The Food Blog

Volume 9: February 16, 2024 - May 15, 2024

Muhammad Isma'il Isfahani (1814-1892)

Details from a mirror case depicting the meeting of Nasir al-Din Mirza and Tsar Nicholas I in Erivan by the Iranian artist Muhammad Isma'il Isfahani (1854). Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Qajar Art

Clockwise from left: (1) An oil painting of an Emir (1855) on view at the Brooklyn Museum. (2) An oil painting of a seductive woman from a harem (late 18th century). Source: Brooklyn Museum, (3) A Qajar oil painting on cotton. Source: Brooklyn Museum. (4) A detail of the painting Portrait of the Late Amir Qasim Khan (1855), which depicts Persian foods.

May 11, 2024

My recent excursion to the Brooklyn Museum introduced me to the art of the Qajar dynasty. Hardly any works of art grab my attention and lure me to them, like Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf, the painting from Ghostbusters. However, I felt a gravitational pull toward the oil paintings The Portrait of the Late Amir Qasim Khan (1855) and The Seated Woman with a Decanter of Wine (late 18th century). The paintings have a rich, dark color palette with blues, earth browns, and many shades of red with gold detailing. The Qajar dynasty ruled Iran from circa 1794 to 1925. During that time, artwork was produced in a Persian-Islamic tradition, including portraits of idols and taboo vessels of wine. The barbaric cruelty of the dynasty began with the ill-fated and tortured ruler Agha Muḥammad Khan, a sad, unfortunate, and rightly so, vengeful man. His son, Fatḥ Ali Shah, succeeded his father and expanded the arts influenced by European culture during his reign, "the Qajars ruled as absolute monarchs and used architecture and art to project their power and awe their subjects" (Bloom). Fatḥ Ali Shah also had 157 wives. Obviously, women during the Qajar dynasty were not treated well:  "women were on the lower rungs of the social ladder in every part of Qajar society, only just above servants and slaves. Their social function was limited to being wives and mothers"(Momen). In the Portrait of the Late Amir Qasim Khan (1855) displayed at the Brooklyn Museum, there is a - sufra - tray of foods with "apples, oranges, and pomegranate seeds as well as kebab meat on skewers with flatbread on top and green herbs served on the side" (Brooklyn Museum). This makes me wonder, who placed this tray on the floor? Was it a wife, mother, servant, or slave? What can we learn from the evidence left behind by those who have been excluded from history? The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women also mentions most women were illiterate due to the enlightened decisions of the clerical class. In the painting Seated Woman with a Decanter of Wine, the woman depicted was likely a member of the royal harem, according to the Brooklyn Museum. As mentioned on Wikipedia, in Qajar paintings, "women often held objects such as mirrors, fruit, or wine to represent beauty and pleasure" (Wiki). Men such as Mohammad Hasan Afshar and Sani al-Mulk were notable painters during the Qajar dynasty. They helped to contribute to the style and subject matter painted during the Qajar dynasty.


From left: (1) A Qajar dynasty tile depicting Khusrau happening upon Shirin drinking and bathing (late 19th century). Source: The Art Institute of Chicago. (2) A Qajar translucent deep blue wine goblet (mid–19th century). Source: Brooklyn Museum. (3) A ceramic Qajar tile depicting men eating and drinking (late 19th century). Source: Brooklyn Museum.

Bloodthirst and Famine

Photograph by Manuel Elías. Source: United Nations.

May 10, 2024

Controversial topics that put wedges between friends and community are difficult to address, but after reading that nearly 35,000 people have died in Gaza and Palestine is facing famine, "1.1 million people in Gaza – half of the population – have completely exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and are struggling with catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) and starvation" (UN World Food Programme). With solid evidence of the risk of famine, this war must end. However, I will never in any way support any action, language, or mission that is remotely antisemitic. I support Israel as a nation-state, I support the Jewish state, and I support Israel defending its country from invasion. I loathe witnessing young students in America being terrorized for being Jewish. Just like I loathed the demonization of the Muslim community after September 11, both unacceptable and straight-up hate. I also support the innocent bystanders of war and the Palestinian people; famine and death are not acceptable. The conditions in Palestine are not okay; the punishment does not fit the crime. This war was created by warring brutes - bloodthirsty militaristic machismo warlords from Iran, Hamas, Israel, and the United States - and it must end. 


Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Food Insecurity Special Snapshot for Gaza.February 15 - July 15, 2024

Holy Food

May 9, 2024

I've just purchased Holy Food by Christina Ward, which covers the food of many different cults and religious organizations: The Morrish Jews of Harlem, Nations of Gods and Earths, The Peoples Temple (Jim Jones), The Seventh Day Adventists (Battle Creek Sanitarium and Kelloggs), Paul Bragg's Health Center of Los Angeles, and the Bhagwan Rajneesh to name a few. It's a book about the history of religious movements in America that includes recipes like Shaker Fish & Eggs, Mormon's Heavenly Funeral  Potatoes, Nation of Islam Bean Pie, Dayas Ashram Fruit Soup, 3HO's Golden Temple Sandwich, Kripalu's Seclusion Special, Bloodroot Collective's Beer Soup, and the Satanic Temple's Chickpea Fries. Just don't drink the Kool-Aid, aka Flavor Aid. I've been thinking a lot about cults lately and cult-like environments; this sort of group thinking unites a group to do good but can simultaneously allow bad things to happen in the name of goodness, such as the Catholic Church or an organization that preaches in the name of all things good. The Catholic Church and its members believe in the goodness of their religion, and their charities provide food for disadvantaged people and help provide nourishment during times of war. Evil deeds done by good organizations are more challenging to report; you will be ostracised if you speak up or question authority. I recently met a young lad from a cultish religious community; he left the group to study in the outside world and, therefore, was shunned by his family and friends, which resulted in a loss of his community, food, and culture. Food can be used as a weapon; if you go against us, there will be no food for you! Parents' punishment at dinner time, Stalin's punishment in Ukraine, and the soup Nazi on Seinfeld. I've always respected those who leave groups, stand firm, and face adversity in the brave new and brutal world. The cult mentality can come in many forms; nearby, there was a police officer who secretly recorded and reported his town's mayor and police chief for saying terrible racist and sexist things. The sundown town turned against him, and they stopped picking up his garbage, i.e., let him rot with his food waste. 

