We learn, for example, that in medieval Europe, just as fields were measured by their production of sheaves of wheat and meadows by cart-loads of hay, forests were measured by their population of pigs. And, in passing, we find out that the night before the American bombing of Baghdad in 1991, Domino's delivered 101 pizzas to the Pentagon instead of the usual 3. When it comes to food, in fact, distinction seems to be part of the point. The best essays in this book, influenced by Levi-Strauss, take one more step. The preparation of food, they suggest, reflects each society's internal logic.
Cultures create a language of food out of undifferentiated fodder.
These dietary laws are meant to have both moral and metaphysical implications. And in the 16th century, there were attempts to organize foods according to alchemical law. These examples whet the appetite for analysis the anthology cannot satisfy. But even the contemporary world gets surprisingly cursory treatment. If so they may be flourishing not just for gustatory reasons, but also for metaphysical ones.