Play Book Tag discussion

Food and Reading!!!

Food is a huge part of southern US culture. Almost all recreation activity is centered around food. It's unusual to be invited over to someone's house and food is not served. We made friends with a couple who moved to Georgia from California, and this is one the biggest things they struggled with. Every invitation they extended expected food, and they weren't always providing food.

Explain the culture of food where you live?

I know we have some members who love to read cookbooks. Explain that for those of us who never have. Do you make meals from them? Do you enjoy the idea of the meal? Are you amazed that someone figured out that recipe and fells confident enough to share with others?

How about food in books? Have you learned of a new food while reading a book? Have you tried a new food because of a book? Have you chosen your meal for the day based off a book you are reading?

What about food while reading? Do you eat or snack while reading/listening. Do the pages of your books have finger stain? Do you take books in restaurants?

And anything else you can think about food? Reading? Reading and food? Food and reading? Maybe even authors and food? Feel free to share!!!!!! It's doesn't have to be just a question and answer.

I have a lot to say about this topic but time onstraints will limit me at the moment to food while reading. I do read while eating, especially lunch on the job, but also being single, I eat alone so reading while eating is pretty standard. Also while waiting for the meal to reheat or cook. And whenever I eat out alone - which you see in NYC all the time.

My most memorable incident involving reading while eating lunch occurred during my summer job between high school and college, a very long time ago. I had brought a tuna sandwich with me for lunch. I was reading Moby-Dick or, The Whale, and that day as I ate my tuna sandwich, I reached the blubber harvesting section. I not only lost my appetite, I was unable to eat a tuna sanwich for years afterwards.

That taught me to pick my meal eating reading judiciously.

I am Polish, so food is always available at any gathering I give, and most that I attend.

I am what you call a "Foodie". I love to talk about food, make food, and am offended when you are at my house and you do not eat the food set about you. LoL, because there is usually too much of it.

My Library offers two cooking clubs. One is called Salt to Taste. The monitor gives you a cookbook and you are asked to choose a recipe, then make it and bring it to the meeting. The result is a buffet from the participants. It began with a small gathering of 6 people and has grown to 20+ each month.

The 2nd club, Spice It, just began recently. The monitor chooses a herb or spice, and everyone receives a small packet of it. You are asked to make any recipe you choose and bring it to the meeting. The monitor tries to pick unusual herbs/spices. This is only the 3rd month of the club, and a lot of the same people from the first club attend. I love both of them; they are my favorite social activities.

Wow, the culture of food where I live. Today my brain wants to be literal, so shot to our house ;).

I've lived in a number of places, so won't give the low down on any of it. I do want to mention a shock I had when I was living in Kansas for a couple of years as a student last century. There were seven Canadians. A few were asked to mention traditional Canadian dishes for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and not one of them mentioned a dish I'd ever heard of!

Explain the culture of food where you live?

I grew up in the country in upstate NY and drop-bys were accepted practice and they were fed at least by my grandmother and aunt, not by my mom as she didn't really appreciate company and wasn't brought up with country manners.

In California it isn't always standard to serve food as it depends on why you are visiting and it definitely isn't accepted practice to drop-by.

I know we have some members who love to read cookbooks. Explain that for those of us who never have.

I love cookbooks and have an extensive collection. There are some which we have many favorite recipes and some we never cook from. Years ago Paul Prudhomme was on the Donahue show and we loved watching him and ended up buying Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, several others followed. We did a number of recipes from his first and still use it every year. We do cut down on both butter and heat.

After that we were watching Martin Yan on public tv and bought his book The Yan Can Cook Book. Again we still do recipes from that book including potstickers. We saw him live and bought a number of his other books.

Then of course food tv happened.

My husband is the chief cook in our household,

How about food in books?
I love reading books which talk about food and always note it. Bruno, Chief of Police and the series always talks about food and the preparation thereof. It is a great series.
Ive just started reading the Tuscan mystery series beginning with Murder in Chianti and that is a great one for talking about food.

Qiu Xiaolong Inspector Chen beginning with Death of a Red Heroine also describes food and cooking.


What about food while reading? I usually read while eating breakfast and lunch.
Do the pages of your books have finger stain? I use the kindle while eating. Do you take books in restaurants? no

The culture of food where I live is seafood. Its lobstah and clam chowdah! Its scallops and shrimp and what have you. Its coastal towns and upscale seafood.

I don't particularly care for seafood myself. That is a long story longer. I am Italian and Asian fare all the way.... But seafood is big here and supposedly exqusite....