 The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Photographs by Adelaide Hanscom. Source: Internet Archive

May 8, 2024

Omar 'Tentmaker' Khayyam was a Persian poet from the 11th century. In the 19th century, Edward Fitzgerald translated Khayyam's poems into English. The Rubaiyat poetry is about a man's life and devotion to wine, "the wine of life keeps oozing drop by drop.” My interpretation is that the poem is a rebellion against Islam's ban on alcohol, "...many a cup of this forbidden wine must drown the memory...” Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, an Iranian scholar who wrote about Khayyam, says, "Khayyæm presents the world as a kind of magic circle: one cannot go outside it... Prisoned in this magical circle, it is better to seek refuge in the beloved, wine and music, because the more one looks at the conditions of the world, the more one realizes that what one can harvest in this world is nothing except pleasure" (Seyed-Gohrab). Therefore, be decadent and drink wine because life is short, and we must enjoy our time in this magic circle. Otherwise, life is a waste!


Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

From left: Woodblock prints by the artist Utagawa Hiroshige. Source: Brooklyn Museum. (1) Moon-Viewing Point, No. 82 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 8th month of 1857.  (2) Suwa Bluff, Nippori, No. 15 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 5th month of 1856. (3) Minami-Shinagawa and Samezu Coast, No. 109 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 2nd month of 1857. (4) Ushimachi, Takanawa, No. 81 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 4th month of 1857. 5. Mannen Bridge, Fukagawa (Fukagawa Mannenbashi), No. 56 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 11th month of 1857. 6. Fudo Falls, Oji, No. 49 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 9th month of 1857. 

Dinner with Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974-1979) on view at the Brooklyn Museum.

May 6, 2024

Today, I visited the Brooklyn Museum to view Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974-1979), a work at the epicenter of food, art, and feminism; an ode to women "...whose stories have been lost to history through erasure or suppression.”(Brooklyn Museum) Women in the arts are still being suppressed, but I appreciate Judy Chicago and the group of over a hundred women who worked on producing this important feminist work of art that was “...praised, damned, celebrated, and denounced...”(Gerhard). The Dinner Party represents a banquet for influential women from prehistory to the women's revolution, including the artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Anna van Schurman, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Hildegarde of Bingen. Each place at the table includes a personalized ceramic plate, goblet, silverware, napkin, and embroidered tablecloth. Elizabeth A. Sackler donated Judy Chicago's work to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Elizabeth A. Sackler, as in the Sackler family that made their billions from the legalized white-collar deadly drug trade, i.e., profiting from marketing pharmaceuticals like OxyContin and Valium, aka Mother's Little Helper. In the 1950s-1960s, "mother's little helpers like Valium and Librium enabled housewives to cope with the mundane tasks of their everyday lives." (Prewitt) Opportunities outside the home were rare for women of that generation; perhaps a woman could work as a nurse, shorthand secretary, or a school teacher. Those at home, to quell the lack of stimulation, popped those prettily marketed pills. Elizabeth A. Sackler's father contributed to the Valium marketing campaign targeting such women. To simplify the Sackler family strategy, drug the woman with a pill and a glass of water, collect the money, and apologize later with a large donation to an art museum. 


Eat & Drink in Italian Advertising

Picasso's Kitchen

The End of Supper and Spilt Blood

From left: W. Joseph Fulton, Theresa Zezzos, Eugene Metz, and Sergeant William F. Healey (1946). Source: Daily Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

May 3, 2024

I recently viewed the paintings by the artist and art historian Theresa Zezzos Fulton. Fulton's large acrylic paintings usually have one large geometric camouflaged-like circle, with two smaller circles on solid backgrounds.  Unfortunately, the paintings I viewed were damaged, so I set out to find what remains of her work from the 1960s. I discovered Fulton's life was more tragic than most. Theresa Zezzos was born in Italy - declared an alien - and immigrated to the Boston area, the daughter of a shipbuilder and librarian. Zezzos was a brilliant student and graduated from Wellesley and Radcliffe. While at Harvard, Zezzos met her future husband, W. Joseph Fulton, both were students of art history.  On October 2, 1946, around 9:30 pm,  Zezzos, Fulton, and his roommate, Eugene Metz, were coming home from dinner and walking down Fayette Street in Boston. When they arrived at building 24, they found armed robbers ransacking their flat looking for silverware and antiques. There was a struggle, screams, an assault, a plea for help, moments of terror and chaos. A nearby police officer, Sergeant William F. Healey, ran to assist; as he was entering the building, one of the robbers was leaving and bang-bang directly to the heart; the officer fell to the sidewalk: red bricks and pooled blood. Dead. Two bulletholes entered the officer, and one ended up in the foot of the robber. Theresa's paintings often depict one large circle with a camouflage pattern centered on a solid color background. Perhaps the camouflage is symbolic of the soldier or the fallen police officer - the man in uniform. The three circles represent the bullets and holes that ended the life of the man in blue and maimed the thief. Painting was a form of art as therapy for Zezzos. Quite a horribly traumatic start in life for these young graduate students. This traumatic event led to W. Joseph Fulton and Theresa Zezzos becoming married. Their careers took them across the country to Pasadena, California, around 1954. W. Joseph Fulton was the director of the Pasadena Art Museum, and Theresa Zezzos Fulton was an art history professor at Pomona College. Joe's art therapy was drinking heavily in the world of Pollock, and in a few short years, the alcoholic spirits of the 1950s nurtured his wounded mind. By 1957, he had disappeared from the museum, was admitted to a psych ward, and his marriage collapsed. W. Joseph Fulton moved back to Boston and worked briefly at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Theresa Zezzos Fulton stayed in Southern California. In a letter written in 1960 to a friend, Elizabeth McCausland, Joe wrote, "My health seems to be fine in general, and very seldom indeed do I get caught briefly in an alcoholic collapse, which naturally scare hell out of me." (Fulton) Their lives lingered on in the art world but not without deeply hidden scars that began shortly after a joyous dinner in Boston's theater district.


