Ice Cream, Jell-O, Soda & Other Delights … reviewed by Vanessa

‘Tis the (warm, hopefully) season for cold treats. And what’s more, you can learn about as well as enjoy them.

Cool: The Story of Ice Cream by writer and CBC broadcaster Marilyn Powell takes you on a long, cool trip through the history of this frozen dessert and its relatives (sherbet, granita, ice milk and gelato). Along the way, we read about the time-honoured tradition of ice harvesting, the alcoholic origins of sherbet (originally called sharab in the Middle East, then, sharbat), the invention of eaux glacées in eighteenth-century France and kulfi in Moghul India, the first patents for the ice cream maker, the creation of the Baked Alaska and the founding of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream parlour in Burlington, Vermont.

For those wanting to know about the story of flavoured gelatin, but too afraid to ask, there is Jell-O: A Biography: The History and Mystery of “America’s Most Famous Dessert”. Written by Carolyn Wyman (also author of SPAM: A Biography), Jell-O is a nostalgic collection of recipes, vintage ads, company memorabilia and other related trivia. The book’s all-star cast includes Norman Rockwell who illustrated the first Jell-O cookbook and inventor/illustrator Rose O’Neill whose Kewpie dolls graced many of the early ads. Oddball trivia includes a list of phrases called “How to Speak Jell-O” (eg. “a red Jell-O event” meaning an old fashioned potluck and “Jell-O for brains” meaning stupid) and the Jell-O Mold Building in Seattle.

Ever wonder about the Forefather of Fizz? The King of Colas? Or why 7-Up was called 7-Up? Look no further than Soda Pop! From Miracle Medicine to Pop Culture [pun intended] by memorabilia collectors Gyvel Young-Witzel and Michael Karl Witzel. In-depth, lavishly illustrated and, well, light and bubbly, Soda Pop! is as fascinating as it is entertaining. Find out how eighteenth-century physicians Hermann Boerhaave and Joseph Priestley invented carbonated water (it involved chalk) and how Thomas Henry and Jacob Schweppe commercialized it. Learn about more soda brands (Fowler’s Cherry Smash, Vin Fiz Sparkling Grape Drink and White Rock Ginger Ale) than you ever knew existed.

Pop open this book, hear the fizz, then pour yourself a glass of effervescent information!

Peterson’s Holiday Helper … reviewed by Vanessa

Subtitled “Festive Pick-Me-Ups, Calm-Me-Downs and Handy Hints to Keep You in Good Spirits”, Valerie Peterson’s humourous, and somewhat comfy, book includes lots of spirits: recipes for lighthearted libations that can be served anytime from US Thanksgiving (a month before Christmas) until New Year’s.

Also included, are many, seemingly random, polaroids of family holiday scenes from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s as well as some vintage seasonal memorabilia. Charming? Ummm … kind of. Strange and interesting concoctions include Fruitcake Fizz, Liquid Mistletoe, Whatever Gets You Through The Woods and Hair of The Pit Bull.

These convivial (go ahead, look it up) cocktails are many and varied and sure to be ice breakers and conversation pieces. Enjoy!

Food Glorious Food! … reviewed by Vanessa

Ever wonder about food?

As the soil is turned, the compost added and the seeds planted for yet another year, food, and our relationship to it, is foremost on our minds: particularly those of us who garden. Food, what it is, and why and how we eat what we eat are intricate subjects. For those who found Michael Pollan’s books fascinating, here are some others.

Former business editor at the Economist, Tom Standage has written a few titles on food and drink. History of the World in 6 Glasses focused on the beverages that changed the world, but Standage’s 2009 book An Edible History of Humanity examines the relationship between food and our political and economic systems from the beginnings of civilization to the twenty-first century. Along the way, he shows how the introduction of foods or new methods of food production determined the fates of empires and fuelled developments in new technologies.