I hate cooking, but I like baking. If I have company, I usually have chips and other snacky things like that, and at least one thing that I've baked as an option, as well.

I snack far too much while reading! If I'm eating out by myself, I will read.

Since I don't like cooking, I rarely try something out of a book. (Not including cookbooks!) Since I mostly read library books, I rarely hold on to a book with recipes in it (not including cookbooks), so I wouldn't still have the recipe, anyway. Often, even if something sounds appealing, I may not have the right ingredients, and it's rare I would try to find the ingredients to bother.

Karin wrote: "A few were asked to mention traditional Canadian dishes for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and not one of them mentioned a dish I'd ever heard of! ..."

Wow, really!? I'm curious what they mentioned. I assumed it was pretty much the same "traditional" meal you'd get in the US (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie...) That's Thanksgiving, though Christmas was pretty much the same (except the pie). One additional thing (but I generally assumed it was just our family) at Christmas was cabbage rolls.

Next I will talk about culture of food where I live - that is NYC and it's all about ethnic diversity. Even grocery shopping reflects the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood - mine for example has a high caribbean and hispanic population so the fruit and vegie stands carry root vegetables and hot peppers I can't even identify. It also has a high college student population, so chains like Sweetgreen and Pinkberry are next to traditional delis and diners.

Not only is there a vast choice of global cuisines, but those larger countries with regional cuisines like China and India have those regions well represented as well.

New Yorkers eat out or get take out a lot. Dropping in for us is calling or texting each other to suggest meeting for a drink, coffee, dinner, ice cream etc. We also talk about food and restaurants and favorite cuisines even more than sports, theater and even politics.

However, I grew up on a farm in rural upstate NY - not far from BnB and even closer to Robin actually. The only time of year where anyone did just drop in was Christmas, and you always had fresh baked holiday cookies ready to serve. You live too far apart in the country with too many chores to just drop by. But there were so many gatherings where you were expected to bring a dish to pass - Grange meetings and 4-H club, Lady's Aid Society. In the summer, you fed the men of the neighhborhood when they were on your dairy farm helping with either plowing or harvest - each neighboring dairy farmer had one of the big pieces of equipment needed to harvest. We had the hay bailer for example. The farmers would go to each farm in rotation, the main meal was at midday and you fed them all if they were working your farm.

If you went to a wake or a neighbor suffered some set back or trouble, you made and delivered something home made to the family. When my mother died, the neighbors took over and fed us for a week and provided food for the wake. That was 1979. When dad died in 2006, it hadn't changed much. I bring food when I make shiva calls or attend a wake. It is ingrained in me.

When friends visit me, I always ask what kind of food they want. One of the most common requests is for Mexican - and we are not talking Chipotle or Taco Bell..

Theresa wrote: "When friends visit me, I always ask what kind of food they want. One of the most common requests is for Mexican - and we are not talking Chipotle or Taco Bell. ..."

I did not realize this. So glad we took you to Antigua restaurant when you were here a few years back!

I love reading about food, and yes I've read a cookbook or two in my time. I actually culled my collection of cookbooks when we moved in February, but held on to some favorites. There's a lamb curry recipe that Hubby and I like ... but I kept forgetting which of the many cookbooks it was in. When I finally found the "right" one, I went to every other cookbook we had with a similar recipe and wrote in the margin, "not this one, go to...." (Of course, off the top of my head I can't remember which book it's in, and I"m not up to going downstairs and rummaging through cookbooks to find out.)

I have also occasionally copied out a recipe that I found in a book ... lots of cozy mysteries feature recipes ... and saved it for future reference. I think I made ONE (chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, I think it was).

I do eat while reading / or read while eating ... but only if I'm alone. Always have a book with me, so yes, the book goes into the restaurant. Sometimes Hubby and I go out for breakfast; he'll read the paper, I'll read my book.

If I invite someone over, and it's NOT for dinner, I always at least have snacks (nuts, charcuterie board) as well as drinks available.

Drop-ins aren't typical, but in the new condo association it's more frequent that we see each other outside (getting the mail, for example), and offer a casual invite over for a chat. That didn't typically happen when we were living in our house.

Growing up we kids would "drop in" on one another all the time. Back doors were never locked and we came in and out of the neighborhood kitchens with some frequency. But adults usually didn't do this. Perhaps some adults did, but both my parents worked outside the home, so for them it was invite only (and there were plenty of invites ... lots of neighborhood gatherings where everyone brought something to share, not to mention the church- or school-related gatherings / potlucks.

