American Food Products

January 15, 2023

I finished listening to The Secret Life of Groceries on audiobook by Benjamin Lorr. His book is about the food network around grocery stores in America. He investigates Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Aldi, and Krogers, to name a few. The most memorable part was his first-hand exploration of moving food products around America via the trucking industry. Until the 1980s, trucking was an excellent job for lower to middle-class America. However, changes in laws created a free-for-all that, according to Lorr, created a new working environment for truckers that can be hazardous for the community. Woman truckers like Jackie from Rosanne are in the dangerous territory should they choose to work in this profession. Food delivery and trucking in America is a hard life that needs to be explored and problem-solved to make the working conditions more equitable and safer for workers. In addition to The Secret Life of Groceries, I just finished reading a hardcover of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. Both books examine the problems with the food industry in America. Pollan explores factory-processed foods, nutrition, and dieting. I am an American product of processed foods raised on fast food, frozen meals, and canned products. A descendant of a generation who believed that no salt, low fats, and skim milk were good for health. I watched family members consume heavy amounts of processed carbs instead of natural fats, resulting in obesity and diabetes. Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food is a critical take on everything that went wrong with American eating during the 20th century and how Americans who follow the western diet should return to the motto, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." (Pollan) Nutritionists and scientists sponsored by the big food industry pushed hard for processed foods and reaped the financial benefits while America's health declined. As I'm watching TLC's My 600 Pound Life, I've noticed fast food, sugar, sweets, fried dishes, and processed foods in excess that dominate the extreme diets of many victims of America's Fast Food Nation. The Secret Life of Groceries and In Defense of Food critique the commercial American food industry. Leaving readers wondering what they can do to help protect their families and contribute positively towards returning to consuming natural foods, slowly cooked, slowly eaten, and slowly enjoyed with friends, family, and community. 

Insects

 January 14, 2023

There is a save the environment push towards eating insects. My first introduction to edible insects was at a science museum gift shop that sold chocolate-covered crickets and scorpion lollypops. My next opportunity was when the Economist Food Truck gave out waffles topped with crickets. According to the ancient book of Leviticus, “some flying insects that walk on all fours… you may eat: those that have jointed legs from hopping on the ground... locusts, katydid, cricket, grasshopper.” (Leviticus 11-20) Fatty little grubs, citrusy wasps, protein-packed mealworms, nutty cicadas, and cannibal crickets can be turned into flour, burgers, and meatballs or eaten whole. In Giorgio Rusconi and Lavinia Romani’s 2018 article Insects for Dinner, “…there are more than 1900 species of edible insects that have a high nutritional value…beetles…butterflies and moths…bees, wasps and ants…crickets and grasshoppers…termites…bugs… and…cicadas.” (Rusconi) Eating insects is common in Asia, Africa, Central, and South America, and regions closer to the equator. According to Rusconi, “insects are a healthy alternative food, as they are high in protein and good lipids as well as calcium, iron, and zinc.” (Rusconi) On the TV show Alone, about survivalists living in the wilderness, raw grubs are a common source of nutrition. I like all bugs and hope for their survival; therefore, I have no interest in taking up a diet dependent on eating insects unless I am starving, living in the wilderness, or presented with a fried crispy dish doused with a spicy sauce; very well done. Happy crunching.

• Rusconi, G., & Romani, L. (2018). Insects for Dinner: The Next Staple Food? European Food and Feed Law Review, 13(4), 335–339. https://www.jstor.org/stable/90026141 
• Zondervan. (2011). NIV Study Bible: New International Version.
• PBS. (2022). Edible insects. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/edible-insects/  
• Nalewicki, J. (2017, June 28). This Summer, Try Termite Chocolate Sprinkles on Your Ice Cream. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/want-try-bugs-grub-insectarium-canada-180963821/ 
• The Economist. (2021, October 27). Edible insects and lab-grown meat are on the menu. https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2020/11/17/edible-insects-and-lab-grown-meat-are-on-the-menu  

New Jersey Exiles 

January 13, 2023

I'm holed up in New Jersey in a suburb with many grocery stores and cars and near highways with one train line to New York. After 19 years of living in New York City, I can't say I enjoy my newfound experience of being exiled to New Jersey. However, it's making me understand and recognize the cynical or rebellious spirit that lurks in New Jersey personalities and outcasts. One can find this Jersey spirit in many of the great writers such as Anthony Bourdain (Leonia, NJ), Patti Smith (Pittman, NJ), Philip Roth (Newark, NJ), Fran Lebowitz (Morristown, NJ), and surely (and surly) many more. All these talented individuals left New Jersey, crossed the Hudson River, and were welcomed to New York City with open arms. When I first watched Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel, I thought, finally, an honest and free-spoken soul full of emotion, frustration, and creative thought. I've just finished listening to an audiobook with the raw and rare Bourdain reading his memoir Medium Raw, published in 2010. Tony narrates the memoir, and the book ends with "Once again. We survived. We did well. We're still here." (Bourdain, 2010, p281) Sadly, he's no longer here, and the food world is bland without him. The Jersey native and lover of Italian cuisine, Philip Roth, struggled for many years with thoughts of a shortened life. Nevertheless, he ended up living to the ripe old age of 85, and some of his best work was written toward the end of his life. After all the humps, bumps, and hardships, you never know what great things are right around the corner. Patti Smith, in her memoir M Train, wrote about her love of coffee and her experience on a java bean culinary trip to Mexico; she grew up in South Jersey. Smith is a survivor, who has suffered immeasurable loss and heartache throughout her life, but she marches forward and continues to write about life, New York, and food; for this, I am thankful. 

• Bourdain A. (2000). Kitchen confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly (1st US). Bloomsbury.
• Bourdain, A. (2010). Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. United Kingdom: HarperCollins.
• Smith P. (2015). M train (First). Alfred A. Knopf.

