table talk / By Simona Carini

Devouring Books on Food

When faced with a vast assortment of choices, I become subject to a crippling dilemma: too much stimuli, too many bound objects of desire. During my second pass around the store, the title of a small brown volume catches my attention: Movable Feasts. The title page details: A Reconnaissance of the Origins and Consequences of Fluctuations in Meal-Times with special attention to the introduction of Luncheon and Afternoon Tea,by Arnold Palmer. The book was first published in 1952 and the copy in my hands is a reprint from 1953. Starting in college, I have read fiction by authors from Jane Austen to Anthony Trollope to Charles Dickens to Henry James. I noticed the different, and changing, organization of English meals, but never read anything on the subject. Palmer thus introduces the topic of afternoon tea: “The growth of business and businesslike habits […] was not well received by the stomach. English internal engines, designed for refueling every four and a half hours, begin to labour when asked to run for six hours at a stretch. Once again wives and mothers took the situation in hand and found the remedy. They invented Afternoon Tea.” It is difficult to resist the appeal of such witty prose and so the charmer becomes mine.

Among the books on cheese, I single out Cheese Cookery by Helmut Ripperger, published in 1941. I cannot leave a book on the shelf that features “spaghetti al dente con burro,” a version of my childhood beloved pasta al burro e parmigiano (see “Table Talk,” Jan. 10, 2008). By specifying “al dente” in the recipe title, Ripperger takes a stance against cooking spaghetti “in a fashion which makes an Italian shudder,” in favor of “boiled just enough, not too much,” so that “its consistency can be felt with the teeth” (a.k.a. al dente).

I finalize my acquisition, then step out into the sunny San Francisco afternoon, step back into standard time and space, a little bewildered at first, as always happens when I come out of a bookstore. I touch the newly purchased food for thought (and reading) stored in my bag and smile to myself. Electronic books? Thanks, but no thanks.

Northtown Books: http://northtownbooks.blogspot.com/

Eureka Books: http://www.eurekabooksellers.com/

Omnivore Books on Food:http://www.omnivorebooks.com/

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