Cite

The Photographer's Cookbook

May 2, 2024

Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) was a curator of photography who worked at MoMA and the George Eastman Museum, and he really liked food! So much so that he had a column in the Brighton-Pittsford Post from 1956 to 1969 called the Epicure Corner, where he shared eggy advice such as how to boil an egg and make an omelet (and more elaborate meals of course). While working at the George Eastman Museum from 1948 to 1971, Newhall and those who followed acquired a significant collection of photographs. Lisa Hostetler was the curator of photography at the George Eastman Museum from 2013 to 2021. Food photography in the Eastman collection includes General Foods Cookies (1955) by Nickolas Muray, Close-up of Woman Pouring Ketchup on Hot Dogs on Plate of Food (2002) by Martin Parr, Food and Water Distributed, From Orphans of the Greek War (1948) by David Seymour, Two Girls Preparing Food (ca. 1928) by Lewis W. Hine, and People at Food Display (ca. 1977-78) by Mark Cohen. Beaumont's Kitchen: Lessons on Food, Life and Photography with Beaumont Newhall (2009) and The Photographer's Cookbook (2016) by Lisa Hostetler are two books about Beaumont Newhall’s influence on food photography. Some photographs from Photographer's Cookbook include Still Life (1932) by Ansel Adams, Ham and Eggs. Advertisement for The Delineator (1929) by Ralph Steiner, George Eastman dining with Eleanor Eastwood and Josephine Dickman in a railroad car, Wyoming Trip (1908). The cookbook also contains recipes by photographers: Ansel Adams' Poached Eggs in Beer, Richard Avedon's Royal Pot Roast, William Eggleston's Cheese Grits Casserole, Stephen Shore's Key Lime Pie Supreme, and Ed Ruscha's Cactus Omelette. As typical in the 20th century, Beaumont's career in photography outshined his brilliant wife's career: Nancy Newhall. I plan on writing much more about the women of the 20th century and spotlighting their accomplishments. As a researcher, finding such papers and published work of secondary women was not considered as important or scholarly as the work of men. 

War, Food, and Propaganda

Clockwise from top left: (1) WWI poster from Great Britain, Save the wheat and help the fleet eat less bread (1914). Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive. (2) Preserve (1939) by Carter Housh.  Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive. (3) WWI Great Britain poster, The Kitchen is the [key] to victory: Eat less bread (1914). Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive. (4) United States poster: Are you a victory canner? (1918)Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive. (5) Preserve (1939) by Carter Housh.  Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive. (6) Can All You Can: It’s A Real War Job! (1945). Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture. (7) I risked my life to bring you bread (1914). Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive. (8) Of course I can! I'm patriotic as can be-- and ration points won't worry me! (1944). Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Internet Archive.

Beer, Ale, Lager, and Stout

Clockwise from left: (1) Construction workers drinking beer in Soldier's Joy Cafe in Florida (1940). Florida. Photography by Marion Post Wolcott. Source: Library of Congress. (2) Saturday afternoon, drinking beer in Mississippi (1939). Photography by Marion Post Wolcott. Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections. (3) a painting of hands encircling a mug of Anheuser Busch beer. (1876). Source: Library of Congress 

April 30, 2024

It's possible I've drunk under 50 glasses of beer during my lifetime. I'm not a beer drinker, that is not yet. The United States of Beer (2016) by Dane Huckelbridge may help me change my opinion of the drink. I'm starting a taste-testing campaign, and I'll slowly go through 99 bottles of beer. My 99 Bottles of Beer challenge - god help me prevent thar pickin' o' me brain - begins with Sapporo (1876), Guinness (1759), Weihenstephaner (1040), Komes (1889), Duvel (1871), and Chimay (1862).  About two decades ago, I went on an Amstel Brewery tour in Amsterdam and for someone who didn't appreciate beer,  it was a waste, but I did learn about Belgian Blonde beers, which I found to be delicious. Deutschland exposed me to Alsterwasser, which is a popular lemon beer Germans like to drink on rare sunny days. Probably the most unusual beer-drinking experience was when I went to a speakeasy in Qatar, populated with drunk Saudi men who would drive across the Saudi/Qatar border to drink the forbidden beverage. Islam frowns upon alcohol, and it is restricted and punishable by fines, imprisonment, and deportation. "Saudi Arabia has banned alcohol since the early 1950s" (Gambrell), and in 2024, as reported in the Associated Press, the first liquor store opened in over 70 years.  There is much to write and explore related to alcohol and religion, such as blue laws, prohibition, dry towns, etc., and after I read more about the topic, I will do so at a later date.  Prost!


Maurizio Cattelan 

April 29, 2024

Food and Toiletpaper: the common theme of Maurizio Cattelan’s work. Cattelan made headlines with two sculptures: Comedian (2019), the banana ducked taped to the white wall, and America (2016), the golden toilet. "Today anything from bread wrappers and abstract paintings to tea kettles and skyscrapers can be art." (DuBoff) The golden toilet was a usable and flushable 18-karate gold toilet, an ode to Trump, which was on view at the Guggenheim in 2016-2017. It has been stolen and can be found on the Interpol ID-Art database of stolen art. The banana has also since been eaten. Once in Miami by a hungry artist and another time by a hungry student in Korea. Perhaps the digested bananas will be reunited with the stolen toilet. There is nothing I love more than humor! Adding to the intrigue, the duct-taped banana was embroiled in a copyright infringement case initiated by artist Joe Morford, who alleged that the Comedian had copied his own ducted taped banana and orange. Another work, Novecento (1997) is a sculpture of a taxidermied horse; when it was alive, the horse was called Tiramisu. Maurizio Cattelan brings so much humor to counter the old stereotype of seriousness within the art world and he is the quintessential art and food artist that I can write about! Toiletpaper (2010–) and Permanent Food (1996-2007) are two publications produced by the artist and associates. Occasionally one of my favorite photographers, Martin Parr (who I will write about later) contributes to Toiletpaper magazine. 