Pomological Watercolors

January 12, 2023

Last year, Atelier Editions published An Illustrated Catalog of Fruits and Nuts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pomological Watercolor Collection. The printed book consists of 300 reproductions from the collection, and Michael Pollan, the author of the Omnivore's Dilemma is a contributing writer to the published work. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Pomology is "the branch of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of fruit." (Oxford) The USDA collection of over seven thousand botanical watercolor paintings began in 1886 and is located at the Rare and Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library in Maryland. The digitized collection is available online at the National Agricultural Library Digital Collections. It includes many watercolor illustrations of apples and some other fruits and nuts, such as the bael (aegle marmelos), tamarind (tamarindus indica), many different types of plums (prunus domestica), tangerines (citrus reticulata), mangosteens (garcinia mangostana), persimmons (diospyros hachiya), guavas (psidium guajava), pawpaws (asimina triloba), moldy fruits (citrus sinensis and ananas comosus), and my childhood favorite, cactus fruit (opuntia). The watercolors are beautifully detailed, a collection of the sweetest treasures and a feast for your eyes to explore

• "pomology, n.". OED Online. December 2022. Oxford University Press.
• Gollner A. Landey J. McPhee J. Pollan M. Vitaglione M. & United States. (2021). An illustrated catalog of american fruits & nuts: the u.s. department of agriculture pomological watercolor collection (First). Atelier Éditions.

The Automat

January 11, 2023

The Automat was a 20th-century self-service restaurant with food items displayed behind protective glass; diners would insert a coin into the machine, allowing the glass door to open, and out would pop the pie, sandwich, or soup. Or as Carolyn Hughes Crowley from the Smithsonian Magazine put it, Automat's were "...waiterless establishments represented a combination of fast-food, vending and cafeteria-style eateries." (Crowley) According to Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City, Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart opened the first Automat in Philadelphia in 1902 and later opened another Horn & Hardart restaurant in NYC in 1912, and unsurprisingly, it really began to thrive during the Great Depression since it provided working-class customers with cheap, hot, and delicious meals in a glamorous environment with elegant decor, and ornate design, while diners thrived in conversation. Last year a documentary by Lisa Hurwitz about the history of The Automat was released; it is a well-done film worth watching and currently streaming on HBO. Some of the beloved Automat dishes mentioned in the documentary include creamed spinach, mac and cheese, ham and cheese sandwich, eggs and bacon, chicken salad, succotash, mashed potato, Salsbury steak, apple pie, lemon meringue, chocolate pudding pie, coconut custard pie, and of course their famous "Less Work for Mother" coffee. "Horn & Hardart's coffee became known as the best in town. In their heyday in the 1950s, Automats sold more than 90 million cups of fresh-brewed coffee each year. From 1912 to 1950, a cup cost a nickel." (Crowley) In Ruth Reichl's memoir, Save Me the Plums, she briefly talks about her mother bringing her to the Automat as a child while growing up in NYC. Although I'm too young to have experienced the Automat restaurant, I have childhood memories of hospital cafeterias with clear turnstile-like vending machines full of tiers of premade foods behind glass or plastic. I remember one compartment having a navel orange, another a red Macintosh apple, and a sandwich. I remember most of the slots being empty and being very hungry. It was probably during the eighties or nineties. According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, "Horn and Hardart can be credited with starting the fast food revolution in America." (Smith) In the late 60s, as New York City began to decline and crime increased, more and more families moved to the American suburbs. The decline in the Automat had begun, and an unfortunate fate left Horn & Hardart locations closed and transformed into fast-food franchises, Burger King. The last remaining Automat closed in 1991, and the Museum of the City of New York has collected a Harvey Wang photograph of the final hours at the 42nd Street & 3rd Avenue location. A sad fate for the Automat, a cultural and culinary icon. Lastly, The Food Institute produced a video about the resurgence and the return of the Automat in Automat-ic Innovation in Foodservice, focusing on Brooklyn Dumpling House, a new franchise expected to open around the country. However, I would like to see the return of the Automat with a vintage retro feel; it needs to be the official Automat, perhaps with one central location like Times Square or Las Vegas.

• Crowley, C. H. (2001, August 1). Meet Me at the Automat. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/meet-me-at-the-automat-47804151/ 
• Smith, A. (2015). Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City. : Oxford University Press. 
• Smith, A. (2012). Automats in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. : Oxford University Press. 
• THE AUTOMAT the movie. (2022, January 23). The Automat Official Trailer (2021) HD [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWNkIsLEny4 
• Diehl L. B. & Hardart M. (2002). The automat (1st ed.). Clarkson Potter.

Tichnor Brothers

January 10, 2023

The Boston Public Library digitized a collection of early to mid-20th-century postcards created by Tichnor Brothers Inc, a Boston-based printer and publishing company. According to the Boston Public Library, the Tichnor Brothers created the postcards between 1930 and 1945. However, some from earlier and later dates are erroneously misidentified in the collection. Regardless, it's still a phenomenal collection that records the restaurant industry during the mid-20th century. Over 25,000 colorful postcards are available online through the Digital Commonwealth. The Food Blog will highlight the Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection in an ongoing series exploring the many restaurant trends documented through the collection. Disappointedly and not surprisingly, after reviewing the complete collection of 25,000 postcards at the Boston Public Library, I found quite a few disparaging illustrations and images representing African Americans throughout the Boston collection, particularly this image. Very few Tichnor Brothers postcards depict African Americans in a favorable light. At one point in 1945, the NAACP addressed the racist imagery published by the postcard company; you can read about it here. This collection highlights inequality in America through marketing and the prioritization of white American prosperity through fine dining, vacations, hotels, etc. I anticipate further researching this topic, mainly who the Tichnor Brothers of Boston were and why their paper product depicts racist imagery. 

