Eating and drinking are essential to life and therefore of great interest to the historian. As well as having a real fascination in their own right, both activities are an integral part of the both social and economic history. Yet food and drink, especially in the middle ages, have received less than their proper share of attention. The essays in this volume approach their subject from a variety of angles: from the reality of starvation and the reliance on 'fast food' of those without cooking facilities, to the consumption of an English lady's household and the career of a cook in the French royal household.

Wild edibles are everywhere in the woods, along sidewalks an even in the back yard. These truly natural foods are nutritious, taste much better than their plastic-wrapped domestic counterparts, and best of all, they are free This delightful cookbook contains over 75 delectable recipes along with guidelines to help you find, pick, and prepare all types of wild plants. Soon you will be making cakes and pies from hawthorns and ground cherries; soups made with fiddlehead ferns or wild leeks; and salads of milkweed, dandelion, day lilies or lamb's quarters."

Author Lori Torrance has written a delightful book about tea rooms in Texas. Not only does she direct you to every charming tearoom there is, she also tells you what to see and do once you are there. There's a little history, a little guidebook, and even some recipes from these delightful locations. Look at what people are saying:
"Infused with wit, Ms. Lori Torrance's "Tea for Texas" serves up the authentic flavor of teahouse varieties found all across Texas. Even if you've never visited a Texas tearoom, Lori's attention to detail will transport you to a cozy table in the corner".
Marie Moody Cruthirds
Membership Chairman "Texas Tea Tours"
"Lori Torrance has written a delightful book full of humor and information on charming out-of-the-way places to have tea and also little-known facts about the area. As a former Texan, I can't wait to go back and experience them for myself".
Pandra Dickson
"Subtle Teas Newsletter"
"Tearoom owners, take warning: Ms. Torrance may fill your chairs with men. The food and the ambiance sound too great to interest women only!"
John S. McCord
Author, speaker, and entertainer
"Ms. Torrance entertains and delights as she describes the cuisine, culture, and character of these special places. Tea for Texas will be my new traveling companion as I explore this wondrous state".
Sharry Buckner
Author of "The Great Stays of Texas" and "Exploring Texas with Children"

What did ordinary people eat and drink five hundred years ago? How much did they talk about food? Did their eating habits change much? Our documents are mostly silent on such commonplace routines, but this book digs deep and finds surprising answers to these questions. Food fads and fashions resembled those of our own day. Commercial, scientific and intellectual movements were closely entwined with changing attitudes and dealings about food. In short, food holds a mirror to a lively world of cultural change stretching from the Renaissance to the industrial Revolution. This book also strongly challenges the notion that ordinary folk ate dull and monotonous meals.

It's time to make your home a wellness zone! Your home environment should lift you up and bring you joy. But the you live and work in one place, you're all the more aware of how surroundings can affect your well-being. No Place Like Home offers simple and effective ways to transform your home environment to be more mindfully aligned with who you are. It's packed with ideas for upcycling and decluttering, as well as comforting recipes, soothing relaxation rituals and innovative ways to bring the outside in. This restorative book will help you rediscover the delights of your four walls as a space for calm, productivity, happiness and personal growth.

Americans are familiarizing themselves with Japanese food, thanks especially sushi's wild popularity and ready availability. This timely book satisfies the new interest and taste for Japanese food, providing a host of knowledge on the foodstuffs, cooking styles, utensils, aesthetics, meals, etiquette, nutrition, and much more. Students and general readers are offered a holistic framing of the food in historical and cultural contexts. Recipes for both the novice and sophisticated cook complement the narrative. Japan's unique attitude toward food extends from the religious to the seasonal. This book offers a contextual framework for the Japanese food culture and relates Japan's history and geography to food. An exhaustive description of ingredients, beverages, sweets, and food sources is a boon to anyone exploring Japanese cuisine in the kitchen. The Japanese style of cooking, typical meals, holiday fare, and rituals--so different from Americans'--are engagingly presented and accessible to a wide audience. A timeline, glossary, resource guide, and illustrations make this a one-stop reference for Japanese food culture.

