Delicious Geography
From Place to Plate
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
This entertaining book takes us on a fascinating exploration of the world of food. Take a journey with the dynamic father and daughter duo, geographer Gary Fuller and chef Tracy Reddekopp, as they travel around the globe to trace the enduring links of geography and food. Food and its preparation and enjoyment define the major cultural regions of the world and how these regions have changed over time. The authors believe that the peoples of the world have begun to reunite after millennia of dispersal. The sharing of foods and food traditions are prime examples of this global connection.
Enriching the trip with thirty-five recipes to extend the experience into our kitchen, homes, and families, the authors also make geography fun by asking trivia questions that turn out to be far from trivial. Among the questions asked and answered are:
• What landlocked country in South America developed a plant that revolutionized food production in Europe?
• What bird on the island of Mauritius gave us an expression about mortality?
• On what Native American reservation, and in what kind of business, do we find the Code Talkers Museum?
• Why could vanilla be grown only in Mexico until the mid-nineteenth century?
• What famous Italian-American was given a nickname derived from a Pan American airliner?
(Answers: Bolivia, the potato, “Dead as a dodo,” the Navajo reservation in a Burger King; the plant could only be pollinated naturally by a Mexican bee, Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This delightful (though U.S.-centric) book about the close bonds between the world's regions and their distinctive cuisines holds no surprises, but geographer Fuller and chef Reddekopp capture the reader's attention with a series of intriguing facts, trivia, and recipes. The authors, a father-daughter team, explore "the sense of place, the role of familial traditions, and regional values." They point out the significance to international appetites of essential foods such as spices, rice, sugar, vanilla, and cacao, as well as charting the arrival in the U.S. of key ingredients brought by immigrants from Europe, Africa, Russia, the Pacific, and South America. The recipes are uncomplicated, and the writing shows a wealth of knowledge about the history of foods and their cultural and political introduction to the U.S.
