Give Away: What Caesar Did for My Salad
Hey guys!
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been interested in the history of food – why we eat certain things; why some foods have an integral cultural tie; where foods get their weird names from, etc.
If that sounds anything like you, then you’ll love Albert Jack’s book, “What Caesar Did for My Salad,” which I just so happen to be giving away!
Jack is a writer and historian, so this book is chock full of great facts and stories related to the origin of some our favorite foods. It would make perfect dinner conversation har har.
Here’s a sample of some of the fun stories in the book:
- The Romans put bits of toast in their glasses of wine to dissolve impurities and that’s how we got the convivial connotation of the verb “to toast”
- The term “hot dog” is believed to have been coined during a baseball game between the Yankees and the Giants in 1901
- Calzones get their name from their less-than-glamorous looks: calzone means “trouser leg” or “drooping sack” in Italian
- Vermicelli means “little worms”
- Shrimp cocktail became popular in the 1920s as a safe way of “having a cocktail” during Prohibition
This book clearly illustrates that food is more than just food — it’s history, too!
If you would like to win a free copy of this book, please tell me about a food that has a special place in your heart, either because it’s part of a tradition, or has a special memory, or it’s just plain delicious. Entries accepted through Monday, September 12, 12:01 a.m. I’ll be choosing a winner via random number generator and announcing it later that day.
<3,
The Cranky One
FTC Notice: The Penguin Group will be providing the winner with one copy of “What Caesar Did for My Salad” gratis.
10 People have left comments on this post
Love weird trivia like this. A food that has a special place in my heart: pizza. I love food so much, and there may even be foods that I like “better” than pizza, but pizza is just so consistently satisfying to me. I’m thoroughly enjoying making vegan pizza now!
My mother’s cinnamon rolls! She makes them every Christmas morning and always cuts them with dental floss. A special, yet funny, food memory
French Toast has a special place in my heart because my mom used to wake us kids up early before school just so we would have time to have a ‘proper’ sit down breakfast at the kitchen table. Mom used fresh baked bread, local eggs and maple syrup. You could taste the love!
I have eaten many, many different kinds of food in my life, some of it healthy, much of it not. I am naturally curious, both when it comes to food and also about life in general, which is why this book (and your blog) always appeal to me. As far as food touching my heart, and not just my tastebuds, I would say I have many good memories eating tamales, with friends, in people’s homes, at carts near MacArther park, from trucks, and elsewhere. I have eaten them while in Mexico and in El Salvador and the times were always good ones. The regional varieties give options ranging from more wet to drier masa, from mild and tasty to spicy (which I love!). I also have good memories with pupusas, but that is another post
As a child who was raised by relatives from the time I was twelve months until five years of age, I would eat only food that felt good to me. The relatives only wanted to make me happy. So, I ate eggs. They cooked eggs for me in any fashion and for years I ate six eggs a day. Presently, when I want comfort food, I cook eggs…scrambled, sunny side up, poached, hard boiled, and will mix eggs with any other foods that are left over in my refrigerator. People get a little concerned when they ask what I mix with eggs, but they have grown to tolerate it. Shrimp, scallops, tofu, meat, veggies, just about anything tastes better when mixed with eggs. I make a great deviled egg! As far as my health goes, I have very low cholesterol and will continue to eat eggs every day!
That is so cute!
A food that has a special place in my heart is apples. When I was a kid and a teenager I’d eat about 5 apples a day because they just tasted so delicious. Now I eat much fewer apples, usually just 1 or 2 a day, and if I go for a few days without having one, I really start to crave them. If I travel somewhere really far, I usually start to miss the specific brand of apples that I always eat
Haha! This book looks right up my alley.
A food that has a special place in my heart is the humble artichoke. When I first moved to California, I was impressed by these spiky, dinosaur looking things that grew at my neighbor’s house. I had never seen one before. Several years later, I was meeting my then boyfriend’s parents for the first time and they served me an artichoke. I had NO idea what to do with it, and started to eat it by gnawing on the prickly end, wondering why someone would eat something so sharp. I finally confessed I had no idea what I was doing and I was shown the proper “Technique”. Artichokes are now one of my favorite foods, and that “boyfriend” is now my husband. We grow them in our backyard, where each day they remind me of the joys of new experiences
WACKY CAKE!!! Yup this has a very special place for me. It was my Nan’s signature reciepe; one that would be a staple after any meal that she prepared for us. Moist and dense this chocolate cake was too die for and I swear to this day you could taste the love that she put into it. Years later I was baking it for my son when he asked me why it was called WACKY cake… I put the batter to one side and called my Nan. Apparently it was wacky because of how you added the wet ingredients to the mix. You must make three wells and add each ingredient that way. I miss my Nan every day and when I want to fell extra close to her I bake a Wacky Cake and smile as I make each well.
Stacie your Nan was a great woman and you have the same great traits and Qualities she had <3
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