Darra Goldstein is Editor-in-Chief of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture and Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Russian at Williams College. She is the author of The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia (UC Press; winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals' 1994 Julia Child Cookbook of the Year Award), among other books.

• ContentsEditor’s Introduction appetitesWomen Who Eat Dirt | Susan Allport Badlands: Portrait of a Competitive Eater | John O’Connor“Don’t Eat That”: The Erotics of Abstinence in American Christianity | R. Marie Griffith A Shallot | Richard Wilburthe family tableDelicacy | Paul Russell The Unbearable Lightness of Wartime Cuisine | A. Marin One Year and a Day: A Recipe for Gumbo and Mourning | James Nolan The Prize Inside | Toni Mirosevich Messages in a Bottle | Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett dinner, 1933 | Charles Bukowski social constructsOtto Horcher, Caterer to the Third Reich | Giles MacDonogh The Cooking Ape: An Interview with Richard Wrangham | Elisabeth Townsend How Caviar Turned Out to Be Halal | H. E. Chehabi “La grande bouffe”: Cooking Shows as Pornography | Andrew Chan Recipe for S&M Marmalade | Judith Pacht the art of foodMan Ray’s Electricité | Stefanie Spray Jandl Food + Clothing = | Robert Kushner Vik Muniz’s Ten Ten’s Weed Necklace | Vanessa Silberman Zhan Wang: Urban Landscape | John Stomberg The First Still Life | Lawrence Raab personal journeysWaiting for a Cappuccino: A Brief Layover along the Spice Trail | Carolyn Thériault Include Me Out | Fred Chappell Evacuation Day, or A Foodie Is Bummed Out | Merry White Ripe Peach | Louise Glück how others eatMy McDonald’s | Constantin Boym Great Apes as Food | Dale Peterson The Bengali Bonti | Chitrita Banerji The Best “Chink” Food: Dog Eating and the Dilemma of Diversity | Frank H. Wu close to the earthOrganic in Mexico: A Conversation with Diana Kennedy | L. Peat O’Neil Mr. Clarence Jones, Carolina Rice Farmer | Jennie Ashlock “GM or Death”: Food and Choice in Zambia | Christopher M. Annear Wine, Place, and Identity in a Changing Climate | Robert Pincus Episode with a Potato | Eric Ormsby technologiesA Plea for Culinary Modernism: Why We Should Love New, Fast, Processed Food | Rachel Laudan The Patented Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: Food as Intellectual Property | Anna M. Shih The Clockwork Roasting Jack, or How Technology Entered the Kitchen | Jeanne Schinto Grinding Away the Rust: The Legacy of Iceland’s Herring Oil and Meal Factories | Chris Bogan pleasures of the pastA la recherche de la tomate perdue: The First French Tomato Recipe? | Barbara Santich The Egg Cream Racket | Andrew Coe Frightening the Game | Charles Perry Alkermes: “A Liqueur of Prodigious Strength” | Amy Butler Greenfield Food for Thought | Eamon Grennan Acknowledgments Contributors Illustration Credits

"A volume to browse and absorb." New York Times "This volume should absorb anyone with an appetite for unconventional food writing." STARRED REVIEW Publishers Weekly "It is easy to get quickly drawn in and once you do, it is difficult to put this book down." -- Andrea Rappaport San Francisco Book Review "Delights in manners ranging from the poetic to the political." Bookforum "The gloriously illustrated Gastronomica reader is a every bit as good as it looks." Times Literary Supplement (TLS)