I just finished reading Moveable Feasts: the history, science, and lore of food by Gregory McNamee. Since I found it a good read, let me review here for you what this book is about and why you may want to read it.
What’s in Moveable Feasts?
It seems to me that Moveable Feasts is the definitive guide to our current knowledge on the history and geography of foods we rely on to nourish us every day. I think many of us take our everyday foods for granted. How, where and when foods as diverse as amaranth, grapes, watermelon, and oranges were domesticated might not even cross our minds. If we did wonder about such things where would be find accurate answers? For sure the internet is full of information, but it’s not all up to date and accurate. This book has the answers.
Not Just the History of Food
To make it even more interesting, each of the 30 foods explained inside comes with 2-4 recipes. The recipes range from very simple regional to historically accurate. I really want to try the Fried Bananas – simple enough to memorize after one read, they sound delicious. I will not be trying the Gazelle Stew, but the Babylonian Bread which is meant to accompany it I’m sure would work equally well with a bean or beef stew and it has me intrigued.
Food Comes in an Amazing Variety
You might be surprised to read facts like “of the five thousand or so kinds of pears humans have developed, and of the 2,500 commercially grown around the world, we now eat only five or six.” Well, if that’s not information to make your mouth water I’d be surprised. Unless of course you don’t like pears. Nonetheless, there’s plenty of information from accurate details on the health benefits of tomatoes and spinach to surprising theories on why rice and wheat were domesticated in the first place.
Foods included: almond, amaranth, apple, artichoke, asparagus, banana, basil, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrot, chile, corn, cranberry, eggplant, garlic, grape, honey, lettuce, okra, olive, onion, orange, pear, pineapple, potato, rice, spinach, tomato, watermelon, wheat.
What this book does not contain
Things you will not find in this book include: instructions for gardening or farming food crops; stories of indidivuals and their contribution to the spread of specific foods (apart from fleeting mentions); political commentary on the state of the world food supply.
I’d Recommend This Book…
If you’re just curious, like I am, about the history and geography of food take a look at Moveable Feasts. It’s a book with lots of little interesting details about the foods we take for granted. You just might find a new favorite recipe to satisfy your palette, while entertaining your dinner guests with curious facts into the bargain.
Read more reviews, or shop for Moveable Feasts at Amazon.com.
If you liked this you might like:
Related posts:
