get into it (which, along with 1491, is my source for this response).
   
   Apologies if I've gotten any facts wrong.

I have Cooking Apicius.

If you've ever seen The Supersizers Eat series, they do one on Ancient Rome. It's a lot of fun watching the chef's interpretations of Roman recipes (bonus garum-making!).

An Edible History of Humanity might be up your alley. I quite enjoyed it, and it conveys food history in a cultural and economic sense.

I haven't read this book, so I can't answer your question, but if you are interested enough, here's a history of salt.

I read that in Roman times that salt was such a valuable commodity, that trying get enough salt to salt Carthage would have been such a massive economic undertaking that it probably never happened. It was more probably propaganda by the Romans as a warning never to fuck with them.

This was the book I found this tidbit of information in.

Also in the Roman times, pikes in the form that we know today, did not exist. The closest they had in that time period, was the Macedonian Sarissa.

History Nazi ftw?

Seconding the recommendation for Salt - fascinating read. You'd never imagine half the stuff in that book.

I think you would thoroughly enjoy the book ['Salt: A World History' by Mark Kurlansky] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142001619/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_JvsOAbCM36WBA)

Dan Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness. I recommend this book to everyone I know. It has changed me for the better in so many ways.

It's cliche but, Michael Pollans In Defense of Food.

Lastly, Janet Fitch White Oleander.

Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets. Here's my brief review.

Edit: I also really enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

After Guns, Germs and Steel I read and enjoyed Salt: A World History

Curing meat was secondary factor. For most lower class and the poor, salt was simply too expensive to be used to cure meat.

The real reason is this; you would die if you don't eat salt. For example, your nervous system and brain would cease to function if you don't have sodium. Go read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_potential
Muscle contraction also depend on the sodium channel. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_contraction#Skeletal_muscle_contractions

Russia was trying to make rebel's life miserable. It's easy in our age of abundant to forget how precious salt used to be.

Throughout history, salt was a very precious commodity. A lot of societies had salt tax as an important source of government revenue(look up Gandhi's Salt March). You either have to mine it or made it from evaporation of sea water then transport it long distance, making it super expensive.

If you still interested, go read this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344753543&sr=1-1&keywords=salt

you expend a lot of energy to break down food in your digestive system, ex: chewing, your gut rumbling around. Additionally, the food is only in the digestive tract for a finite amount of time, and the rate of nutritional uptake would be faster for a pre-blended steak than an unblended one. The same mass of peanut butter vs raw peanuts would give you different net energy gains.

I learned a lot of this from the book, Catching Fire: http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465013627

Here's Block 1 for those who don't want to scroll:

Answers - first "box" (starred ones are ones I had to look up):

Why do whales jump? No-one knows exactly, though it's theorised that socialising is part of it, as its a far more common behaviour in pods than with lone whales.

Why are witches green? There are theories floating around that it's to link them with death/putrefaction or plants/herbs. Personally, I think it's mostly because of the popularity of the film version of The Wizard of Oz, where the green skin was chosen partly to indicate she's a bad guy in a kid's fantasy world, and partly because it helped demonstrate their new Technicolour technology.

Why are there mirrors above beds? Ask your parents when you're older. Or don't, since you'll probably work it out by yourself by then. If you mean on the wall behind beds, I've never really seen this as common, but mirrors help to give the impression that the room is larger than it actually is.

Why do I say uh? This is a phenomenon called "speech dysfluency". Again, no definitive answer but often explained as placeholders while you struggle to find the word you use next. If you mean "why uh as opposed to, say, quorpl", different languages have different dysfluencies. You say uh/um because you speak English or another language that uses the same sound for this purpose.

Why is sea salt better? It's not really, it just has a cachet to it these days as panning is a more labour-intensive process and the added expense means more exclusivity. Prior to industrialised salt-making, people wanted finer-grained salt. There's a REALLY interesting book on the subject by Mark Kurlansky, if you want to know more about the history of the stuff.

Why are there trees in the middle of fields? They provide shade for field-workers during breaks. Less relevant now with increasing mechanisation, so most are there these days because they've "always" been there, and getting rid of trees is a bitch of a job.