Food in History, first published in 1973, is a non-fiction classic by Scottish historian Reay Tannahill. Tannahill covers almost the same historical scope in her book that Standage does in his, but starting earlier in prehistory among hunter-gatherer societies. Food in History is so comprehensive that one can easily imagine it being a desert island non-fiction book. By contrast, French historian Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat’s Histoire naturelle et morale de la nourriture, translated by Anthea Bell as History of Food, breaks down the food’s history by food type rather than historical period. Toussaint-Samat shows the crucial role that staples such as honey, cereals, oil and salt have played. Also central were the development of foods such as bread, wine and various dairy products such as butter, cheese and yogurt. The development of fishing and livestock breeding techniques ushered in feudal and modern nations while spices were a sign of luxury. Tossaint-Samat ends History of Food with a few chapters on modern food preservation and the development of food supplements and vitamins.

Ann Vileisis’s Kitchen Literacy, subtitled How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back, is a great antidote for those who think food comes from the supermarket or big-box store. Designed to reawaken people’s awareness of where our food actually comes from, Vileisis looks at food, past and present, through cookbooks, ads and the changing organization of supermarket stock.

Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty, by food consultant Mark Winne, looks at the disparity of food available to each the developing and developed worlds and, even, within the developed world with the disparity between the growing interest in local, organic produce on the one hand and obesity and diabetes on the other. Similar to this is independent journalist Rajeev Patel’s Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System which also examines the growing power of agri-business and corporate food monopolies.

Feed your head this spring!

Apples and Miracles … reviewed by Vanessa

Good food can be a great excuse to travel anywhere: fresh, local organic food even more so. These two books take you on the (back country) road to eating off the land all the while learning, or better yet re-learning, about where our food comes from and what it truly can cost to get it to us.

Margaret Webb’s Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms is charming in that the book is set-up like a menu. Part One, “Appetizers”, deals entirely with seafood, or as one of the chapters is called, “The Salad from the Sea.” Part Two, entitled “Mains”, includes “Newfoundland and Labrador: For the Love of Cod” and “Manitoba: Going Whole Hog” while in Part Three, “To Finish”, readers can end their “meal” with “British Columbia: An Apple Is Not an Apple”, “Quebec: C’est Cheese” and “Ontario: A Midwinter Night’s Dream”. Along the way, Webb relays some interesting data (the historical statistics of oyster fishing off the shores of Prince Edward Island), entertaining anecdotes and delicious recipes (Yukon Gold Fries).

In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, novelist Barbara Kingsolver takes her family, and us, back to the land for a down-to-earth eating experience. Kingsolver’s first nonfiction book (published in 2007), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a calendar year of rural culinary delights; the book takes you from early spring (“Waiting for Asparagus: Late March”) through summer (“Eating Neighborly: Late June”), autumn (“Smashing Pumpkins: October”) and winter (“What Do You Eat in January?” and “Hungry Month: February-March”): a complete cycle. This is contrasted with facts from the mainstream industrial food system making you wish that the year of food life that Kingsolver describes would stretch out like the rustic farm landscape in the book … forever.

And we hope to harvest your comments below!

Chocolate Facts from Healthy Starts Here! … written by Melani

Apparently the perfection of chocolate flavour is in the process…the more processing, the less flavanols (the anti-oxidants) – and a higher cocoa percentage, does not mean more flavanols, by the way.

So, who are the makers of the best quality chocolate? Believe it or not, “Mars” is one of the leaders, Callebaut (Swiss), Naturex (French), and Hershey’s are also at the top of the list.

Dove Dark (made by Mars) and Hershey’s extra-dark are apparently top picks for both flavour and anti-oxidants. Green & Black’s, and Dagoba (not to be confused with Yoda’s hangout in the Star Wars trilogy) are also makers of fine quality organic chocolate.

These tantalizing facts are from yet another book I’ve just catalogued for the collection, called Healthy Starts Here!  140 Recipes that Will Make You Feel Great by Mairlyn Smith.

May the flavonols and the Force be with you.