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Under the Radar: An Interview with Olivier Matthon
Olivier Matthon, itinerant labourer and ethnographer, is the author of Under the Radar: Notes from the Wild Mushroom Trade. It tells the story of the seasonal migrant labourers who harvest wild mushrooms in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and is out now from Pioneers Press. Dylan Gordon caught up with Olivier between wild harvests…
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Cherries and Gems in Eat It: Sex, Food and Women’s Writing
Reviewed in this essay: Eat It: Sex, Food & Women’s Writing, edited by Nicole Baute and Brianna Goldberg. Feathertale, 2013. There are some gems in this mixed-genre anthology from Feathertale, an offbeat Canadian writer’s collective. The pieces are varied in tone and style, taking the form of short fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, letters, and poetry.…
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Wild Food Spring #5: Fäviken
In this series, Dylan Gordon considers cookbooks, memoirs and fictions about wild, foraged foods. Reviewed in this essay: Fäviken by Magnus Nilsson, Phaidon Press, 2012. Chef Magnus Nilsson, at “the world’s most isolated and daring restaurant,” deep in the heart of the northern Swedish wilderness, has been called “part Viking lumberjack and part Shaman.” Rebelling against…
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Hipsterizing the Louvre, drawing Mansbridge, and ruling over Legoland: Bookishness for June 17, 2013
This could mean many things. New research out of U of T shows that reading literary fiction makes us more comfortable with ambiguity. Hipsters take over the Louvre Leo Caillard reimagines classic statues as contemporary hipsters. Meet Toronto’s Legolord Legoland is his kingdom. Restaurants where you’d be better off without a date …the better to focus…
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Wild Food Spring #3: A Feast of Weeds
In this series, Dylan Gordon considers cookbooks, memoirs and fictions about wild, foraged foods. Reviewed in this essay: A Feast of Weeds by Luigi Ballerini, University of California Press, 2012. Field guidebooks often overwhelm me with their formidable erudition. First in each entry come the botanical descriptors, identifying features of leaf and root that mostly escape…
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Wild Food Spring #2: “They Can’t Ration These”
In this series, Dylan Gordon considers cookbooks, memoirs and fictions about wild, foraged foods. Reviewed in this essay: They Can’t Ration These by Vicomte de Mauduit, Persephone Books, 2004 [1940]. Foods foraged from the wild are this year’s hot culinary trend, and all that limelight makes it easy to forget one fact: in much of history,…
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Wild Food Spring #1: A Natural Science of Cooking
The first in a spring-time series, Dylan Gordon considers cookbooks, memoirs and fictions about wild, foraged foods. Reviewed in this essay: Mugaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking by Andoni Luis Aduriz, Phaidon Press, 2012. I first ate at Mugaritz, today one of the top three restaurants in the world, in 2003. At the time there was a…
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Food pairs, podcasts and the Game of Thrones cookbook: Bookishness for Mar. 4, 2013
Point 1: Be okay with chaos The 12 trends that will rule products in 2013. Dinner is coming Recipes from the official Game of Thrones companion cookbook (including Dothraki blood pie). Pantone Pairings Still hungry? Check out David Schwen’s food #pantonepairings on Instagram. (Then, you know, eat something.) Gamify Your Life EveryThing gamifies everything! Did you just wake…
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Sheet music, Sriracha, and the Harry Potter Alliance: Bookishness for Feb. 25, 2013
Pencils, penises, pigeons, goblins, Hitler, and tea cosies What will be the oddest book title of the year? An army of fans, activists, nerdfighters, teenagers, wizards and muggles: fighting with love “Did you ever wish Harry Potter was real? Well it kind of is.” Join the Harry Potter Alliance and fight for social justice. Soooooo…
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Livestock for some, ownership debates for all: A review of Who Owns the Stock? Collective and Multiple Property Rights in Animals
Reviewed in this essay: Who Owns the Stock? Collective and Multiple Property Rights in Animals, Khazanov, Anatoly and Günther Schlee, eds., Berghahn Books, 2012. This volume suggests that, in the face of the rapid diffusion of the notion of private property across the globe, there remain three main domains of objects subject to more complicated…
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The Baltimore House in Hamilton: A Culinary Experience Courtesy of Edgar Allan Poe
If you’ve ever been seduced by the Gothic works of Edgar Allan Poe, then The Baltimore House is the place for you. Tucked around the corner from Jackson Square it functions as a café by day and a lounge/bar by night. The café room boasts ample natural light, and old church pews act as benches…
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Creating a New Food Paradigm: A Review of Food Sovereignty in Canada
Reviewed in this essay: Food Sovereignty in Canada: Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems, edited by Hannah Wittman, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe. Fernwood Publishing, 2011. Food issues abound these days, from northern communities that lack access to affordable food, to foodborne illnesses initiated by poor industrial hygiene practices, to community-driven initiatives connecting rural…