Series: Foods and Nations

Ask about German food and most people think of beer and sausage, or pretzels and Limburger cheese. However, the 82 million inhabitants of modern-day Germany do not all live exclusively on Oktoberfest fare. In fact, as in most modern countries, Germans have a long tradition of taking outside influences into their cuisine, and there is a wide variety of food...

Spanish cuisine is a melting-pot of cultures, flavours and ingredients: Greek and Roman, Jewish, Moorish and Middle Eastern. It has been enriched by its climate, geology and spectacular topography, which have encouraged a variety of regional food traditions and 'Cocinas', such as Basque, Galician, Castilian, Andalusian and Catalan. It has been shaped by the country's complex history, as foreign occupations...

Italy is a mecca for food lovers. The home of pasta and pizza, it also boasts a dazzling array of wines, cheeses, breads, vegetables, and meats. Globally, Michelin-starred Italian restaurants and TV chefs celebrate Italian cuisine for its freshness and health benefits. Now in paperback, Al Dente takes readers on a journey through Italy's regions and food history, exploring how...

A Rich and Fertile Land investigates the history of food in America, exploring where it comes from and how it has evolved over time. From the first Native Americans to modern industrial farmers, people have shaped the North American continent and its climate based on the foods they desired and the crops and animals they cultivated. Bruce Kraig examines the...

Spanish cuisine is a melting-pot of cultures, flavours, and ingredients: Greek and Roman, Jewish, Moorish, and Middle Eastern. It has been enriched by its climate, geology, and spectacular topography, which have encouraged a variety of regional food traditions and 'Cocinas', such as Basque, Galician, Castilian, Andalusian, and Catalan. It has been shaped by the country's complex history, as foreign occupations...

Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India is an exploration of Indian cuisine in the context of the country's religious, moral, social, and philosophical development. It addresses topics such as dietary prescriptions and proscriptions, the origins of vegetarianism, culinary borrowings and innovations, and the use of spices. The book also explores the inseparable links between diet, health, and...

What do we think about when we think of Greek food? For many, it is the meze and traditional plates of a typical Greek island taverna from summer holidays or from Greek restaurants at home. This book takes us into and beyond the taverna to offer us a unique, comprehensive history of the foods of Greece. Andrew and Rachel Dalby...

Spanning 65,000 years, this book provides a history of food in Australia from its beginnings, with the arrival of the first peoples and their stewardship of the land, to a present where the production and consumption of food is fraught with anxieties and competing priorities. It describes how food production in Australia is subject to the constraints of climate, water...

The once-obscure cuisine of Vietnam has become a favourite of many people from East to West. After millennia of adaptation and innovation with a pervasive Chinese influence, today's Vietnamese food is, surprisingly, a mixture of Vietnamese and French dishes, with the baguette being the most cherished part of the French culinary legacy. Introduced into Vietnam in the mid-nineteenth century, the...