Ever been bewildered by the multitude of forks, knives and spoons jostling for space at a formal dinner table? Which to use? When? And how did they get there, anyway?
When the first Original Gainesville Food Truck Rally opened one Saturday in January 2013, thousands of people lined up to sample food from six local food trucks.
Eating, like cooking, is an outlet for creativity and manipulation. Take Oreos, for instance. Do you eat the frosting first and save the chocolate wafers for last? Do you carefully take apart the cookie to separate the filling and then scrape it off with your teeth? Or do you chomp through the whole cookie?
Within the last 20 years, there has been an international boom in TV channels devoted exclusively to food and cooking, including Cuisine TV in France and the Food Network and Cooking Channel in the U.S.
Gluten-free eating has become synonymous with guilt-free eating, though that may not actually be the case.
"The Greenes always request for small slices. You can ask them if they would like just a little more, or if they are sure they are full, and they always express with certainty, ‘I really only want a tiny slice.’
Cookbooks contain more than directions for food preparation. They are like a “magician’s hat: one can get more out of them than they seem to contain,” or so muses culinary historian Barbara Wheaton.
Walk into a bookstore, browse Amazon cookbook category listings, and you’ll find various genres of cookbooks. There are cookbooks for kids, for vegetarians, for couples, for one, for beginners and even for dogs. Look closer, and you’ll notice a category of cookbooks for men. But absent is a category for women, revealing the assumption that unmarked cookbooks are for women.
The title of a recipe gives the first impression of the dish and the author. Recipe titles are printed in special, large type, memorable as the official label. The title can be simply a word, “Oatmeal,” a more elaborate phrase, “Bountiful Blueberry Pie with Spiced Whipped Cream,” or almost a paragraph, a format more typical of earlier recipe titles. One from 1608: “To Make a Walnut, That When you Cracke It, You Shall Find Biskets, and Carrawayes in It, Or a Prettie Posey Written.”
After Keenan “Ginger Chestnut” Bailey won The Swamp Restaurant’s first hot dog eating contest Friday by scarfing down nine hot dogs in 10 minutes to take home the grand prize of $100, a $50 certificate to the restaurant and a silver plate with his name engraved, he said he felt just fine.
Reading hundreds of cookbooks and recipes has convinced us that these books form a distinct genre, a storytelling genre, governed by conventions and codes.
Recipes are, on one hand, an instruction manual with directions or instructions on how to make something and also a narrative with engaging prose or a story that elevates the procedure into something else entirely.
Matt Sherman wants to show you what is on the menu — James Bond’s menu.
Americans love cookbooks, and this is especially apparent in recent years. In 1961, 49 cookbooks were published. In 2001, more than 1,700 were published, with an astounding 530 million books on food and alcohol sold in the U.S. in 2000. Furthermore, cookbooks are the only genre of print books to maintain sales after 9/11 and to increase in sales during the 2009 recession.
When you need a recipe, where do you turn? We have many options — cookbooks, magazines, newspaper columns, food websites, television cooking shows and even food products themselves (cereal boxes, chocolate chip bags, etc.).
Food is more than just nutrients. Food conjures up memories and reveals who we are and who we are not. What we eat is a medium for personal recollection and collective identity. Marcel Proust, the great French author, is famous for connecting food and memory with madeleines, “those squat plump little cakes.” We certainly have him to thank for those little packages of “petite French cakes” at every Starbucks checkout.
Picture this: You and your friends are hanging out in the backyard, playing Frisbee or cornhole, waiting for the hamburgers to grill on the barbecue.
Warning: Adapted from a recipe called “I want to marry you,” these babies could put a ring on your finger, or if you have control issues, 5 pounds on your thighs.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at who will bring you the column Matwick Musings and Munchings this Summer.
Slow Gainesville summers are ideal for sampling the best-loved local restaurants. But before you set out to swipe some plastic at Satchel’s or Vine Bread & Pasta, make sure the restaurant accepts electronic tender.
Solutions by The State News