Texas

January 9, 2023

Texas has plenty to offer the culinary world, with Mexican, African American, German, and Indigenous roots. Recently, at the end of 2022, the editors of Texas Monthly released The Big Texas Cookbook: The Food That Defines the Lone Star State. Traditional Texan dishes and food products include brisket, chicken fried steak, enchiladas, queso, ribs, pecan pie, chili con carne, fried oysters, Texas sheet cake, BBQ, Frito pie, Dr. Pepper, sweet and condensed milk, and the glorious corn dog. My first food memory about Texas was made while driving past a Dallas-Fort Worth drive-thru liquor store with a line of pickup trucks stocking up on beer. As a teenager, I was surprised such an establishment was allowed since drinking and driving is illegal in all 50 states. This early impression added to an oversimplified image I've developed about the boldness I associate with cowboys, tiger owners, and gun-toters in the lone star state. Texas is much more than stereotypical cliches, and many contemporary culinary influences have emerged in Texas. Whole Foods made its start in Austin. Texas is home to many chefs, cooks, connoisseurs, and diverse foods. Priya Krishna, an Indian-American, food writer, and cookbook author of Indian-ish grew up in Dallas. Josef Centeno grew up in San Antonio and is a leading chef and cookbook author of Ama, about Tex-Mex cuisine. Christine Hà, a Vietnamese American from Houston, is a chef with visual impairments who won the third season of Master Chef with Gordon Ramsay and is opening a restaurant in 2023 called The Blind Goat. 

• All Recipes: 20 Texas Foods The Lone Star State Is Famous For

• Food Network: Everything's Bigger and Better: The Best Things to Eat in Texas

• Wikipedia: Texas Cuisine 

Vincent van Gogh

Sweet-sickness: The Sugar Kings of NY

January 6, 2023

The first time I visited Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I emerged from the subway to find a car turned to charcoal, missing wheels, and left with shattered windows. I saw Williamsburg as a fiery pit and a biblical version of hell. I moved there anyway. I lived on Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg and paid $350 monthly rent. Blocks away were the dilapidated and abandoned Williamsburg waterfront, where the 19th-century Domino Sugar Factory remained. Over the past decade, Williamsburg has boomed with wealth, life, excitement, and excess. Launching iconic food establishments such as Smorgasburg and the Museum of Food and Drink. The past century has documented extreme rises and falls in Williamsburg's history. In the 19th century, the most prominent gentlemen to emerge from Williamsburg were the Havemeyers. 

Havemeyer Street, where I once lived, was named after the Havemeyer sugar family. A family that made a killing off the backs of enslaved people; monopolized the sugar market in America; and pushed highly addictive sugar on  Americans—ending their decadent lives with a benevolent, philanthropic legacy as art donors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Havemeyer sugar kings are a multigenerational successful family dynasty that lasted two centuries. Originally the Havermeyer family immigrated from Germany and arrived in New York in the late 1700s. Frederick Christian Havemeyer (1774-1841) was the patriarch of the sugar refinery business, with Frederick C. Havemeyer, Jr. (1807-1891) and Henry Osborne Havemeyer (1847–1907) to follow (along with many other prominent cousins and family members). "Frederick C. Havemeyer, Jr., son of the company's founder, first began operating a refinery in Williamsburg during 1856. Raw sugar was supplied from America's deep south, mainly Louisiana, and the Caribbean, where it was primarily harvested by slaves. Though slavery ended in the United States in 1865, it continued in Cuba, the world's largest exporter of raw sugar, until 1886." (NYC LPC). The raw sugar product also was sourced from "...Pernambuco, Manila, Hawaii... Egypt, and Java."(NYC LPC)  The Havermeyer sugar company had many names, but the most prominent and recognizable were American Sugar Refining Company and later Domino Sugar. Henry Osborne Havemeyer - the patriarch's grandson - joined the family business the year slavery was abolished, in 1865. Henry O. made his brutish mark at success, and "by 1907, the American Sugar Refining Company and its Domino brand controlled 97 percent of all refined sugar production in the United States."(Smith) Thereby transforming food and what and how we eat in America. 

The Williamsburg Domino sugar refinery would be turned into condos a century later. To kickstart the beginning of this new journey, the artist Kara Walker created an enormous sugar-coated sculpture called Marvelous Sugar Baby (2014), which explored child labor, enslaved people, and Domino sugar's not-so-sweet history. Shortly before renovations that transformed the highly toxic sugar factory into luxury condos for the new gilded New York society, another artist, the photographer Paul Raphaelson, photographed the decay of the sugar factory. Additionally, artworks from the Havemeyer collection are currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• NYC LPC. (2007). Designation List 396 LP-2268. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2268.pdf 
• Krondl, M (2015). Havemeyer Family in Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199397020.001.0001/acref-9780199397020-e-283 
• Frelinghuysen, A. C., Ainsworth, M. W. (1993). Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. United States: Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Splendid_Legacy_The_Havemeyer_Collection 
• Smith, A. (2015). Sugar Refining in Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199397020.001.0001/acref-9780199397020-e-283  
• Cobb, G. (2017). The Rise and Fall of the Sugar King: A History of Williamsburg, Brooklyn 1844-1909. United States: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36525021 
• Raphaelson, P. (2017). Brooklyn's Sweet Ruin: Relics and Stories of the Domino Sugar Refinery. United States: Schiffer Publishing. https://paulraphaelson.com/books/ 
• Havemeyer, H. W. (2010). Henry Osborne Havemeyer: The Most Independent Mind. United States: H.W. Havemeyer. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25964806.Henry_Osborne_Havemeyer___The_Most_Independent_Mind_  
• Budhos, M. T., Aronson, M. (2010). Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science. United States: Clarion Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sugar_Changed_the_World/2NluMwEACAAJ 
• Muhammad, K. G. (2021, November 9). The Barbaric History of Sugar in America. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/sugar-slave-trade-slavery.html 
• The Sugar Trade. (2021, April 22). National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/on-the-water/living-atlantic-world/new-tastes-new-trades/sugar-trade 
• Woodruff, J.  and Muhammad, K. G. (2019, August 23). Before Cotton, Sugar Established American Reliance on Slave Labor. PBS NewsHour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/before-cotton-sugar-established-american-reliance-on-slave-labor 

Running to Eat

January 6, 2023

When I deprive myself of certain foods - extreme keto dieting - I become more fixated on the forbidden foods. Currently, I'm off the keto trend and stuffed from months of overeating due to my winter hibernation. I'm feeling sluggish, unmotivated, and overflowing with food in my mind and stomach. I need a health break—time to start running. Running is one of the most accessible and affordable ways to get healthy; it's free and requires no gym membership or equipment. All you have to do is put on a pair of sneakers, grab your keys, perhaps headphones, and a phone, and go outside and run around your neighborhood and safely tune out the world. The first time I decided to run, I was overweight and overdressed, with my lungs struggling and feeling winded. I started running one block but was too weak to continue; I returned to walking, and once I regained strength, I would run another block and repeat the process for ten minutes. Slowly, over months, I conditioned my mind and body, ran a marathon, and lost 25 pounds; I was fit and flooded with happy hormones. I highly recommend long-distance running. Now that the new year has arrived, I'm going to run again. 