Source: Interpol and Wikimedia Commons

Eighth Amendment and Public Eating

Source: Unsplash

April 28, 2024

A major court case was just heard in the Supreme Court regarding the right to sleep outside on public lands. Oral Argument, Case 23-175, City of Grants Pass versus Johnson on April 22, 2024. "Does a city's enforcement of public camping against involuntarily homeless people violate the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment?" (Oyez) The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." The real issue here is the lack of affordable housing. If cities want to make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outside, then they should provide housing or regulate housing prices. Justice Sonia Sotomayor asks the question about the unhoused, "Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves...?" (Sotomayor) I believe that many Americans are close to living in tents and close to death; rents and home ownership are unaffordable. Adult children are living with their parents into their 30s. Students are entering adulthood with crippling student loan debt. The economy is not promising secure employment. The stresses of COVID-19 and social politics impact the mental health of generations. It's a precarious time. Sometimes, the path of least resistance leads to giving up, wandering, and floating down the stream. Shall we punish Siddhartha Gautama? Throughout the Supreme Court argument, the justices compared sleeping as a basic human right similar to eating. Neil Gorsuch asks, "Do they have a right to cook?" and "Justice Gorsuch pointed out, you know, eating is a basic human need, and it's not the case that soup kitchens or social services will always be able to meet it, and so he asked about whether the Eighth Amendment would prohibit punishment for stealing food." (Amy Coney Barrett) Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson gave a hypothetical scenario,

"Suppose the relevant ordinance prohibited eating on public property rather than sleeping or camping. We're talking about eating. And the city, for very, you know, rational reasons, has determined that when people eat outdoors, it creates problems with trash and rodents and the like, and so it bans eating in public places and it punishes violators... that seems generally fine because most people have restaurants that they can go to, most people have houses that they can eat in. But some people don't have that option. They have to eat in public because they're unhoused and they can't afford to go to a restaurant. So is your argument the same result, no Eighth Amendment problem, no problem with the city banning eating in public, even though that's a public function. I mean, excuse me, even though that's a human necessity that everyone engages in, and, really, what's happening is you're only punishing certain people who can't afford to do it privately?" (Ketanji Brown Jackson)

"When people eat in public there is trash, there are rodents, there are problems. So the city says what we're going to do is ... say no eating in public. What I'm concerned about ... is that people who are able to afford doing this thing that's a basic human need, privately, are okay. They're not punished for it. But people who don't have any other option or opportunity except for to do it in public are the ones who are being targeted by this statute." (Ketanji Brown Jackson)

"In my hypothetical, people are going to jail because they're eating in public." (Ketanji Brown Jackson)

My personal opinion is that if sleeping or camping on public land is going to be prohibited and punished with fines and jail time, the local government should be required to provide housing for those lacking shelter. That would require agreement from taxpayers. I've spent many years volunteering in food banks and kitchens and working directly with people experiencing homelessness and complex trauma, and it's not easy to keep a home, job, friends, or family. I do believe that imposing fines and incarcerating the unhoused sleeping in a park or a public space is a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Also, it's cruel and abusive to deprive people of sleep, which can lead to a deterioration of mental health leading to hallucinations. (Waters)


  • "City of Grants Pass v. Johnson." Oyez. Accessed April 23, 2024. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/23-175. 
  • Waters, Flavie, Vivian Chiu, Amanda Atkinson, and Jan D. Blom. "Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis With Increasing Time Awake." Frontiers in Psychiatry 9, (2018). Accessed April 24, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00303. 
  • Hesse, Hermann. 1957. Siddhartha. [New York]: New Directions.
  • Pass, Johnson v Grants. “Johnson v. Grants Pass.” Johnson v. Grants Pass. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://johnsonvgrantspass.com.

Polonium and a Ceramic Teapot

Alexei Navalny from Navalny (2022). Source: CNN Films

April 27, 2024

What's Cooking in the Kremlin reminded me that I haven't written about Luke Hardings' A Very Expensive Poison or Navalny (RIP). When I lived in Germany, I remember a friend of mine was anxious that the authorities had just found radioactive material in his neighborhood left over from WWII. It turns out the radioactive material was a trail of polonium left behind by two Putin-hired assassins—a messy and bold international spy crime. The death of Alexander Litvinenko was caused by drinking green tea in a white (not silver) ceramic teapot laced with polonium at the U.K. Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in 2006. The spout of the teapot contained the highest concentration of the poison. Alexander Litvinenko said, "I swallowed several times, but it was a green tea with no sugar, and it was already cold, by the way. I didn't like it for some reason...I didn't finish the cup." (Harding) The police tracked down the receipt from the hotel, and according to Luke Harding, the assassins ordered three teas, four Gordon's gin, three tonics, one champagne cocktail, and one Romeo and Julieta cigar, no 1. for 70.60 pounds. The hitmen also ordered honey and lemons. Afterward, the waiter cleared the table, and the teapot ended up in the dishwasher, which created a radioactive kitchen with polonium on an ice cream scooper and cutting board used by staff and hotel guests. As Litvinenko rested bedridden in the hospital, he said, "...as I lie here, I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death." He died at 44. These stories are always so shocking, and it is this shock that causes such a story to continue to be told. Alexei Navalny, a Russian advocate, political prisoner, and lawyer, recently died in Polar Wolf, a prison in Siberia. Before his imprisonment, he was poisoned by a Russian nerve agent. Shortly before his poisoning, "at the airport, he ordered a cup of black tea at the Vienna coffee house" (Harding), and Navalny's family feared he was poisoned by a cup of tea like Litvinenko. Some influential political leaders face fear and paranoia regarding food and drink. The Navalney (2022) documentary exposed that he was actually poisoned through his clothes. After returning to Russia, Navalny was imprisoned and went on a 3-week hunger strike. Patriot, Navalny's memoir, is coming out posthumously in October 2024, which includes some of his writings and correspondences from prison before he died. I admire Alexei Navalny for his bravery and for standing up against corruption—he is a legendary soul. Alexander Litvinenko and Alexei Navalny are both dead, as well as many other Russians who stand up against corruption. 


Evidence from the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning in 2006 . Source: The National Archives (United Kingdom) and Luke Harding.

Mary Richards and Feminism

April 26, 2024

Ironically, my husband recommended I watch the Mary Tyler Moore show. One notable scene is where Mary Richards sits in a booth surrounded by male colleagues in a bar full of drunk men during happy hour. This scene takes place in 1970, 54 years ago. They are all sitting and complaining about women; Mary, the only woman, nods, smiles, and finally speaks up and says, No, I disagree with you, and leaves the bar. I can't believe, with all the progress women have made in the 1970s, 1990s, etc., that, in some pockets of the professional American economy, women are still dismissed, ignored, and treated like assistants. At the same time, men are hand-selected and positioned in leadership roles in greater numbers than women. For the next year, I plan on studying radical feminism to make sure gender equality can continue to make progress during my lifetime. 

