I’m fascinated by food, by history and by globalization which I think is not new but there from the start. I came to this medley via an upbringing on an English farm and a lifestyle both expatriate and itinerant that has taken me to five continents. For the past ten years, I have lived in Mexico dividing my time between the tranquil colonial town of Guanajuato and decidedly not-so-tranquil Mexico City.

Writing down my thoughts is wonderfully helpful in clarifying what puzzles me. I am on several wonderful listserves and discussion groups but it would be boorish to inundate them with posts on problems that probably only interest me. So here you’ll find me trying to work through all kinds of unfinished business.

If you’d like to jump in, I will be thrilled. In my dream world, blogs are a way of building an intellectual community that transcends geographical and institutional boundaries.

You’ll find the following themes on this blog.

Big issues in food history. Does America have a cuisine? What is a cuisine anyway? What are regional cuisines? Is it possible to eat locally and why would anyone want to? What about servants?

Big issue in food politics.  Basically I think that for all its problems, there’s never been safer, tastier food. So why is that? What are we doing to keep it so? What about all the naysayers and their doom and gloom?

Globalization viewed from my perch in Mexico.  Mexico is entering the global food world. It’s also changing from an agricultural to an industrial economy.  And I’m living where I can watch all this.  Amazing.

Global connections in food history. What are the links between India and Mexico? Or across the Indian Ocean? Or along the Silk Roads?   Mole and curry, fideos and pasta, mandu and mantu.

What I learn from my walking companions.   Day after day, on a five kilometer walk with my friends, I learn about what they’re cooking. What a privilege.  Here I record some of it.

Plus reviews of books and articles, oddities that catch my fancy, and grinding, the most fundamental and most exhausting of all the aspects of cooking.