San Antonio College Library

"In India's long and diverse coastline, fish inhabit the heart of many aspects of life: food of course, and also culture, commerce, sports, history, and society. Journeying along the edges of the peninsula, Samanth Subramanian delivers a kaleidoscope of extraordinary stories. Following Fish conducts rich, journalistic investigations of the use of fish to treat asthmatics in Hyderabad; of the preparation and the process of eating West Bengal's prized...

There are few areas of modern life that are burdened by as much information and advice, often contradictory, as our diet and health: eat a lot of meat, eat no meat; whole-grains are healthy, whole-grains are a disaster; eat everything in moderation; eat only certain foods -- and on and on. In One Hundred Million Years of Food, biological anthropologist Stephen Le explains how cuisines of different cultures are a result of centuries of evolution, finely...

"Scarlett O'Hara munched on a radish and vowed never to go hungry again. Vardaman Bundren ate bananas in Faulkner's Jefferson, and the Invisible Man dined on a sweet potato in Harlem. Although food and stories may be two of the most prominent cultural products associated with the South, the connections between them have not been thoroughly explored until now. Southern food has become the subject of increasingly self-conscious intellectual consideration....

"Americans eat chicken more than any other meat. But our nation's favorite food comes with an invisible cost: its insidious effect on our health. In this extraordinary narrative, acclaimed journalist Maryn McKenna reveals how antibiotic use has altered the way we consume industrially raised meat, and its impact on our daily lives. Drawing on decades of research, as well as interviews with entrepreneurs, epidemiologists, and other specialists, McKenna...

From ancient empires to modern economics, science reporter Andrew Lawler delivers a sweeping history of the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilization across the globe -- the chicken. Queen Victoria was obsessed with it. Socrates' last words were about it. Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur made their scientific breakthroughs using it. Catholic popes, African shamans, Chinese philosophers, and Muslim mystics praised it. Throughout...

"It's the pesticide on our dinner plates, a chemical so pervasive it's in the air we breathe, our water, our soil, and even found increasingly in our own bodies. Known as Monsanto's Roundup by consumers, and as glyphosate by scientists, the world's most popular weed killer is used everywhere from backyard gardens to golf courses to millions of acres of farmland. For decades it's been touted as safe enough to drink, but a growing body of evidence indicates...

A food writer describes the eight months he spent living in a deeply rural region of France and how he fell in love with the area, the people, and the food while herding sheep in the Pyrenees, harvesting grapes, and distilling Armagnac. "A delicious memoir about the eight months food writer David McAninch spent in Gascony--a deeply rural region of France virtually untouched by mass tourism--meeting extraordinary characters and eating the best meals...

"Do Americans have the right to privately obtain the foods of our choice from farmers, neighbors, and local producers, in the same way our grandparents and great grandparents used to do?Yes, say a growing number of people increasingly afraid that the mass-produced food sold at supermarkets is excessively processed, tainted with antibiotic residues and hormones, and lacking in important nutrients. These people, a million or more, are seeking foods...

For the past four decades, increasing numbers of Americans have started paying greater attention to the food they eat, buying organic vegetables, drinking fine wines, and seeking out exotic cuisines. Yet they are often equally passionate about the items they refuse to eat: processed foods, generic brands, high-carb meals. While they may care deeply about issues like nutrition and sustainable agriculture, these discriminating diners also seek to differentiate...