And yes, always bring something homemade to a funeral / wake! Casseroles or baked goods. In the last few years I've stopped sending flowers and instead send a fruit basket or cheese/cracker tray to the bereaved's house. I figure they'll have a house full of relatives and friends and can use some nourishment.

As to food culture ...
Growing up in San Antonio it was Mexican or steaks, all the way. Yes, there are other options but those two predominated.

Milwaukee, on the other hand, is quite the foodie city (which surprises many). Those of you who follow Top Chef saw the city highlighted last summer. You can get just about any cuisine you want - Ethiopian, Pakistani, Italian, Greek, Serbian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, French, German, Mexican, Peruvian, etc...

Book Concierge wrote: "Theresa wrote: "When friends visit me, I always ask what kind of food they want. One of the most common requests is for Mexican - and we are not talking Chipotle or Taco Bell. ..."

I did not reali..."

I embrace pretty much any ethnic cuisines and I LOVED Antigua!

Book Concierge wrote: "Sometimes Hubby and I go out for breakfast; he'll read the paper, I'll read my book..."

This reminds me - one of my closest friends in (and since) law school was a mother of 2 kids who was changing careers from nursing while on a trial separation from her marriage. One night I joined her and the kids for dinner at Friendly's and discovered the only family I know where everyone pulls out a book after ordering and just reads quietly until food served. I loved it! No making aimless conversation, no staring at the wall or keeing young kids from fidgeting/fighting. Then once food served, we everyone talked a bit about their book - or I asked rather as I was interested in what each were reading (Lucy of course was reading law school homework as was I).

Now to talk about food reading. I love reading books where food features -- cozy mysteries, romances, historical fiction, any fiction where food and occasional recipes features. I have a favorite muffin recipe that's from a Diana Mott Davison cozy.

I also read food memoirs and essays - much more than I do auto/bios about chefs and people in the food world.

I do read cookbooks but not ones that are just recipes, techniques and how tos. I read cover to cover those that have substantial text. Examples - some favorites:
New American Table by Marcus Samuelsson - just about every recipe has an intro and an essay or two about it, how it fits his concept of what American Cuisine has evolved into and the background of the recipe - this is about cultural diversity becoming what American culture is today (no doubt MAGA is banning it)
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia - as much if not more travelogue with photos as recipes.
Clementine in the Kitchen: Modern Library Foods - just read this one - memoir of a food writer and his family of their cook in France who followed them home to US when called back in 1939. 2/3rd memoir and 1/3rd recipes.

I do have a lot of recipe books and I have culled from time to time. I've got ones collected in my travels, old standbys like Betty Crocker from my childhood, church, school, and charitable group self-published (my acclaimed cranberry upside down cake comes from one of those), impulse purchases, and of course recipes on cards from my childhood. I even still have all the Cooperative Extension 4-H pamphlets from the 1960s and early 70s - my pumpkin pie receipt is from one of those -- and a bit more savory than most you ever find.

I also own several cookbooks published by an author that connect to a series where fook and meals are represented. Those often include material realting them to specific books or characters, and even include a short story or two. One of my favorites - oddly so as I am not a fan of the series - is The Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook, a collectible now. It has a shepherd's pie recipe that is fabulous. I only now have a copy because I had given it when it was published to my friend who recently passed away as she was a huge fan of the series. That shepherd's pie recipe became a tradition with us. I have inherited her copy.

My friends are all carnivores over the weekend when the charcoal grills are sizzling. Personally, I developed a taste for Indian food while working overseas, and I started cooking at home because in Romania Indian restaurants never catch up. I think its because the spices and the hotness level, because every time I invite someone over to taste , they complain the food is too hot or too spicy. Compared to my Tamil friends who first taught me, my offer is very mild, but still too strong for the home team.

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "My friends are all carnivores over the weekend when the charcoal grills are sizzling. Personally, I developed a taste for Indian food while working overseas, and I started cooking at home because i..."

If you are ever in NYC - head to Baazi - on the UWS - best Indian food and wonderfuly hot and spicy. Read their story - it's inspiring: https://baazi.us/

Theresa wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Sometimes Hubby and I go out for breakfast; he'll read the paper, I'll read my book..."

...where everyone pulls out a book after ordering and just reads quietly until food served. ..."

How often have WE done this when vacationing together!?!? 😊

Book Concierge wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Sometimes Hubby and I go out for breakfast; he'll read the paper, I'll read my book..."

...where everyone pulls out a book after ordering and just reads quie..."

LOL - for sure! Especially after spending the day in the car together!