Food and gender are critical issues on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Mary's refrigerator is sometimes empty, with waiting guests expecting a woman's service and a hot meal. Rhoda, the spunky neighbor, is often over for meals. Pots full of coffee, jugs full of orange juice, a well-stocked liquor cabinet, classic sliced white bread, a cookie jar shaped like a pumpkin, and green goblets. Folded napkins, instant coffee, hors d'oeuvres, pizza takeout boxes, groceries in paper bags, copper tea kettles, and glass dishware. These are just some of the food items from the first season in 1970. The wildly successful and culturally influential feminist sitcom was on the air for seven years. The seventies was all about entertaining and hosting, and visitors would come over for drinks. It's just a fantastic show to watch in 2024; I could probably write a dissertation all about food, feminism, and Mary Richards!

Food Culture, Food History before 1900

What's Cooking in the Kremlin

Starved peasants on a street in Kharkiv, during the Ukrainian Famine (1933). Source: Wikimedia Commons

April 24, 2024

As a student during my teen years, I loved Russian history and have been fascinated by everything related to the Iron Curtain. What's Cooking in the Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire with a Knife and Fork (2023) by Witold Szablowski is an engaging book about the history of Russian foods consumed by political leaders and those repressed by 20th-century ruling powers. It discusses the famine in Ukraine, which is well documented in Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine (2017) by Anne Applebaum. It's horrific, the darkness that people in power will subject those who are weaker to unbearable conditions, yet some resist. This constant, perpetual, neverending human struggle will continue, the weak fighting against the strong who are trying to dominate and crush. In the case of the Ukrainian famine, Stalin starved the rebels of resources. The foods of Ukraine went to support the communist effort in Russia, and the Ukrainian peasants were forced to die of starvation, cannibalize their children, eat poisonous foods and rotting meats, and cry and cry and die. The book discusses Lenin's unusual food habits of mostly surviving on raw milk and eggs and he strongly opposed Vodka's effect on the Russian people and would execute moonshiners. Yet, Lenin personally enjoyed a dark stout. The author notes that when Lenin was shot, his assassin brought up the topic of bread before the surprise attack. The book discusses gruesome and morbid issues; at one point, the author discusses his food research while he dug up the shoe soles of dead soldiers and human bones in massive grave sites in Russian forests. He discusses the foods eaten during wartime survival: pine tree bread, roasted snails, burdock, ground elder, sorrel, wild garlic, and ground acorns. The book also covers the women who cooked at Chernobyl during the nuclear explosion and radioactive cleanup, they talk about serving radioactive sausages to all the workers. Most of the women have since died. Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich is a very good account of what it was like living through the disaster, at one point, I remember drinking milk was the recommended solution for treating the victims of Chernobyl. 


  • Elwood, Carter. "What Lenin Ate." In The Non-Geometric Lenin: Essays on the Development of the Bolshevik Party 1910-1914, 125–36. Anthem Press, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gxpb8p.13.

Golden Haggadah (ca. 1320–1330)

From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY, The National Library of Israel. "Ktiv" Project, The National Library of Israel.

April 23, 2024

Since October 2023, the British Library has suffered from a ransomware cyber attack by a hacker organization called Rhysida. This attack is preventing researchers like myself from accessing information. I'm searching for materials related to the Golden Haggadah (https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/golden-haggadah). "Sorry, we can't find that page. We're continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack."(British Library) Six months of access issues is quite a long time for such an important international institution. For now, the Internet Archive provides access to the archived British Library web pages, and the National Library of Israel also has a digitized copy available online.  

"This Haggadah manuscript was copied and illuminated in Catalonia, northeast Spain, in approximately 1320 CE. The Hebrew text, which reads from right to left, was written on vellum pages in a Sephardi square script. The Golden Haggadah takes its name from the 56 miniature paintings at the beginning of the book that depict scenes mainly from the Book of Exodus, set against gold-tooled backgrounds." (British Library)

Haggadah illuminated manuscripts were created for Passover seder dinner, "the 14th and 15th centuries were the golden age of the illuminated Haggadah, the period when the production of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts flourished in Europe."(Hourihane) During the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, antisemitism raged, and the Alhambra Decree exiled the Jewish population from Spain. In 1492, conversion to Christianity or expulsion was required and Judaism was banned. Books were burned. People were killed. The illuminated Golden Haggadah manuscript made its way to Italy and later to England in the 19th century. "The Golden Haggadah... is one of the most luxurious Sephardic Haggadot to survive."(Gertsman) Interestingly, the artist Ben Shahn published a modern Haggadah for Passover in the 1960s. These days, the news is bleak and antisemitism is rising at universities, with violent protests terrifying Jewish students, universities reporting offensive graffiti and acts of hate speech against Jewish populations, and even the marginalizing of the importance of Jewish artists and burying their work in archives, so to speak. With cyber-attacks and a rise in antisemitic actions, I am concerned about censorship, further "book burning," and lack of access to information due to institutional antisemitism, discrimination, and hate. Luckily, the Golden Haggadah survived many rounds of programs and wars; I hope it continues to survive. 

The Cloisters

April 22, 2024

Living in the Cloisters would meet my unrealistic architectural standards, greenery standards, and cleanliness standards. What a dream that would be! Wandering around the gallery space made me a little teary-eyed. Seeing the poor unfortunate unicorn up against unfortunate odds: captured, wounded, bleeding, and speared to a slow death by weapons and surrounded by fangs and bloodthirsty men. Perhaps the tragedy and fate of the unicorn instigated such feelings of unfair loss. Viewing artwork so well maintained was also breathtaking and has enhanced my welled-up feelings inside the brilliant museum space. The fragile artwork is secured to the walls and behind protective glass, with an alarm system that rings every time a visitor peers or steps too close to the artwork or passes motion sensor barriers. The high-quality professional restoration of sculptures, tapestries, and porous pieces made of wood and paper was lovely.  All I want to say is it doesn't take much to improve the world around us. You don't need to be rich, and you don't need unlimited resources like the MET (although it helps). You need to care, act, and be present. Unfortunately, one of my favorite paintings - Saint Andrew Saving a Bishop from the Devil, Who Is Disguised as a Woman - from the 15th century has a crack through the middle. The glass roundel with the prodigal son among the swine looks like it was replaced, and the scenery is slightly different from the catalog record online—these are the details I notice. In the altarpiece with Scenes from the Life of Saint Andrew, the first panel depicts Saint Andrew's passage on the boat at sea, with members of his religious order fishing for seafood such as eels and other fish that look like flounder and a redfish, perhaps a red mullet. The shore includes mortar and pestle and terracotta pitchers. In the panel with a bishop dining with a red-haired woman, aka a witch, they drank from golden goblets and ate what looked like apricots and loaves of bread. In a 13th-century stained glass panel is a woman carrying flasks of poison. The biblical magi in a fresco offer gifts on a plate; although I would like these plates to indicate gifts of small edibles, according to the biblical legend, the Magi offer frankincense, myrrh, and gold. A wooden panel from the 16th century depicts the woman of Samarra with a bucket in a well of water with Jesus. In the 15th-century painting of the angelic impregnation of the literate Mary,  the fireplace or closet contains a caldron or water pot, and another ivory panel depicts the hunting of stag resting and sipping water while stealth men hunt them with swords. Today is Passover, and the illuminated Hagadat Praṭo, which is on loan from the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary and on display at the Cloisters, shows Jewish women and children dining with bowls and plates of perhaps zeroa, matzah, and maror. Chag Sameach!