There is a health movement towards veganism and vegetarianism. Several cookbooks for runners are available, as well as nutritional guides for staying healthy and balanced with the right amount of carbohydrates, nutrition, and fluids. Many books on the market encourage plant-based diets, such as The Runner's World Vegetarian Cookbook by Heather Mayer Irvine, The Plant-based Runner by Jonathan Cairns, Vegan Cookbook for Athletes by Anne-Marie Campbell, No Meat Athlete by Matt Frazier, The High-Protein Vegan Cookbook for Athletes by Jenna Braddock, The Vegan Athlete's Cookbook by Anita Bean, and Running on Veggies by Lottie Bildirici. However, when I run, I crave protein; I find it very difficult to feel satiated solely from the lacto-ovo or plant-based diet. After a long run, I often want a Philly cheesesteak or a loaded pork-filled burrito; with carbs, fat, and protein.

Wizard Oil Tea

January 5, 2023

It's that time of the year, January, the month of health fads and dieting. Over the years, my community has whispered health cures and trends such as a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar for breakfast, grapefruit seed extract, veganism, raw food diets, no carbohydrates, quinine tonic, intermittent fasting, oregano oil, and black seed oil. Many beliefs are associated with eating "the right way" to stay one step ahead of illness. For this post, inspired by community whisperers, I wanted to explore popular fads in the 19th century and came across Hamlin's Wizard Oil.  

Wizard Oil was created in the 1870s by John Austin Hamlin, a magician and theatrical performer turned patriarch of an opera house dynasty that grew out of Chicago; he was a man of confidence. Hamlin's opulent family and descendants made a fortune convincing vulnerable women, children, and the feeble into believing that swallowing Wizard Oil, with ingredients that included sassafras, camphor, turpentine, ammonia, and chloroform, would cure all diseases, including cancer. Hamlin's Wizard Oil company recommended ingesting the concoction with milk, tea, or molasses to treat nearly every common ailment, including nervousness and headache. "Hamlin's Wizard Oil should be administered four times a day, the dose for an adult being a teaspoonful in half a teacupful of warm milk or tea." (Hamlin). The Hamlin family's fortune and the myth behind the magical cure-all continued to grow for decades.

John A. Hamlin was the great Oz of Chicago, a magician, masterful performer, salesman, and owner of Hamlin's Grand Opera House. Interestingly enough, L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, descended from a family that owned several Opera houses and happened to be living in Chicago when he wrote and published his great American classic. One of the reasons the story of Oz became so popular is partly due to the Hamlin family, who produced the musical version of The Wizard of Oz at the Grand Opera House in Chicago. The similarities between John Austin Hamlin (the Wizard of Chicago) and Oscar Zoroaster (the Wizard of Oz) are striking because both characters, real and fictitious, bamboozled their way to success and performed great theatrical performances based on medical quackery. Like the many patients who purchased and ingested Wizard Oil to cure their ailments, the characters in the land of Oz also sought medical magic, the scarecrow needed a brain, and the Tin Man needed a heart. Like the Tin Man, L. Frank Baum had an unfortunate start to life; he, too, was born with a defective heart that eventually ended his life. Perhaps, Baum was misled during his feeble upbringing with cure-all snake oils and false dreams presented in advertisements; drink this, eat that, and the confidence-man will cure your failing heart! There are more cautionary tales about the snake oil salesmen of the 19th century, with many more to come during the month of January.

• Anderson, A. (2000). Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show. United Kingdom: McFarland, p112-114.

• Hamlin's Wizard Oil Company. (Ca. 1890). Humorous and sentimental songs: as sung throughout the United States by Hamlin's Wizard Oil Concert Troupes in their open air advertising concerts. Retrieved from HathiTrust Digital Library. 

• Loncraine, R. (2009). The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum. United States: Penguin Publishing Group.

Ruth Reichl: Plums with Garlic

January 4, 2023

Ruth Reichl is one of the leading food writers in America with a long and successful career as a Food Critic for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Editor of Gourmet. Garlic and Sapphires (2005) and Save Me the Plums (2019) are two memoirs documenting the roaring days in print publishing. Relics of things past when newspaper Food Critics were treated like gods and magazine editors lived a life drowning in luxury. During this period, one of my defining food memories was when I interned at Conde Nast. One of my responsibilities was looking through library-bound magazines from the 20th century. Directly across from the Conde Nast library was a test kitchen. I can't remember if the second-floor kitchen was Bon Appetit or Gourmet, but what I do remember is enthusiastically lingering outside for samples. One day, I tried the most delicious blueberry cobbler I've ever consumed. My memory recorded an almost fluorescent purple, liquidy-gooing ginormous blueberry-filled pastry, an embellished memory matching its outstanding flavor. If only I worked in a test kitchen, that would be heavenly! Sadly, the world has changed so much for print publications; and magazines and newspapers continue to decline as advertisement revenue dissipates. However, Reichl's memoirs are essential for understanding the food industry's success and failures during the 20th and early 21st centuries, before the internet took off and began to devour all things printed on paper. Save Me the Plums is about the ultimate decline of Gourmet magazine (established in 1941), which folded in 2009. According to The New York Times, "...the 3,500 cookbooks in Gourmet magazine's research library are becoming a part of the culinary collection at the Fales Library of New York University, one of the most extensive collections of culinary works in the country." (Fox) The collection can be found here; I'm looking forward to taking a field trip to NYU's Fales Library to browse a selection of cookbooks from this historical collection of culinary treasures.