Work interrupted - that pesky day job - but I also want to say that reading books where the food descriptions are divine can have me buying a cookbook related to that cuisine. A perfect example: after reading a book set in Persia/Iran both before, during, and after the Revolution, the Sunday family meal was central to the story, its preparation and consumption, and the food made me salivate. I went to an interview with the author and asked her if she recommended a specific cookbook and I bought it - not first time I've done that.

I also have many cookbooks from chefs I admire - and I do make recipes from them.

For me food and cooking and baking, which are things I personally enjoy, can make an ok read a fabulous read.

LibraryCin wrote: "Karin wrote: "A few were asked to mention traditional Canadian dishes for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and not one of them mentioned a dish I'd ever heard of! ..."

Wow, really!? I'm curious wh..."

It was Christmas, not Thanksgiving, or it would have been turkey, etc (but in the States I've seen variations.) One of the men from Québec mentioned sugar pie (big in that province) and a woman from Toronto mentioned a yule log.

At my house it tended to be stuff from my two heritages, of course, but I never saw those other desserts at anyone else's house, either.

Oh, an aside that fits. My dad's side were normally clothed and housed Mennonites; his parents fled Ukraine in 1926 to avoid being sent to Siberia along with a number of family members. Imagine my shock when I found an American Mennonite cookbook where ZERO recipes were what I called Mennonite cooking!!

Not one.

My idea of Mennonite cooking leans heavily to Ukrainian and other parts of Europe along with a few things unique to them (possibly to Canadian ones.) Cindy shares this heritage on at least one side of her family, but perhaps farther back (Mennonites left Ukraine and South Russia over a number of decades and mine wer on the later end of it.)

My idea of Icelandic cooking was actually largely Icelandic Canadian even though my great-grandparents came over and my mother grew up in an Icelandic community in Manitoba (not Gimli, thank you very much, for any who know about that.) Imagine my surprise when I found out that before refridgerators Icelanders "pickled" almost everything since I dislike all pickled food. They had no salt, so preserved food a different way, but I did know what skyr was decades before it became popular in grocery stores. Like the Icelandic man lower down on this page https://forvo.com/word/skyr/

Karin wrote: "It was Christmas, not Thanksgiving, or it would have been turkey, etc (but in the States I've seen variations.) One of the men from Québec mentioned sugar pie (big in that province) and a woman from Toronto mentioned a yule log...."

Ok, thanks! I know of those desserts, but also don't think I've ever come across them.

Karin wrote: "My idea of Mennonite cooking leans heavily to Ukrainian and other parts of Europe along with a few things unique to them (possibly to Canadian ones.) Cindy shares this heritage on at least one side of her family, but perhaps farther back (Mennonites left Ukraine and South Russia over a number of decades and mine wer on the later end of it.)..."

You are correct. I do share this heritage, and my ancestors did leave from Ukraine and/or Russia (I think Russia), but I'm not sure when. My dad would know.

LibraryCin wrote: "You are correct. I do share this heritage, and my ancestors did leave from Ukraine and/or Russia (I think Russia), but I'm not sure when. My dad would know."

The border fluctuated, so I usually say Ukraine/South Russia. My grandmother was born in New York, Ukraine, which was renamed by the communists, then eventually switched back as New York in this century. It's spelled New York in a family history written by my uncle, but whoever make this map spelled New incorrectly.

Yes, Theresa et al, it was named after NYC by someone married to an American. I can't remember where my grandfather was born.

Karin wrote: "The border fluctuated, so I usually say Ukraine/South Russia. ..."

Ah, thank you. This makes sense!

Because I have grown up and lived all over the world I don't really have a "food culture" but I have a few favourite dishes which I associate with really happy times in life from various places and a few comfort foods from when life was just relaxed.

Hot chips, baked beans and toasties would be comfort food for a cold night.
Right now all I want to eat is salads and spicy stuff so Sumac is my friend and goes on all the salads (picked up from living in Turkey, salad was so bland before Sumac entered my life) and chilli, ginger and turmeric are going in everything else. Guess my body knows what it needs so I'm choosing to listen even though I don't like cooking.
The best thing I have eaten lately is vegetarian Gow Gees which were made by one of my ex-students (yes he is Australian but mixed race and proud of both his cultures as it should be) and delivered to my doorstep so I didn't have to cook after surgery. He even prepped a bunch up to be defrosted and cooked at later dates. I bet when I try the recipe (which he sent after I asked for it) they won't be half as good but boy were they appreciated and delicious. I get to learn from the young uns too.