16th Century Glass Roundels 

Clockwise from top left: (1) Roundel with Vanitas (ca. 1510–1520). (2) Roundel with Netting Quail (16th century). (3) Roundel with Ben-Hadid and the Siege of Samaria (ca. 1525). (4) Roundel with Killing of the Ox (Early 16th century). (5) Roundel with the Prodigal Son among the Swine (ca. 1530–1535). (6) Roundel with Sorgheloos ("Carefree") with Easy Fortune (ca. 1520–1525). Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Women as Food

Further Reading

Guerrilla Girls♀

"The Guerrilla Girls are anonymous artist activists who use disruptive headlines, outrageous visuals and killer statistics to expose gender and ethnic bias and corruption in art, film, politics and pop culture. We believe in an intersectional feminism that fights for human rights for all people. We undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair. ... We also do interventions and exhibitions at art museums, blasting them on their own walls for their bad behavior and discriminatory practices, including a stealth projection on the façade of the Whitney Museum about income inequality and the super rich hijacking art. ...Our motto: Do one thing. If it works, do another. If it doesn’t, do another anyway. Keep chipping away!" (Guerrilla Girls, 2024)

Artwork by Women Part I

The Wedding Feast at Cana (ca. 1575–1580) by Lavinia Fontana. Source: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Bayeux Tapestry (ca. 1077). Source: Bayeux Museum

April 18, 2024

Growing up, I was a tomboy. As a kid, my feet were covered in dirt; I ran wild, played with dogs and toads, and climbed trees. I played sports and was very active. As a teenager, I had short hair, looked like a boy, and acted tough. My self-preservation instincts were strong. I traveled the globe alone and crossed borders in areas with Sharia law. Fearless and tough as hell. "In the 19th century, women cross-dressed for success or lived in exile, far enough from home to behave as they pleased." Somehow I ended up married, mostly because society wanted me to do this, and I conformed, but I am and always will be a tomboy at heart. Put me in the mountains with bears, snakes, and ticks. Challenge me with endurance; I will walk 8 miles, and I will climb mountains. It was only recently, after a long life, that I encountered my first real experience with being gendered. Well, perhaps not, my military father's nickname for me was wench. Wench, get me a Diet Coke. In our current society, I'm picking up on this post-Trump women’s rights backlash. Whatever it is, it’s affecting young men and those who listen to Joe Rogan and read Twitter, and watch an endless loop of YouTube videos. The former liberals are secretly turning conservative. Hello, Reaganism 2.0. A new phase in American culture wars. In response, I shall sign up for the feminist movement 5.0, staying well-read in women’s literature, starting with Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art is very inspiring for any woman in the Art World. I'm slowly reading through this short art history book, and I'm up to the Renaissance. One of my favorite food-related blurbs was attributed to Pliny the Elder, who said mixing the burnt hair of a woman with honey will cure ulcers, wounds, and gout and that "...menstrual fluid causes new wine to turn sour, seeds in gardens to dry up..." Nice. The Guerrilla Girls, also mentioned women in Ancient Greece "were rarely allowed to leave their homes."  So get cooking and cleaning wenches.  During the middle ages, "education was thought to interfere with a woman's ability to be a good wife and mother."  I hope this is giving you fuel for that fire underneath your cauldron, witches. A classic hero for women is, of course, Jeanne d'Arc or "Joan of Arc, a teenage French cross-dresser..." who was declared a "...witch and a heretic. She was burned at the stake in 1431..."  According to Guerilla Girls, most cities barred women from artists' guilds during the Renaissance, except for artists in Bologna. Some of the Women Artists mentioned in The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art include Ende, Guda, and Jean Le Noir, who were illuminated manuscript artists. The Bayeux Tapestry from the 11th century was likely embroidered by women. Other Italian Renaissance and Baroque artists include Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Properzia de Rossi, Marietta Robusti, and Artemisia Gentileschi. My favorite quote about the treatment of women in the arts made a reference to them as "...belittled ... ignored by more "enlightened" men." Guerrilla Girls, we have work to do—no more of this nonsense.

  • Guerrilla Girls (Group of artists). 1998. The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books.

Jean Le Noir♀

The Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg, Duchess of Normandy (before 1349), attributed to Jean Le Noir (1331–1375). On view at the Cloisters. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry (ca. 1416)

Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry (Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry), 15th century. (ca. 1416). Source: The Condé de Chantilly Museum. 

Knife / Fork / Spoon

Source: Knife, Fork, Spoon: The Story of Our Primary Eating Implements and the Development of Their Form (1951) by D.S. Defenbacher and Walker Art Center.

April 15, 2024

A very kind colleague photocopied Knife / Fork / Spoon, a 1951 exhibition catalog by D.S. Defenbacher from the Walker Art Center, which describes the history of the tools we use for eating. The exhibit showcased "225 knives, forks, and spoons."(Defenbacher) The exhibition included silver Italian forks and a German silver gilt spoon with a spiral handle from the 17th century, a steel knife with a bone handle that looks like a lizard from Queen Charlotte Island, British Columbia, and a German folding steel and silver fork and knives circa 1675 which looks like a swiss army knife and a horn spoon from northwest American Indians. I especially like the Byzantine silver spoon from the 6th century. Interestingly, the exhibition catalog also includes Bird in Flight by Constantin Brancusi. Bird in Flight is famous for its case Brancusi v. United States in 1928, in which the US customs declared it a kitchen utensil and not a tax-free work of art. The ridiculousness of the rigidness of bureaucratic rules adds humor to this court case; this so-called kitchen utensil is four and a half feet tall—munch munch. The ancient Greeks and Romans used forks, but Italy popularized the fork, "it was not until the 16th century that forks began to replace fingers for carrying food to the mouth." (Defenbacher) I generally try all kinds of food diets, liquid diets, keto diets, and vegan diets, but now, why don't I try a toolless diet? Would it be possible to make meals without tools? Apple for breakfast, a handful of nuts, other meals that require using my fingers sans metal objects that require stabbing of foods. "Is it really convenient to spread butter with a ridiculous little butter knife..." (Defenbacher) On Monday, I'll attempt this project. I will tear, bite, lick, and pluck. "Fingers and teeth do everything in the actual eating process." (Defenbacher) I shall dip my fingers in butter like in a chapter from The Handmaid's Tale and lather it on ripped bread. I will rebel against formal traditions and practice eating by hand. The catalog also mentions Knives and Forks (1927) by CTP Bailey, citing 15th-century table manners, "It is not good manners ... to lick your greasy fingers or rub them on your jacket." I shall ignore such suggestions. Behold, sweatshirt; grease be upon you! 