• Fox, N. (2009). N.Y.U. Gets Gourmet’s Cookbook Library. Diner’s Journal Blog. https://archive.nytimes.com/dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/nyu-gets-gourmets-cookbook-library/ 

Dog Food and the Cat

January 3, 2023

My dog is spoiled, and it's all my fault; he prefers roasted chicken, scrambled eggs, fresh whipped heavy cream, peanut butter, and lightly shredded cheese, and he'll go on a hunger strike if deprived of chicken. A bowl of dry food will sit out for days, untouched, and the canned dog food ends up as leftovers for the cat. My lousy dog parenting has trickled down to his feline friend, who now meows as if starving and desperate for freshly prepared chicken, salad greens, and fishy fish. Yes, my cat eats salad. My dog prefers human food, and my cat wants dog food on a bed of lettuce. There is so much confusion. I wasn't surprised to discover the existence of cookbooks for dogs, such as Feed Me by Liviana Prola and My Dog Eats Better Than Me by Fiona Rigg. Bon Appetit has an article called "Fancy Restaurants for Dogs Are Booming Right Now." Yesterday, the Guardian followed up with another piece about the California restaurant Dogue which offers culinary canine cuisine created by chef Rahmi Massarweh. For 75 bucks, your four-legged friend can dine like a king! Hopefully, I can get my two furballs back on affordable veterinarian-recommended diets for the new year. 

Eggs

January 2, 2023

A new cookbook is coming out this month called The Gourmand's Egg: A Collection of Stories & Recipes by Ruth Reichl, Jennifer Higgie, and The Gourmand. Taschen's coffee table book explores the history of the egg going back to antiquity and investigates the egg as a model for artists and a modern art subject. Egg by Lizzie Stark, another book about the history of the egg, will be coming out in March. According to the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, records of domesticated egg-laying in Asia go far back into the B.C.E. Mentioning the consumption of farmed eggs in North America dates back to the 1400s when Columbus landed in America, but not before. Although, The Food Lover's Companion states, "...American Indians thought that the great spirit burst forth from a giant golden egg to create the world."(Herbst) Forbes identifies evidence of chicken bones in the Americas around 700 AD. I would love to find more information about early ovo diets in America. The Food Timeline has extensive research about the history of eggs, which is worth exploring for egg enthusiasts. Eggs, a basic staple, are essential in my household, a cheap source of nutritious protein that is filling and endless to acquire. Dozens and dozens of eggs line the bottom of my refrigerator. I do not love eggs, and the more I see them, the less I like them. Unfortunately, I also live with an egg worshiper, which requires plenty of egg-themed offerings. The most recent discovery was Gudetama, established in 2013, a ramen egg caricature destined to be devoured. We have Gudetama socks, stickers, ramen bowls, gummies, and t-shirts. As of 2022, Netflix now offers a show devoted to the adorable cult classic, Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure, and Hachette recently published Gudetama: The Official Cookbook. Cooking with eggs makes me think of Wylie Dufresne, once known as the mad lab culinary egg scientist; you can read more here. As much as I revolt against eggs, they sure are versatile, with fragile little hard shells and the ability to transform into omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hardboiled eggs, mayonnaise, deviled eggs, egg noodles, egg drop soup, avgolemono soup, egg salad, garlic aioli, soufflés, century eggs, custards, matzah and brie, meringue, quiche, eggnog, et cetera. Those little crackable shells are going nowhere and will continue to forge ahead as part of culinary history for many future centuries.

• Katz, S. H., & Weaver, W. W. (2002). Encyclopedia of food and culture. Charles Scribner's Sons Imprint.

• Herbst S. T. & Herbst R. (2007). The new food lover's companion (4th ed.). Barron's Educational Series.

Korean American Memoirs

January 1, 2023

After two years of hunkering down in graduate school, I can finally return to one of the great joys of my life, reading hardcover books and novels and listening to audiobooks. Two books that lay dormant on my reading shelf welcomed me back into the world of reading: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and Eat a Peach by David Chang. Memoirs about growing up with Korean roots in America, with blessings, curses, loss, difficulties, and food. Michelle Zauner's book centers around losing her mother to pancreatic cancer. It's a heartbreaking journey about a daughter that desperately tries to reconnect to her mother and Korean heritage through Korean recipes, food, and the grocery store H Mart. Making kimchi from scratch, blending tomato with honey and ice, eating Miyeokguk seaweed soup, and boiling down Jatjuk pine nut porridge. In Eat a Peach, David Chang, a prominent chef, wrote about his struggle with depression, loss, and being Korean in America, his love of food, ramen, Japanese food, and everything Americana. David Chang grew up as a Latchkey kid with microwavable foods; the memoir focuses less on Korean food and more on his workaholic success in the restaurant business, his experience living in Japan, and growing up in Virginia. Both memoirs explore successes and failures of life, frustration, emotional pain, struggles with belonging, and identity centered around food. Michelle Zauner and David Chang launched their careers while living in New York City. Crying in H Mart is an excellent book about the Korean American experience and difficulties preserving cultural heritage and culinary roots away from home. Below are four cookbooks to learn more about Korean American cooking.

New Year's Eve

December 31, 2022

New Year's Eve is a night for decadent fine dining and reservations, drinking champagne, devouring medium rare prime rib, filet mignon, foie gras, and lobster dripping in melted butter, laughing, dancing, and celebrating. I've never experienced the celebratory fine dining that mythologically exists through stories and advertisements. My New Year's Eve involves staying inside, away from drunk drivers, in front of a television, learning about my country 'tis of thee through pop culture, musicians, costumes, and cornball jokes. As a child, I remember celebrating the night before the new year on a boat off the coast of San Diego, drinking hot apple cider in a crowd of shadows on a ship that looked like it belonged to pirates. I remember being tired, bored, and far removed from the adult conversation, tugging at my parents' legs and begging for sleep. Staying inside close to a bed is a lovely way to celebrate the end of a long year, curled up with a cat, dog, and new book, staying warm, safe, and well-fed. My Joy of Cooking cookbook recommends a menu with caviar, salmon pate, pan-seared duck, fettuccine alfredo, roasted beets, creamy leeks, stuffed mushrooms, endive salad, baked Alaska, and molten lava cakes. This year, like every year, I will ignore all the decadence and stick with comfort and warmth. I will make cheesy cornbread, spicy chili, mac and cheese, greens, and homemade apple cider. A memorable resolution of the past led me to run 4 miles at midnight on New Year's Eve beneath exploding fireworks in the frigid winter cold (14 degrees) to lose weight and transform my life into a hope-fueled success. Initially warmed by hot chocolate, but as the night progressed, my muscles began to freeze. I finished the run and limped home, believing I was on the path toward health and happiness. However, the dining on wine and grapes gods had alternative plans and rolled me back down the hill, back into the weeds. NYE resolutions may be unrealistic, unobtainable, and have a high failure rate. However, there is something magical in failure, and one will discover that loss can be a transformative and strengthening process. After a night of New Year's Eve feasting, where will the gods lead us in 2023 into the clouds or the weeds?