It is critical for the food industry to maintain a current understanding of the factors affecting food choice, acceptance and consumption since these influence all aspects of its activities. This subject has matured in recent years and, for the first time, this book brings together a coherent body of knowledge which draws on the experiences in industrial and academic settings of an international team of authors. Written for food technologists and marketeers, the book is also an essential reference for all those concerned with the economic, social, and psychological aspects of the subject.

Through a feast of over 100 recipes, stories, and stunning photography, More Than Yorkshire Puddings is a personal book from Yorkshire-born food writer Elaine Lemm. This is her culinary journey from Yorkshire with its exciting and immensely varied foods thanks to its magnificent coastline, cities, and countryside to living and working in many countries worldwide. In the book, she brings together the influences from that journey, so expect to have your senses assaulted with untold tastes, scents and textures on a voyage rich with both much-loved Yorkshire favourites and a wealth of multi-cultural recipes.

The Black Family Reunion Celebrations, organized by The National Council of Negro Women and held in seven cities across America every summer, celebrate and preserve the values, traditions, and strengths of the African-American family. Inspired by these festivals, The Black Family Reunion Cookbook contains more than 250 recipes from home kitchens across America, seasoned with warm memories and "homemade love."

Including personal reminiscences from celebrities such as Natalie Cole, Wilma Rudolph, Patti LaBelle, and Spetman College President Johnetta Cole, this unique collection reflects the local, national, and international heritage of the Black community. It offers dishes for every occasion and every taste, from African-inspired Mustard Greens with Peanut Sauce to down-home Family Famous Chicken and Dumplings, from a traditional gumbo to sophisticated Sweet Potato Smoked Turkey Bisque, and, in honor of the council's founder, Mary McLeod Bethune, her own recipe for her celebrated Sweet Potato Pie.

When's the last time you picked up a business book that was so engaging you couldn't put it down? Steve Difillippo was only 24 when he opened his first Davio's restaurant. Since then, he's wowed Julia Child with his pomodoro, overlooked some triple-X rated shenanigans at Table 7, taken on American Express, gotten himself into "Time" and "Newsweek" (for taking on American Express), cooked a rabbit for Stevie Ray Vaughn, inadvertently gotten a guest divorced, whipped up some tasty eats at the Super Bowl--and that's just the beginning. The money hasn't been bad, either: that first restaurant is now the hub of a rapidly growing $50 million restaurant brand group and a $10 million Davio's brand food line. With guests constantly asking how he did it, Steve has written the ultimate guide to starting a restaurant, running a successful business, enjoying food, and living life. The 5.9 million restaurant workers who say they want to open their own restaurant will go nuts over this book, but so will anybody who loves food and the restaurant world--heck, anybody who wants to make money and have a blast doing it. As a special bonus, Steve includes twelve classic Davio's recipes.

"Panic in the Pantry" was written to help consumers become fully aware of the real facts behind news about the safety of our food supply. Whelan and Stare examine the power wielded by health food lobbyists who band together and exert political pressure to protect their profitable ventures. They discuss the concept of "relative risk" and why it should be used to place information about food additives and preservatives into proper perspective, as well as why the Delaney Clause - a law intended to protect us from cancer causing chemicals in our food - cannot fulfil the noble purpose for which it was drafted and therefore should be repealed. Also examined is the research behind the banning of cyclomates and the attacks on saccharin and aspartame that left many Americans wondering whether they are doomed to be chubby or develop cancer.A lengthy discussion of California's Proposition 65 provides insight into the chaos that can result when fearmongers are able to secure legislation based on panic about food supply. The authors also address the flight to "natural" products, which may lead to serious health problems as well as added consumer expense. The contemporary back-to-nature mania is rejected as a hoax perpetuated by opportunists intent on taking advantage of frightened and impressionable consumers.

Your guide to the correct pronunciation of European wines and cuisine that is both authoritative and user-friendly.

