101 Cookbooks

Heidi Swanson at 101 cookbooks mentioned my site last week and I should have had a welcome sign posted for all the folks who stopped here after the post.

Her site, devoted to "exploring cookbooks one recipe at a time," is well known, of course, but anyone not familiar with it should be.  Besides being an uncommonly elegant blog and site, it’s particularly valuable at a time when this country publishes more than 3000 cookbooks each year.

In the post, Heidi also mentions the McGee blog.  I asked McGee about his blogging and he said the reason for it was that he has so much information as a result of his work that it seemed wrong to only make it available every ten years. Don’t expect frequent posts.  But the depth and substance of what he does post should more than make up for it, as his most recent post on Omega-3 fats suggests.  McGee should have official National Treasure status.

Among others, Heidi also mentioned Steve Sando’s Rancho Gordo blog.  Steve sells heirloom beans and other interesting stuff (his dried Mexican oregano was a real surprise). I mentioned him on megnut (my favorite food blog for personal reasons!) last summer and am eager to reiterate it here because I am so transfixed, mesmerized even, by his corn!  But why would I be so affected by this food?  It doesn’t have a ton of uses (like the onion) or a really valuable flavor (like lime or ginger or garlic); it’s like a bean, a main ingredient, a staple food.  Why?  I think it’s because to me, it is the quintessential flavor of the Americas.  Its corn flavor tastes ancient. When I eat it, part of me thinks I’m tasting thousands of years of American history, Native American history, south, north and central.