Rijksmuseum

Caramel Cereal Coffee

December 29, 2022

2023 is days away, and let us begin the months of dieting, or failed dieting. I am exploring health fads from the early 20th century for the new year. During my research, I came across Caramel Cereal Coffee created by John Harvey Kellogg and the Battle Creek Sanitarium Health Food Company. Caramel Cereal Coffee was invented to cure caffeine-stimulated patients' nervousness, headaches, and queasiness. During the manufactured foods health craze in the late 1800s, cereal coffee was once considered a healthy alternative to caffeinated coffee. Kellogg's Caramel Cereal Coffee was "…made from a mixture of burned bread crusts, bran, molasses, and corn…"(Schwarz) However, Caramel Cereal Coffee fizzled into obscurity, with Postum by C. W. Post establishing itself as the leading cereal coffee substitute. "Postum is made from roasted wheat bran and molasses" (Wiki) and is still quite popular with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. I'm particularly interested in Caramel Cereal Coffee because it sounds delicious, even though it likely wasn't. The title alone reminds me of Taiwanese brown sugar bubble tea, Vietnamese coffee, and Milk Bar's sweetened cornflake milk. Perhaps cereal coffee tastes like roasted Grape Nuts with sweetened condensed milk. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a cup of Postum and recreating the early twentieth-century flavors of blackened cereal grains in liquid form.

• Schwarz, R. W. (2006). John Harvey Kellogg, M.D.: Pioneering Health Reformer. United States: Review and Herald Pub. Association.
• Wikipedia contributors. (2022). Postum. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postum&oldid=1124713276

Kawanzaa

December 28, 2022

Maulana Karenga is an activist and academic who invented Kwanzaa in the 1960s—created for the Black American communities to celebrate and connect to early African American and SubSaharan African history, practices, and heritage. The winter harvest holiday lasts one week, from December 26 - January 1. "The word "Kwanzaa" comes from the Swahili expression "matunda ya kwanza," meaning 'first fruits of the harvest..." (Harris) Traditional African American dishes incorporate Caribbean, African, and Indigenous ingredients and soulful flavors. Kwanzaa's celebratory feasts include black-eyed peas, fried okra, collard greens, candied yams, peanut stew, jollof rice, plantains, peach cobbler, cornbread, sweet potatoes, catfish, pepper pot soup, red beans, green beans, biscuits, and pork ribs. The Food Network has produced a new 7-day series called The Kwanzaa Menu, hosted by culinary historian Tonya Hopkins; the cooking show discusses foods, recipes, and principles of the holiday. Episodes include recipes for hibiscus mulled wine mimosas, sesame black-eyed pea fritters, southern greens, black sable rice calas, fruit smoothie bowls, Caribbean grilling, and cassava with peanut stew. To learn more about Kwanzaa, read A Kwanzaa Keepsake: Celebrating the Holiday with New Traditions and Feasts by Jessica B. Harris, a well-renowned culinary historian.

• Harris, J. B. (2003). Kwanzaa. In S. H. Katz (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (Vol. 2, pp. 341-342). Charles Scribner's Sons. 
• Fieldhouse, P. (2017). Food, feasts, and faith : An encyclopedia of food culture in world religions [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Winter Cookbooks

Hanukkah

• Goodreads: Best Jewish Cookbooks 
• NYPL: Jewish Cookbooks by Region 
• The Jewish Museum & Archives of BC: The Kitchen Stories (Podcast) 
• NYT: Hanukkah Recipes  

American Chinese Food

December 25, 2022

On Christmas day, it is a New York City tradition to order American Chinese takeout and head to a movie theater to watch a film recently released. Eating American Chinese food on Christmas is one of my favorite traditions. A classic takeout meal might include fried wontons, Lo Mein, egg rolls, fried dumplings, wonton soup, Kung Po chicken, General Tso’s chicken, and a fortune cookie. Traditionally consuming Chinese cuisine on the twenty-fifth of December has been an American Jewish tradition that secular New Yorkers - or former New Yorkers like myself - have also co-opted. Historically the “Jewish Christmas tradition dates to the end of the nineteenth century on the Lower East Side of New York City….”(Plaut) With Chinatown as its neighbor, Chinese dishes and ingredients were just blocks away. Chow Mein and Chop Suey were popular food fads in the 20th century. The Chinese American takeout cuisine is unique and has been adapted specifically for the American palette. Quite different from traditional Chinese meals. You can read more about the fascinating history of American Chinese food, particularly the battle against MSG and the history of the rise in Chop Suey restaurants in the 20th century. The Fortune Cookies Chronicles by Jenny Lee and Chop Suey, USA by Yong Chen explore such culinary stories.

• Chen, Y. (2014). Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/chen16892
• Coe, A. (2009). Chop Suey : A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States, Oxford University Press.
• Lee, J.  (2008). The fortune cookie chronicles : adventures in the world of Chinese food (1st ed.). Twelve.
• Plaut, J. E. (2012). A Kosher Christmas: ’Tis the Season  to be Jewish (1st ed.). Rutgers University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjfpf 

Christmas

December 24, 2022

Merry Christmas! It has just started to snow, big chunky fluffy white snowflakes, right on cue for Christmas Eve. Christmas time can be a religious experience, a commercial experience, a time to get together with family and enjoy a meal around the dinner table, or all three. My experience has leaned towards the commercial aspect of Christmas, with Santa Claus leaving candy canes and boxes of chocolate. An unfortunate contribution to my pancreas and teeth. Nevertheless, it is also a time for a family-spirited gathering around a winter feast. Autumn dishes from thanksgiving share a similar menu as ones from the Christmas table. Around Christmas, families gather around a roast, eat sweet pumpkin pie, and build Hansel and Gretel gingerbread houses. Fragrant and freshly cut balsam fir trees are decorated with red and white striped candy canes, and plates of chocolate chip cookies with glasses of creamy white milk are left out for Santa. 