""Life has become more joyous, comrades.""--Josef Stalin, 1936Stalin's Russia is best known for its political repression, forced collectivization and general poverty. Caviar with Champagne presents an altogether different aspect of Stalin's rule that has never been fully analyzed - the creation of a luxury goods society. At the same time as millions were queuing for bread and starving, drastic changes took place in the cultural and economic policy of the country, which had important consequences for the development of Soviet material culture and the promotion of its ideals of consumption.The 1930s witnessed the first serious attempt to create a genuinely Soviet commercial culture that would rival the West. Government ministers took exploratory trips to America to learn about everything from fast food hamburgers to men's suits in Macy's. The government made intricate plans to produce high-quality luxury goods en masse, such as chocolate, caviar, perfume, liquor and assorted novelties. Perhaps the best symbol of this new cultural order was Soviet Champagne, which launched in 1936 with plans to produce millions of bottles by the end of the decade. Drawing on previously neglected archival material, Jukka Gronow examines how such new pleasures were advertised and enjoyed. He interprets Soviet-styled luxury goods as a form of kitsch and examines the ideological underpinnings behind their production.This new attitude toward consumption was accompanied by the promotion of new manners of everyday life. The process was not without serious ideological contradictions. Ironically, a factory worker living in the United States - the largest capitalist society in the world - would have beenhard-pressed to afford caviar or champagne for a special occasion in the 1930s, but a Soviet worker theoretically could (assuming supplies were in stock). The Soviet example is unique since the luxury culture had to be created entirely from scratch, and the process was taken extremely seriously. Even the smallest decisions, such as the design of perfume bottles, were made at the highest level of government by the People's Commissars. Sometimes the interpretation of 'luxury goods' bordered on the comical, such as the push to produce Soviet ketchup and wurst. This fascinating look at consumer culture under Stalin offers a new perspective on the Soviet Union of the 1930s, as well as new interpretations on consumption.

Providing a cultural and holistic analysis of African American food preferences, anthropologist Eric Bailey shows us how black Americans generally perceive health, body image, food, dieting, physical fitness, and exercise. Like the majority of Americans overall, black Americans are becoming more overweight and obese than ever before. So, too, they are seeing the consequences - heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and Type II diabetes at earlier and earlier ages. Bailey offers a new cultural diet for black Americans and a way to work together collectively to not only understand this critical health issue, but also to establish a lifestyle strategy that will be both effective and manageable. This work will interest not only general readers, but also students and scholars in health and medicine, psychology and health psychology, nursing and social work. Views on celebrity black Americans who have fought battles against their weight, a review of soul food cookbooks and the cultural history of black American cuisine, and a critique of the lack of corporate America's marketing of health and fitness programs and items to the black American community are spotlighted. book also includes an overview of federally funded diet and fitness programs for black Americans that have seen some success.

Drawing directly from his experience as an acclaimed climate-change gardener, and of setting up a kitchen garden from scratch for River Cottage, Mark explains the practical aspects of organic growing, introduces us to a whole world of vegetables we may not have previously considered, and does away with alienating gardening jargon once and for all. Mark begins with a catalogue of vegetables that will grow in this country, explaining for each their benefits, what varieties to go for, dos and don'ts, and popular culinary uses. He then invites us to create a wish list of foods, and shows us his own list from his early gardening days. Next, he explains how to turn this wish list into a coherent kitchen garden plan appropriate for our space, whether it be a patch of acidic soil, a roof-top garden or an allotment, whether we put on our wellies in every free moment or are 'time-poor' gardeners. Then he puts all the theory into practice, showing us how to look after nutrients in the soil, how to resist pests and diseases, and how to make our garden sustainable and organic. In clear, concise sections we learn about seed trays, supporting plants with climbing structures, mulching, composting, companion planting, irrigation and promoting pollination, and there are additional tables showing sowing and harvesting times, plant sizes, and alternative varieties of plants for different sites.About thirty recipes and a directory of useful addresses finish the book, and the handbook is complemented by bright colour photography throughout. Practical and inspiring, with a textured hard cover and an introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, "Veg Patch" is destined to join Handbooks No. 1, 2 and 3 as an indispensible household reference.