NYC Art Grub

Todd M. Casey

Source: Interpol

April 13, 2024

I discovered Todd M. Casey on the Interpol ID-Art app. An app that can help "...identify stolen cultural property, reduce illicit trafficking, and increase the chances of recovering stolen items." The only problem with this app is it doesn't share the details, like when or where artwork was stolen, and I love details! Either way, this was the first time I've heard about Todd M. Casey, a living New England-based artist who is also the author of several art technique books like The Art of Still Life: A Contemporary Guide to Classical Techniques, Composition and Painting in Oil (2020), and Cocktails, A Still Life: 60 Spirited Paintings & Recipes. The three stolen oil paintings by Todd Casey listed on Interpol are The Blue Ballet, The Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, and The Pumpkin with Books. The problem I'm having with Casey is his work values of $700-1800 per painting. The FBI requires work to be appraised for over $2000 to be included in the NSAF database which gets shared through Interpol. I would love to know more about the loot, and perhaps - stressing the word perhaps -  I'll email the artist more info. 

Nazi-Looted Art

Berenice Abbott♀

New York City (1935-1938). Photographs by Berenice Abbott. Source: New York Public Library.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Salt-Glazed Stoneware

Clockwise from top left: (1) A salt-glazed stoneware jug (ca, 1880) from W.T. Lightfoot Grocer Orangeburg, South Carolina. Source: University of South Carolina. (2) A watercolor of a salt-glazed stoneware crock (ca. 1936) by Samuel Sulkowitz. Source: The National Gallery of Art. (3) Salt-glazed stoneware beer bottle used by the Gipfel Union Brewery, Milwaukee (ca. 1853-1892). Source: Milwaukee County Historical Society. (4) A salt-glazed stoneware storage jar with deer decoration (ca. 1855) by J. & E. Norton exhibited at the Bennington Museum. Source: Wikimedia Commons. (5) Salt-glazed stoneware jug with cobalt blue glaze (ca 1856-1870) by the Charles Hermann and Company in Milwaukee. Source: Kenosha Public Museum. (6) Stoneware churn with a salt and cobalt oxide glaze (ca. 1881–1885) by E. Norton & Company. Source: Art Institute of Chicago. (7) A salt-glazed stoneware German tankard (ca. 1625–1640). Source:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

April 7, 2024,

All of my ceramic dishes are manufactured in a factory in China, and although I would like to have handmade kitchenware, the convenience and affordability of Ikea dominate my kitchen cabinets. One book on my shelf about pottery is Collector's Encyclopedia of Salt Glaze Stoneware (1997). Salt-glazed stoneware, a historically significant type of pottery popular in Germany, England, and the United States, has a distinct look of brownish white with cobalt blue details. The process, which originated around the 14th century, involves adding salts to high-temperature stoneware firings, resulting in the characteristic salt-glaze stoneware look; the brown surface is due to an iron glaze (Darvill). Salt-glazed stonewares were manufactured in the sixteenth century in Germany (Barber), and in 1671, a patent for salt‐glazed stonewares began in England (Darvill).  I especially like the plain pitchers with blue banding and diffusing, as well as the swirl coffee pots. When I look at the trends in salt-glazed stoneware, I think such a style would end up in kitchens with frilly lace, floral details, and dangling plastic grapes, perhaps in Pennsylvania. Of course, this is just my imagination paired with stereotypes, perhaps creating an inaccurate picture. Many examples of salt-glaze stoneware are safely stored in museums and in the archives of historical societies. 


Women ♀

The Smoking Moka Pot

April 5, 2024

This morning, my research was disrupted by an earthquake. Shaky walls and a moment of panicked thinking. Did a big rig drive into the front of my house? Is the ceiling going to collapse? Was that just the rumbling of a machine? Am I hallucinating? Thank goodness for news reporting; otherwise, no one would know anything! We would bumble around with our theories and rumors. The sky is falling, Henny Penny. Luckily, there was no damage and I dove back into the bore of routine. Returning to a little perk, a plate of smoked trout, I tweezed out tiny translucent bones between flaky and rubbery salted fish meat and dropped chucks into my begging dog's mouth—a rewarding treat for two guard dogs. Weeks of ordering Starbucks coffee have finally ended, and my morning ritual has been transformed. It begins by grinding coffee beans, lighting my gas stove, and boiling water in my Italian percolator. Cup, cream, coffee. A moment of distraction. Back to research. 

St. Joseph's Ladies Guild (1978)

Photographs: Cookbook Publishers (1978) 

April 4, 2024,

American church cookbooks are sources of community recipes, show popular food trends, and share information about the different cultural backgrounds of their constituents. Yesterday, I rummaged around an old bookshelf and found Favorite Recipes of St. Joseph's Ladies Guild, published in 1978 in Modesto, California. This is the second church cookbook added to my cookbook collection; the first was the Yankee Church Supper Cookbook from 1991. I love all the jello, cottage cheese, American food products, and excessive use of mayo! Ritz crackers, Cool Whip, and 7-Up are products that define the American experience. The food photography in old cookbooks from the seventies includes bold colors, wooden decor, dainty tea cups, and flamboyant gelatinous desserts. None of these combinations make sense to me, a hodgepodge of visuals. The seventies seemed like an overly sweetened decade; while society was dealing with civil struggles, bankrupted economies, wars, racism, sexism, and classism, the public was distracted with crushed health bars, whipped cream with marshmallows, cups of sugar, and the fruity pulp of Hawaiian pineapples. Distract me with holy sweetness while we sit in dark ruins. 