Traditions such as baking Christmas pudding, fruit cake, and mincemeat pies are hopefully fading into British American history. America's commercialized Christmas is well documented through advertisements from the 20th century, with cheerful families with European heritage holding up their holiday roasts or Christmas puddings, the prideful trophies that unite families. Christmas dinner in America "...is based on eighteenth-century English models, and at its centerpiece is a roast, normally turkey. This centerpiece is surrounded by side dishes reflecting regional tastes and often ethnic backgrounds."(Weaver). Spending time searching through archives provides a window into Christmas's past, viewing a sliver of cultural heritage documented through advertisements and articles featuring dishes such as plum pudding, suckling pig, candy treats, and aspic dishes. I even found advertisements marketing Campbell's tomato soup and paradise pudding made with Jello for Christmas dinner.

There are many Christmas-themed cookbooks available for holiday meal inspiration (see below) and novelty ones, too, such as The Christmas Movie Cookbook, Hogwarts Holiday Cookbook, and A Cowboy Christmas. I usually reference several cookbooks for each recipe, which helps when my pantry lacks essential ingredients. This year I'm going to bake date & nut bread, a winter roast with root vegetables, greens, stuffing, and orange cranberry sauce. Enjoy the time with family and friends, and happy eating!

• Weaver, W. W. & Katz, S. H. (2002). Christmas in the Encyclopedia of food and culture. Charles Scribner’s Sons Imprint, p414 -416.

Airline Meals

December 23, 2022

The first time I remember flying was on American Airlines in the eighties; I was a little girl, and the crew was incredibly kind to me, gifting me a winged pin and a pack of playing cards. I loved the inflight experience and sat with my eyes glued out the window above the clouds viewing the endless grid of American farms and corn fields. Growing up near the pacific ocean, I gulped down many years of seafood, and before each flight, I would preorder a special dietary dish, the seafood meal. Always excitedly waiting for my tasty warmed-up fishy meal to arrive. My enthusiasm for airfare lasted until 2001 and has slowly dwindled ever since. My last flight left me squeezed into a Spirit Airlines seat with no luggage and no food. An experience far from my first flight experience, when flight attendants with glowing smiles served delicious meals and gave out complimentary treasures to children. Nowadays, I'd rather walk across farmland than hop on board an airplane. 

Airline Meals collects twenty years of photographs of airline food. An excellent resource for exploring the decline in airline meal service for economy seating passengers. Emirates, Lufthansa, and Air France continue to maintain higher standards for the inflight dining service, and serving meals in the sky preserves the tradition of the 20th-century flying experience. "In 1927, Air Union offered the first recorded meal service, which consisted of sandwiches, lobster salad, cold chicken and ham, Nicoise salad, ice cream, and cheese and fruit."(Kim) Although I can't see a lobster salad returning to the inflight menu, adding more comforting meals might ease the unpleasantness of flying in America. Who wants an airline full of hangry passengers? 

• Kim, C. (2015). Airline Meals in The SAGE encyclopedia of food issues. (Vols. 1-3). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-food-issues/i1210.xml 

• AirlineMeals
• Culinary Historians of NY: Food in Flight
• DPLA: Cleared for Takeoff
• Duke University Libraries: Pan American World Airways Advertisements
• Northwestern University Libraries: Transportation Library Menu Collection 
• Wikipedia: Airline meal

Ramen

December 22, 2022

As a child raised on processed foods, instant noodles were part of my upbringing. Particularly Nissin Cup Noodles, I remember peeling back the lid and adding hot water from a red-tapped water cooler spigot and watching the freeze-dried shrimp magically enlarge in size. During my teenage years, I preferred the not-so-popular Creamy Chicken flavored ramen by Maruchan. Learning how to tear a packet of flavoring powder, boil water, and heat noodles met the needs of my 16-year-old teenage self. These days my favorite instant ramen is Samyang Buldak Carbonara with a large glass of milk to cool down my scorched mouth. I'm crazy about this spicy ramen! The runner-up would be Mama Instant Noodle, Creamy Tom Yum Spicy Flavor. Nowhere near the elevated flavors as David Chang's Cacio e Pepe ramen or a hot steamy bowl of salty broth with fresh noodles, vegetables, sliced pork, and a runny egg. Luckily, several cookbooks are on the market about preparing ramen using fresh ingredients. Instant ramen is quick, cheap, easy, and delicious, but there are other ways of enjoying a hot and spicy bothy noodle soup.

Ramen Museum New York

CupNoodles Museum Yokohama

• Kushner, Barak. Slurp! a Social and Culinary History of Ramen - Japan's Favorite Noodle Soup, BRILL, 2012. ProQuest Ebook

Phaidon Cookbooks

December 21, 2022

If I could hand out an award (from my living room couch) for the best cookbook series, it would go to the book publishing company Phaidon. The binding, recipes, design, and highest-quality cookbooks create a sweet reading and cooking experience. The Jewish Cookbook, Vegan The Cookbook, Thailand The Cookbook, Japan The Cookbook, and The Nordic Cookbook remain on my bookshelf, regularly referenced. In 2023, the North African Cookbook is scheduled for release, and I'm looking forward to this new addition. A complete collection with every global cookbook published by Phaidon would be a dream, but that would be quite an investment (even for a public library)! 