Why is there not a Pokemon MMO? The creator wanted (and still wants) to encourage people to play games with one another face to face. MMOs don't work like that.

Why is there laughing in TV shows? Because comedy shows with laugh tracks have historically outperformed those without them. People might bitch about them, the same way people bitch about trailers that give away too much of the story, but market research shows that you get more butts in seats regardless of the bitching, so that's the way they do it. I believe that the data on laugh tracks is coming back differently these days, which is why they're largely fading out.

Why are there doors on the freeway? Maintenance access. That or portals to alternate realities, depending on whether you've read 1Q84.

Why are there so many svchost.exe running? Failsafing. The svchost processes handle background services for the operating system. You have a lot of them because it means that if there's an error with one service (and hence one svchost process) it doesn't bring down the whole thing. There are other ways of handling this, but this is the way that Windows chose to go.

Why aren't there any countries in Antarctica? The Antarctic Treaty of (let me look it up) 1961 disallowed signatories from taking permanent territorial sovereignty of the continent. This hasn't stopped countries claiming chunks of land (including overlapping claims like the Argentine-British annoyance) but in practice access is shared for scientific research. Tat said, I expect that if it ever became economically worthwhile to actually start exploiting the resources in Antarctica, the Treaty would go up in a puff of smoke.

Why are there scary sounds in Minecraft? Because they add to a sense of danger, which gives a bit more of a thrill to players. It also gives another incentive to avoid Creepers, as the explosion scares the bejeezus out of me every time, even without the environmental damage.

Why is there kicking in my stomach? - you know those sticks you can buy that you pee on and get one line or two? You might want to go and get one of those. And then schedule an appointment with a doctor.

Why are there two slashes after http? Syntax - it separates the protocol being used (ftp being an alternative) from the address you're looking for.

You might be interested in “The Food of a Younger Land” by Kurlansky. It’s a collection of short articles documenting eating habits, traditions and struggles of Americans during the Great Depression. They were written as part of the New Deal program to put people to work again, but ended up being a treasure trove of stories, anecdotes, and photos of what people all across America were eating.

This book may interest you

ARE YOU WORTH YOUR SALT?

Don't blame Carter.

The large farm bill changes that built our corn empire happened under the Nixon administration, not Carter. Earl Butz (who was interviewed in the film) was one of the principle people who changed reimbursement metrics to be based on bushels/acre yield. He was appointed Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon and continued the position under Ford. For more information, please read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz

It's not a fact when there's not evidence for it. Meat didn't make us stronger or less lethargic, it's certainly an excellent energy source but it's not necessary. Cooking was the prerequisite to a meat-centric diet, and again, it's not even necessary. There is literally no evidence for that and it directly contradicts what we can observe even in the modern day landscape of the animal kingdom.

I'll link a more accessible form of text: https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465013627

Happy reading.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is another good one about how agriculture/food has changed since WWII.

Catching Fire is a much more in-depth discussion of the topic by Richard Wrangham, who is mentioned in the article.

fungus_amungus gives a good overview why it works below.

This is what you are looking for . It's a good read for the history and the recipes are spot on.

Andrea Nguyen, cookbook and blog (and some suggested cookbooks from her blog). Also Charles Phan has a couple good cookbooks.

Other good Roman recipe books for modern tables are A Taste of Ancient Rome - http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Ancient-Ilaria-Gozzini-Giacosa/dp/0226290328 - and Roman Cookery - http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Cookery-Ancient-Recipes-Kitchens/dp/1897959605/ref=pd_sim_b_2.

Which is a misnomer; you may not use a corn product directly, but if you're eating beef or chicken, there's a good chance they're corn-fed, at least in the states. Most foods in the US, even basic components, somehow end up having corn or soy used in the production process. This is because they're easy to break down in to constituent parts, ie starch, sugar, protein, etc, due to their subsidized existence (Soy is the other half of the Corn crop rotation cycle for a lot of farmers). I'm not an expert on this by any means; I just read The Omnivore's Dilemma (have not watched Food Inc). I didn't even finish, I got so mad. But give it a read, you'll have serious rage before you're done with the first quarter of the book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1594132054?pc_redir=1397737524&robot_redir=1