Books about Food, Part II

The Best Thing I Ever Tasted by Sallie Tisdale. I remember enjoying this book, but it has been several years and, at this point, I'd be hard pressed to say much else about it. (Note to self: this is why it is a good idea to have a book blog. So that you might have a record of these thing.)

Never Satisfied by Hillel Schwartz. (Perhaps this isn't technically about food, but rather a history of dieting. I'm including it in this catagory since it it the best fit.) You'd think with a subject as emotionally charged and complicated as dieting, this would be one humdinger of a book. It wasn't. It was a missed opportunity.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry by Dean Edell. You know, the one with the radio show. This guy delights in being a naysayer to the naysayers and debunking the conventional wisdom about what is going to kill you. I wasn't enthralled by this book.

We Are What We Eat by Gabaccia. Yet another in my growing collection of Anecdotes about Food Books. This one was pretty good.

Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Vissier. See above. I especially liked this one. And I remember that it settled a curious question we had when reading The Gospel of Luke: Did they really have 'corn' in Jesus' day? (Answer: no. But the KJV translators used 'corn' to mean 'the most common grain crop.' So, Jesus' corn was wheat.)

For God, Country, and Coca-Cola by Mark Pendergrast. This is one of the very best books that I have ever read. You wouldn't think that a history of the Coca-Cola Company could be so incredible, but it is. Most likely because Coke is the Forest Gump of American history: there at all of the crucial moments. This is a must-read, and would make an interesting supplemental text to someone studying twentieth-century American history. My favorite anecdote in the book: when New Coke was introduced, an elderly woman was in the grocery store and came across the guy stocking the Coke. She began beating him with her cane (!) and saying "How could you do this? It tastes like s*%&!" Drawn by the commotion, a Pepsi stocker began to giggle. She turned on him, saying, "You stay out of it! This is family business! Yours tastes worse than s*%&!" Apocryphal? I don't care. It's one of the best stories that I have ever heard, and it does encapsulate the essence of people's response to New Coke. This is a must read and highly recommended.

Consuming Culture by MacClancy. (Do you wonder sometimes why I don't give the authors' first names? Because they aren't on the spine of the book, and there is no way that I am getting out of this chair to pull the book out of the stack and check the first name. Google it if you need it.) At any rate, this book explores the philosophical impact of food choices. I liked it, but I don't remember much about it.

It Must Have Been Something I Ate by Jeffrey Steingarten. I mentioned in Part I that I love this guy. This book, true to its predecessor, The Man Who At Everything, sets the bar for the Anecdotes about Food genre. I especially love his tenacity and lunacy in pursuing culinary perfection (ask about the time that he tampered with the temperature control on his oven so he could get it hot enough to make a proper pizza). Highly recommended.

Beard on Food by James Beard. I know James Beard is the granddaddy of writing on food, so I eagerly approached this book, and was disappointed. It might just be an issue of dating; much of this book seemed waaay out of date.

The South Beach Diet by Agaston. (Again, perhaps doesn't technically belong in this catagory, but this is the best fit.) I am not a dieter, but I liked this book. It worked very well for me (although it is incompatible, for me at least, with pregnancy and nursing). I plan on returning to it when the baby is weaned.

Why We Eat What We Eat by Raymond Sokolov. Yes, another Anecdote book. I liked it, and apparently it was another pretty forgettable one.

The Last Days of Haute Cuisine by Patric Kuh. Why did I read this? Haute cuisine died a long time ago. Who cares? And how exactly did I live in Berkeley and never make it to Che Panisse? (Poverty is no excuse.)

Food Politics by Marion Nestle. (Who is a professor of nutrition with no relation to the chocolate people.) An excellent, important, although perhaps sometimes boring book. There is a lot of politics hiding behind the supposedly scientific federal food policies, which is only to be expected when you consider how much money is at stake. A good, solid read.