Pie

December 20, 2022

Growing up in California in the eighties, I have many memories of digging into Marie Callendar's lemon meringue and chocolate cream pies. These days, pie-making brings me great joy. The step-by-step process of baking an apple pie by rolling out the dough, chopping up the fruit, and adding aroma-enriched spices such as allspice. The intricately weaving of the lattice top and crunching into a fruity sweet golden brown creation covered in a glistening baked egg wash. One can trace the history of the pie back to Europe. In medieval times, the raised pie was found throughout Europe, and now pies remain popular icons in British and American culture. Early colonialists introduced the Apple Pie to New England. The Nation of Islam has a long history of baking Navy Bean Pies in African American Muslim communities. As mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, there are "five types of pastry called pie: pocket pies, two-crusted pies, one-crusted pies, standing pies, and potpies."(Katz, p69) There are many European and American pies, such as apple, Boston cream, cranberry, key lime, lemon meringue, mincemeat, pecan, pumpkin, raisin, sweet potato, and vinegar pies. 

Many cookbooks focus specifically on pie recipes, such as Elegant Pie (2019) by Karin Pfeiff-Boschek, Art of the Pie (2016) by Kate McDermott, The Pie Room (2020) by Calum Franklin, Pies Glorious Pies (2020) by Maxine Clark, The Book On Pie (2020) by Erin Jeanne McDowell, Pie Academy (2020) by Ken Haedrich, Justice of the Pies (2022) by Maya-Camille Broussard, Sister Pie (2018) by Lisa Ludwinski, The Essential Pie Cookbook (2021) by Saura Kline. Happy holiday pie-baking! 

• Katz S. H. & Weaver W. W. (2003). Encyclopedia of food and culture. Scribner.
• McWilliams M. (2012). The story behind the dish: classic american foods. Greenwood.

New York Sweets

December 19, 2022

After spending two decades living in New York, I often get nostalgic for the sweet treats from my past. Before I packed up my Uhaul, walked down my last flight of stairs, and said goodbye to the city that shaped my adult life, four sugar-soaked dishes kept me coming back for more. Ovenly, established in 2012, created the Brooklyn Blackout Cake. The recipe is made with stout, dark cocoa powder, and sour cream. It is well worth the trek and investment when the cake is fresh. If not, go for the Brooklyn Blackout cupcakes. Magnolia Bakery was established in 1996 and is an iconic New York pitstop known for its delicate pastel buttercream cupcakes and banana cream pudding. The banana cream pudding with Nilla wafers is delectable. Milk Bar, established in 2008, is now a national chain; it offers delicious Cereal Milk Soft Serve, both salty and sweet, like a bowl of cornflakes transformed into soft serve. Freshly served on a warm day is memory-making. Van Leeuwen ice cream, established in 2008, started from a street truck in Brooklyn and is now widely distributed (and just as delicious as ever). Honeycomb, Earl Gray Tea, and Sicilian Pistachio are just a few flavors that melt in your mouth like butter. Speaking of butter, I'm a little concerned about Kraft Macaroni & Cheese ice cream; the idea immediately leads to disgust. However, I am willing to try such an anomaly; I'm sure it's salty, creamy, and delicious! Dough's Doughnuts, established in 2010, bakes tangy doughnuts glazed with hibiscus and another with lemon and poppyseeds. Fresh is best; if the donut is not hot and fresh out of the oven, they tend to dry out quickly, which is disappointing. With all these deserts, fresh is best! 

Center for Brooklyn History

December 18, 2022

The Center for Brooklyn History, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society, includes a collection of menus from the 19th and 20th centuries. Recently, I sat down in the Othmer Library reading room and sifted through the menu folders one by one. Here are a few findings. 

A restaurant called Candlelight in Brooklyn Heights served watermelon rinds and an "endless cup of coffee." In 1905, Restaurant de China served Chop Suey and cigars to diners. The Embassy Club had a "gorgeous girlie floor show" and a sardine sandwich for 40 cents. Peach melba was a popular dish. Hotel Touraine in 1939 was accessible via the trolley line, and the Receiving Ship at New York, 1919, served orangeade and cigarettes. The Hotel St.George served up southern fried jumbo frog legs, Sanka coffee, and glasses of buttermilk. The Manhattan Beach Hotel in 1883 served Doe birds. Joe's coffee shop on Court Street served My-t-fine chocolate pudding and Hawaiian pineapple ice cream sodas. Olives and celery were the go-to appetizers mentioned on many menus. Menus from the 1800s included colorful ribbons, portraying a world before my time. A collection can allow one's mind to travel back to the old days when celery and olives were popular appetizers and when America was developing a fondness for Chop Suey and dishes with aspic. A time when Brooklyn waterfronts were swimming with edible fish of the sea, and fresh oysters made their way to Brooklyn tables. My stomach was empty as the policy allowed no food or drinks in the research room, leaving my mind wandering toward future meals. The collection of menus paints a picture of restaurants in Brooklyn as places to dine in rooms filled with smoke, where diners ate the abundance of seafood pulled from the New York harbors and dabbled in commercially processed ever so-popular sweets such as My-T-Fine and flavored Jello. 

If you have a chance, visit this collection in person do so; it's always a pleasure to get a first-hand feel for history.

Art Museums

Cookbook Classics

December 16, 2022.

Hello, readers! The Food Blog will be all about cookbooks and little bits of food history. Let's start with my journey of discovering food and at-home cooking. When I was a child, I grew up in a small country town in Southern California, and most of my childhood memories surround mealtime, although most of my meals were provided by fast food corporations. For breakfast, before elementary school, I would run into 7-11 and pick up a bag of potato chips and little plastic-wrapped chocolate, carrot, and banana square cakes. I remember loving those little cakes, chocolate frosting all over my face, and dark brown crumbs on my clothes; I still think about these little treats. I was pretty popular on the playground until I shared my last potato chip and was left alone with an empty bag. Another memory surrounds the many meals I consumed at Sizzler's salad bar. I remember standing with a plate and looking at massive mounds of whipped cream Jello in enormous glass bowls and, on occasion, consuming steak with loads of A.1. sauce. In the early 90s, Pizza Hut sponsored a reading program; when I read a certain amount of books, I would earn a small free cheese pizza. Pizza Hut played an active role in developing my interest in reading and food. I would sit in the restaurant and listen to popular radio hits while sitting under stained glass lamps waiting for my hard-earned deep dish. My food memories encompass commercially processed American food companies. At some point during my life, I learned how to cook. Three cookbooks transformed my kitchen and helped introduce my family to healthy home-cooked meals: The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham, and more recently, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.