the journal of food and culture

with gourmet's final issue hitting newsstands now, i thought this a good time to expose another publication that i can't get enough of.

gastronomica calls itself "the journal of food and culture." it's published four times a year, and not by a major conglomerate like conde nast, but by the university of california press; its editor is the francis christoper oakley third century professor of russian at williams college in massachussets; and its yearly subscription price is fifty bucks, which after four issues, breaks down to more than twelve dollars per. pretty steep for a magazine.

but this isn't a magazine. it is, like its cover says, a journal. and is, as a result, a compilation of everything gourmet couldn't be.

poems are published in each issue and so too will fiction sometimes grace its pages; there's the work of academics and so too that of painters and sculptors and photogrpahers; chefs might write a word or two and so too might roy blount, jr., a frequent panelist on npr's wait, wait don't tell me, as he did last spring.

this is a journal for food lovers and intellectuals and artists. it's a chance to celebrate this thing called food that we all love in so many different ways, and so too to ask the moral and difficult questions that aren't being asked elsewhere. and just look at the cover art from the past two years. might just trump those famed gourmet covers, don't you think...

summer 2009, hongtu zhang, kimchi-chanel

spring 2009, tamara kostianovsky, motherland

winter 2009, hans gissinger, tartas

fall 2008, no author given, popcorn #11
(copyrights belong to susan eder and craig dennis)

summer 2008, emmanuel sougez, still life with lemons and siphon

spring 2008, francine zaslow, radishes

winter 2008, chema madoz, sin tìtulo

check it out at the bookstore. or better yet, gift it for the holidays, yeah?

you should see the fridge now

last night i met even more of alicia's lebanese family, and soon enough our kitchen was full of fresh labneh, hummus, pita, olives... more food than we knew what to do with. this is how it goes in her family. you don't eat, you feed—and if someone feeds you, then you eat. i had the privilege to meet alicia's cousin maureen, who is a food writer and whose website is where the pictures above are sourced. on chance, i picked up a copy of gastronomica a year ago and there was an article by maureen about a fascinatingly eccentric baker in chicago. it was good. real good. she also writes for saveur and the tribune among others, and in a story last night, i was told she did a lebanese cooking demonstration at green city market. so today i'll keep it brief, digging a bit deeper amongst the roots of the family tree, and share this talent with you. enjoy.