Eat This Podcast: How coffee ties Italy, Brazil and Italian East Africa to one another
Hello And we’re back, after a terrific summer break. Diana Garvin, an historian, recently published a paper that examines what she calls the Italian coffee...
Eat This Newsletter 165: A Podcast Delayed
Hello An unforeseen circumstance dashed my hopes, and perhaps yours too, of a new episode of the podcast today. But there’s no point in being your own boss...
Eat This Newsletter 164: Food News in Person
Hello The temperature suddenly dropped by about 10 degrees C a couple of days ago, a sure sign that I need to get back to producing episodes of the podcast....
Eat This Newsletter 163: Food Justice
Hello My thanks to the people who wrote to tell me that garlic noodles is indeed a dish worth pursuing, and especially to Lenore, a supporter, who pointed me...
Eat This Newsletter 162: Hyperlocal
Hello Is it voyeuristic to want to learn about things you are unlikely ever to experience? Obviously I don’t think so, or I wouldn’t be doing what I do....
Eat This Newsletter 161: Visionaries
Hello Nice to have a little uptick in subscribers this past week. Welcome, and thanks to Susan MacMillan, whose newsletter Taking Stock is one I enjoy...
Eat This Newsletter 160: Scrambled
Hello Straying somewhat from the beaten track, I blame the heat here, which has scrambled my brain. I take some solace from the observation that there are...
Eat This Newsletter 159: Fantasy
Hello At last, somewhat authoritative figures on the aggregate costs of cheap food. Will they change anything? You tell me. The cost that dare not speak its...
Eat This Newsletter 158: Cultured, innit?
Hello Some older items this week, which nevertheless are still well within their eat by date. Also, lots of historical contingency. And I'm still looking for...
Eat This Newsletter 157: Almost global
Hello It is so annoying when a headline or link promises a story that ought to be interesting and then fails to deliver. Normally, I just give a snort of...
Eat This Newsletter 156: Cereal
Hello Greetings from sunny Puglia, where some of the dead olive trees have been cleaned up and there are clear green shoots on newly planted trees. This is a...
Eat This Newsletter 155: Counterfactual
Counterfactual Hello This edition is arriving slightly late, because it contains a link to an embargoed scientific paper and I respect embargoes. Other than...
Eat This Podcast: Still hungry after all these years
Hello India, like most places on Earth, suffered its fair share of famines over the centuries. When Indian politicians gained independence in 1947, they...
Eat This Newsletter 154: Hyper-regional and hyper-diverse
Hello Why shouldn’t people in Alaska have strawberries year-round, if that’s what they want? And why shouldn’t students in Delhi latch onto an abominable...
Eat This Podcast: The original global food system
Hello Chris Otter’s book Diet for a Large Planet shows how the British Empire, starting in the late 18th century, outsourced much of its food supply, paving...
Eat This Newsletter 153: Not a prime (but divisible by 17)
Hello This week’s haul has prompted me to mull over how hard it is fully to understand other discourses. It’s good to be reminded how little I know. The cost...
Eat This Podcast: Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?
Hello That’s the title of a new book from Jess Fanzo, a globally-recognized thinker on food systems and professor at Johns Hopkins University. The book...
Eat This Newsletter 152: Unadulterated
Hello If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. An optimistic piece from Puglia Puglia, the heel on the boot of Italy is, as you'll know if you've...
Eat This Podcast: A very modern spice merchant
Hello Arun Kapil first started selling spices from a farmers market stall in Cork, Ireland. That was about 15 years ago. This past month, Green Saffron, the...
Eat This Newsletter 151: Cringeworthy
Hello What is it about countries that makes them want a national dish? Or, indeed, a national myth? Rants from Down Under What a treat to read an Australian...