Al dente
Subtitle: madness, beauty and the food of Rome
By: David Winner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2012
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 293
ISBN-13: 9781847374356; 9780857208811
Subjects: Social life and customs; Civilization; Food; Food habits; Manners and customs; History
Description: This highly original interpretation of Rome's history, culture, art and religion takes the form of a book about food that's not really about food at all. During his first two years in Rome, David Winner found himself in turn amazed and overwhelmed by its physical, historical and cultural vastness. Then a chance encounter with an extraordinary pudding provided him with the means to start digesting his surroundings. That evening he was struck by the significance of the Roman attitude to food: a unique and unequivocal relationship between sustenance and existence, where every last aspect of life is (and always has been) 'pickled in alimentation'. In Al Dente, Winner takes us on a stroll through the city as he muses idiosyncratically on all things comestible and much else besides.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The Water; title: The Feast; title: The Fast; title: The Snails; title: The Fish Juice; title: The Peach; title: The Rats; title: The Doves; title: The Crumbs; title: The Ricotta; title: The Asparagus; title: The Wafer; title: The Cat; title: The Strawberry or the Chocolate; title: The Body; title: The Ice Cream; title: The Mushroom; title: The Lamb; title: The Fish Marbles; title: The Black Rice; title: The Horse; title: The Blood; title: The Tomato Sauce; title: The Macaroni; title: The Fig and the Anchovy; title: The Artichoke; title: The Spiral; title: The Coffee Cup; title: Not the End.