Moveable Feasts: The History, Science, and Lore of Food

by Gregory McNamee

Food has functioned both as a source of continuity and as a subject of adaptation in the course of human history. Onions have been a staple of the European diet since the Paleolithic era, while the orange is once again being cultivated in great quantities in Southern China, where it was originally cultivated. Other foods―such as the apple and pear in Central Asia, the tomato in Mexico, the chili pepper in South America, and rice in South Asia―remain staples of their original regions and of the world diet today.Still other items are now grown in places that would have seemed impossible in the past-bananas in geothermally heated greenhouses in Iceland, corn on the fringes of the Gobi, and tomatoes in space. But how did humans discover how to grow and consume these foods in the first place? How were they chosen over competing foods? How did they come to be so important to us? In this charming and frequently surprising compendium, Gregory McNamee gathers revelations from history, anthropology, chemistry, biology, and many other fields, and spins them into entertaining tales of discovery, complete with delicious recipes from many culinary traditions around the world.

Among the 30 types of food discussed in the course of this alphabetically-arranged work the apple, the banana, chocolate, coffee, corn, garlic, honey, millet, the olive, the peanut, the pineapple, the plum, rice, the soybean, the tomato, and the watermelon. All of the recipes included with these diverse food histories have been adapted for recreation in the modern kitchen.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Gregory McNamee is a writer, journalist, editor, photographer, and publisher. He is the author or title-page editor of thirty-five books and more than four thousand periodical publications, including articles, essays, reviews, interviews, editorials, poems, and short stories.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ethnobotanist's delight contains recipes for Panellets (Catalan almond & pine nut cakes) and Orange Omelet for Harlots and Ruffians (a recipe dating from about 1430 found in a cookbook by Johannes Bockenheim, a German who worked in Rome as a cook for Pope Martin V.)

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the history of food and its origins absolutely fascinating. So informative, yet still funny, engaging, and readable.

[June Baer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book makes food boring. I love food history and cookbooks, this was not at all what I thought it would be. Sounds almost like he wants to be an academic but is failing at it.