Deborah Toner
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It’s obviously been quite a while since this blog was updated, but that doesn’t mean we have forgotten about Consuming Authenticities! In fact, plenty of exciting developments have been quietly happening behind the scenes, which I will write more about over the coming weeks and months: we have been continuing to publicise and distribute our […]
Our book ‘Authentic Recipes from Around the World’ is out
Our much-anticipated book, entitled ‘Authentic Recipes from Around the World’ (HAT Events, 2015), written by the investigators of the project (Emma-Jayne Abbots, Anna Charalambidou, Elaine Forde, Ana Martins, Hazel Thomas, Deborah Toner) and a number of collaborators and external partners has been published! This general audience book is the outcome of the AHRC project “Consuming […]
Flaounes starred on BBC1 ‘Great British Bake Off’
Flaounes were the start of Britain’s favourite baking competition, ‘Great British Bake Off’. The seven remaining contestants had to prepare ‘flaounes’ from scratch for this week’s technical challenge, using Paul Hollywood’s recipe. Paul, a flaounes enthusiast, picked up the recipe while living and working as a pastry chef in Cyprus. Mary Berry, on the other […]
Tequila: Pulque’s Friend, Cousin, Usurper?
My route into the history of alcohol in Mexico took me through pre-Columbian, colonial and nineteenth-century history, so for me, this area of research has always been synonymous with pulque, the alcoholic beverage that predominated throughout this long time period. But, whenever I introduce myself as a historian of alcohol in Mexico, the first word […]
Cider in Unexpected Places? Rural Chile and the Cider Pressing
For most people the mention of authentic craft cider will probably lead to visions of Somerset and the West Country, so our project’s concentration on Welsh producers of craft cider posed some interesting questions. Contrary to some initial expectations, Emma-Jayne Abbots’s research has found that the Welsh-ness of the product is not that important to […]
Authentic Recipes from Around the World
We have recently been checking the proofs of our recipe book, Authentic Recipes from Around the World, and are starting preparations for the book launch, which is happening on 23 October in Senate House, London. It is free and open to all, with complementary copies of the recipe book on offer, so please get in […]
Mexican Cookery and the Importance of Chilies
We recently completed work on the project’s recipe book, Authentic Recipes from Around the World, and as it is going through the process of design for print, I decided to celebrate with a weekend of cookery fun. Armed with an industrial quantity of various dried chilies, I set out to make several batches of Mexican […]
The Story of Pulque Part 3: Ritual and Power in Aztec Mexico
In the story of pulque, we have so far thought about different origin stories about pulque and their role in political and cultural processes in Aztec Mexico. Being linked to the origin or discovery of pulque carried a certain prestige value, but why? In many ways, pulque was not singled out, but was one of […]
Acarajé diaries. Day 6
Here, people aren’t born, says Lázaro, my tourist guide. They come up on stage. They don’t die, they have a curtain call. The paulistas in the group find this comment very amusing. But Lázaro looks like he knows what he’s talking about. He’s a painter, and our driver is a ballet dancer. We are […]
Acarajé diaries. Day 5
The storm comes from the sea. It’s like a curtain of fog. The Pestana is the first to go. Then, 5 minutes later, the Ondina Apart is covered. That’s when the rooftops go insane. Five kids carry on playing basketball in a communal field, blinking aquatically. Three others stand on a bus stop bench, […]
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