It’s that gift guide time of year. Some of the best I’ve seen this year:
A surprisingly practical list from NY Times.
A guide that begs the question, do you really need a wine suitcase? from the LA Times.
A gift guide of the ‘I want everything on it’ variety from Eater.
And adding one more: A gift guide for the food and cookbook obsessed loved one in your life. Actually, its more of my own personal wish list.
Dinner With Jackson Pollock: Recipes, Art & Nature, Robin Lea.
Pollock was a dedicated baker, drawing from his mother’s handwritten recipes. 50 beautifully photographed recipes, including his award winning apple pie.
Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat, Anastacia Marx de Salcedo.
Weaponry and food, the two most important aspects to military success. De Salcedo’s book details the history of the U.S. Military’s influence on how we eat today.
Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products, Dwight Eschliman.
Those aren’t neat little piles of random powders in this carefully photographed coffee-table book. They’re your favorite processed food broken down into its ingredients.
The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Darra Goldstein.
Everything you have ever wanted to know about the long love affair between humans and sugar.
To Live and Dine in L.A.: Menus and the Making of the Modern City, Josh Kun.
The history of L.A. as told through 200 years of its menus. From pozole, kimchee soup, Cobb salads, to kale tacos.
The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu, Dan Jurafsky.
A linguistic look into the history of food, and what it can tell of the origins of an ingredient, dish, etc.
Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love, Simran Sethi
Journalist Simran Sethi celebrates some of the most loved food, and warns of the loss in biodiversity in edible species as global tastes become more and more homogenized.
Cucumbers and limes 