Food and drink: sustenance for our bodies but also our minds. When you're chowing down on your favourite food the chemical compounds, history or cultural significance probably don't cross your thoughts too often. The fact is there's so much more to the things we put in our bodies than the delicious taste. Just think for example of the way we celebrate birthdays, holidays and religious festivals, new jobs, the birth of a baby; it generally involves a lot of food! The smell of a childhood dish can suddenly transport you back in time sparking memories you didn't realise were there. Food and drink have much significance for cultural and social identity, the negotiation of relationships, not to mention the strange things going on behind the scenes in labs all over the world. There's an endless variety of studies and just dipping your toe in the pool can change the way you see the things you consume.

In this post I will explore some of the books and journals in the Library’s collections with a connection to food and drink. Delicious!

Appetisers

I’ll serve up a starter of anthropology: Adventures in Eating: Anthropological Experiences in Dining from Around the World (EE 4.1 HAI, also available online). A book born from an incident in Oaxco city; an anthropologist's hunt for a rare and much needed G&T, an unfortunate episode with fried insects and the realisation that regardless of how much training you’ve had there are things you really don’t want to put in your mouth!

What’s it like to eat an animal you think of as a pet? How do you conduct anthropological research with a food allergy? How does coffee cement friendships between humans and their ancestral spirits in Ethiopia? These are some of the questions explored in this fascinating book, which looks at the way anthropologists deal with eating the weird and wonderful during their research and uncovers interesting differences between cultures when it comes to food, table manners, hospitality and ethics.

Main course

Since food, it’s setting, it’s preparation and the act of eating mean so much to us today, the same must be true of the past. There’s no end of ways in which historians and archaeologists have approached the subject. In Food and Drink in Archaeology I: University if Nottingham Postgraduate Conference 2007 (P0.186 FOO) we can see the variety of methods used to explore what people were eating, drinking and trading, which informs theories around the significance these things had to people’s lives. From archaeobotanical evidence for food gathering in Mesolithic wetlands, zooarchaeology of Myceneaen palatial feasts (not suitable for vegetarians), isotope analysis on skeletons from Jordan to literary sources and drinking vessels in Ireland and Wales.

Teenage drinking, not a new phenomenon. Part of a scene from a 15th/14th century B.C skyphos from Thebes. Was alcohol used in initiation rituals for the Kabeiric mystery cult? Well, “It is in fire experts test gold and silver; it is wine the discloses the soul of a man”! (Bedigan, K. ‘Alcohol and the cult of the Kabeiroi’ in Baker et al (eds) Food and Drink in Archaeology I.)

Religion permeated most aspects of life during the Medieval period, Holy Feast and Holy Fast (C 33.8 BYN) considers the religious significance of food for women. There’s changes afoot in the 18th century in Exotic Brew (EE 4.1 CAM) when fashion, new exotic food (coffee and chocolate!) and influences from China and America start messing with diet and the art of entertainment.

If you’re interested in immersing yourself in history, tasting what your ancestors tasted, you can try your hand at ‘recipes from the Stone Age to the Present’ in Tasting the Past (Z 41 WOO). Almond milk is a medieval staple, who knew?!

History and contemporary culture come together in Food, Morals and Meaning: The pleasure and anxiety of eating (EE 4.1 COV), as John Coveney takes the modern problems of food guilt and the ‘obesity epidemic’ and looks at how these may have stemmed from social, political and religious problems in Western history. Has the past as far back as the ancient Greeks and early Christianity played a part in how we ‘see’ food today?

Dessert

If you fancy being challenged and maybe even a bit uncomfortable then Fast Food Nation (G 8.1973 SCH) is the book for you. It isn’t for the faint hearted with a chapter on what’s actually in the fast food we eat and another on the safety records of abattoirs.

If you’re a fan of a journal article and want to get your hands on the most recent research, the Library also subscribes to a vast selection of publications. Food, Culture and Society is a multidisciplinary journal with articles such as: ‘The Bushwalkers Diet: The relationship between food, walking practice and identity’, ‘Me in place and place in me: A migrant’s tale of food, home and belonging’, Espresso: A shot of masculinity’. A treasure trove of research for anyone and everyone whatever their palate! If you’re of a more scientific persuasion then Food Chemistry is a smorgasbord of delights with everything from ‘Wild mushroom’s anti-inflammatory properties’ to ‘DNA barcoding for the authentication of fish species to the sensory profile of extra virgin olive oils’.