Moldy Peaches

March 29, 2024

We have a limited amount of time before our food starts to expire. I've neglected the food in my refrigerator and on the top of my kitchen counter. The various molds have taken over due to my attention being redirected to other priorities. My apples have turned to mush. I was neglectful. Like outdoor art, if you cover it in salt, knock it down, and ignore it for decades, it will start to rust and decay and end up thrown in a dumpster, just like my moldy unedible foods. In life, it is about care and maintenance. Attention. Attention to the people around us. Attention to the plants we grow. Attention to the buildings and objects that have meaning in our world. Food is the same. We must care, clean, and maintain for our world to grow and prosper. Siloed in our technology-induced minds, our self-absorption takes over, and the real world suffers. Mold will eventually take the fresh life from my fruits, but if I eat it before the mold sets in, I will continue life, absorbing the energy and nutrients; I will keep things going and prevent waste and decay. Just keep things going, and we can maintain the vibrancy of life. 

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Red Mullets, ca. 1870, oil on canvas, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum.
The Peach Jar, ca. 1866, oil on canvas, Albertinum.

Daniel Spoerri (1930–)

This Movie Is A Gift (2019) by Anja Salomonowitz about the artist Daniel Spoerr.
The Cup, 1991, bronze sculpture, Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri.
Chambre No. 13, 1998, bronze sculpture, Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri.

Art Books about Food

Arts & Foods: Rituals since 1851 by Germano Celant (2018). Rizzoli.
The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation by Carolyn Vaughan (2021). D.A.P. ARTBOOK
Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography by Susan Bright (2017). Aperture.

Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993)

Tomato and Knife, 1962.
Still Life with Orange Peel, 1955.
Cup and Knife, 1964.
Coffee, 1959. 
Knife in a Glass, 1963.
Girl and Three Coffee Cups, 1957.
Lemons and Jar, 1957.
Still Life with Matchbook, 1956.
Oil paintings by Diebenkor are from Gerald Nordland's 1987 monograph called Richard Diebenkor. Source: Internet Archive.

Gregg Segal: Daily Bread

MOFAD

March 17, 2024

In my past life, I lived in Greenpoint and left shortly before the pandemic. Next to McCarren Park was the Museum of Food and Drink. I walked passed the museum daily but never went inside. During the pandemic, it closed down. The museum reopened in Manhattan at the Africa Center with an exhibition called African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, which included Ebony's test food kitchen, curated by Jessica B. Harris. I was finally able to make it to their third location in Dumbo. Flavor: The World to Your Brain is currently on display. It's a small exhibition, good for small children who like pressing buttons, eating candies, and tasting samples. The highlight of my experience was the bizzaro scan of my brain while eating a Jolly Rancher, which measured my gamma waves; not surprisingly, my brain was super focused, buzzing, and processing lots of information. Afterward, I picked up The Flavor Thesaurus: More Flavors: Plant-Led Pairings, Recipes, and Ideas for Cooks by Niki Segnit, which provides information on different flavor pairings. such as sweet potato & oregano, kale & mint, chicory & garlic, and coconut & poppy seed.

Jason Fulford (1973–)

February 25, 2024

Another recent purchase from Printed Matter was The Heart is a Sandwich (2023), a book of photographs by Jason Fulford. I love it! My enthusiasm for this book stems from my background in photography, as a librarian, and future food studies student. It combines all my loves - including humor - in one bound book. An art book I will sleep with under my pillow.  It's quite brilliant; these days, we scroll, flip through digital images, and barely read more than a caption. This book is like an endless scroll with very little text that requires horizontal page turning instead of finger swiping, yet it's as thick as a novel. Throughout the images of abstract details and landscapes, you'll find a twisted Italian bread that looks like a starfish called coppia ferrarese from the 13th century. The chapter Metamorfosi includes square photographs of an Italian bread factory - Panificio Perdonati in Ferrara, Italy - with men with potbellies rolling dough into coppia ferrarese 'couples' with four legs intertwined. The twisted bread is later cast into a mold and turned into a bronze-like sculpture. Fulford's imagery includes shriveled-up grapes, persimmon farms, milk jugs, gas stoves, bars, bread factories, sugar packets, restaurant tables, coffee cups, refrigerators, and mushrooms, 

Starving Artists

Easy Eating (2013) published by Art-Food-Farm.  The black and white photograph shows what looks like Domino's pizza boxes, Raid, and Coca-Cola, which sums up college eating habits or at least mine twenty years ago.

February 24, 2024,

When I was in art school in my teen years slash the early twenties, I was very unhealthy. At one point, I was surviving on whatever I could purchase at the gas station using my maxed-out credit card. Mostly, I survived on 'Chocolate' Entenmann Donuts and 'Jamaican' beef patties. I remember coming home, and my roommate - a raw foodist - was a little surprised that my diet could support my filthy, anemic, waif-like starvation diet frame. I'm still alive! Earlier this week, I heard a museum art curator talk about her years in art school, surviving on instant mashed potatoes. Concerned about this stranger's well-being and my past self, I made a mental note to start a nonprofit to feed starving artists called (surprise) Starving Artists, which cannot be trademarked, so feel free to make this ideal global. These art school students need to eat! New York artists often live in the extremes of rich or poor. This evening, I roamed the night streets; I popped into Printed Matter and found an artist book from the School of Visual Arts (SVA), the art school I attended during my Nan Goldin years. The book Easy Eating: Healthy Affordable Recipes by Nicole J. Caruth and Kirby Gookin. It cost four dollars and was published in 2013. The same year, I was trying to live abroad in Qatar, I observed extreme wealth in the art world and signed many nondisclosure agreements. Back in New York, a group of art students at SVA were working on Art Food Farm and Easy Eating, an avant-gardening project. The publication mentions the artist Tattfoo Tan, who uses food as a medium. The pamphlet includes recipes like Shakshuka, RedBean Congee, Pumpkin Porridge, and Homemade Energy Gels to help art students eat well on a budget. If I had such a guide as a starving art student, my healthy eating lifestyle would’ve started much earlier. 

Images included in The Food Blog are for educational purposes, linked and sourced from museums, libraries, and archives, in the public domain, through creative commons licenses or fairly used and shared to support access to information for the sole purpose of public knowledge.