One of the best things about attending the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is the chance to meet people with all sorts of interesting food-related jobs. Two years ago I met Marc Meltonville, who runs all of the kitchens in Britain’s Historic Palaces. These are historic buildings that are owned by the Crown but [...]
Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
In the Kitchens of King Henry VIII
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Food History, Hampton Court Palace Tudor Kitchens, Henry VIII kitchen, Tudor Food on August 17, 2010 | 7 Comments »
18th Century Kitchenalia at London’s Portobello Market
Posted in Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Travel, tagged 18th Century Cookware, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Portobello Market on August 9, 2010 | 4 Comments »
During a recent trip to the UK I had the chance to spend half a day wandering through the immense and absorbing Portobello Market which takes place every Saturday in the Notting Hill area of London. A little over half a mile long, is best known for its antiques, but has four other distinct sections [...]
Highlights from Oxford 2010: Cured, Fermented, and Smoked Part II
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged cured foods, fermented foods, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, smoked foods on August 2, 2010 | 6 Comments »
This is the second post in a two-part round-up of this year’s Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery which took place from July 9-11, 2010 at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. This year’s theme was Cured, Fermented, and Smoked Foods. You can find Part I here. Saturday night’s dinner celebrated the rich cornucopia that is the [...]
Highlights from Oxford 2010: Cured, Fermented and Smoked
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food as Anthropology, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Cured Food, Fermented Food, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Smoked Food on July 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is the first of a two-part round-up of this year’s Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery which took place from July 9-11, 2010 at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. The weather was unseasonably warm and I was glad the College Bar — why don’t American colleges have official bars? It’s so civilized — opened at [...]
A Toast to Some of Oxford’s Famous Writers
Posted in Food and Fiction, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Travel, tagged cask ale, Eagle and Child Pub, J.R.R. Tolkien, old pubs, oxford, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, real ale on July 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When you visit Oxford you are surrounded by history of all types. Some of the colleges were founded in the 13th Century, and their famous alumni are too numerous to count, stretching across all imaginable professions including historians, chemists, writers, explorers, politicians and more. One quite pleasurable way to make a connection with some of [...]
The Infamous Surströmming of Sweden
Posted in Food History, Food Safety, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Fermented Herring, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Surströmming, Swedish Food on July 12, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Just a quick note from the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. As this year’s theme was Cured, Fermented and Smoked Foods, I got to try lots of unusual preparations from around the world, the most striking of which was Swedish surströmming. Food science maven Harold McGee spoke about it in his Plenary presentation titled [...]
Cured, Fermented, and Smoked
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Cured Food, Fermented Food, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Smoked Food on July 7, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The highlight of my food history year is coming up this weekend. I’ll be attending the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery in the UK. This annual gathering of food historians includes both professionals and enthusiastic amateurs and focuses on a specific theme. This year we’ll be exploring cured, fermented, and smoked foods. These are [...]
An Australian Sampler
Posted in Food History, Not A Restaurant Review, Travel on May 7, 2010 | 6 Comments »
As usual, I’m sad to leave Australia. It’s such a huge country (as large as the continental US) with so much to offer. Even after multiple visits, I feel like I’ve barely seen any of it. Here’s a smattering of some of the fun things we’ve seen and done on this trip: A large influx [...]
The Sydney Fish Market
Posted in Farmers' Market Cooking, Food History, Ingredients, Travel, tagged abalone, australia, australian fish, fish, sydney, Sydney Fish Market, Travel on May 3, 2010 | 2 Comments »
As proudly announced in its national anthem, Australia is “girt by sea.” That makes for bountiful fresh seafood, ranging from oysters, to coral trout, to pricey greenlip abalone. One of the best places to sample this briny harvest is the Sydney Fish Market, the largest in the southern hemisphere. Unlike the “New” Fulton Fish Market [...]
Farmers’ Market Shopping in Queensland, Australia
Posted in Farmers' Market Cooking, Food History, Food Zen, Ingredients, Travel, tagged Brisbane Farmers' Market, photos, tropical fruit on April 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One of the most exciting parts for me about my recent visit with Janet Clarkson in Brisbane was our trip to the local farmers’ market. Brisbane, being in the southern part of the state of Queensland, is sub-tropical, but much of the rest of the state lies squarely in the tropics which means, exotic fruits [...]
