Gastronomica

When you first take a peek at the cover, you think to yourself; this doesn't look like a scholarly journal, Gastronomica boasts a shot from Louis Bunuel's L'Age d'Or, of an eyes-shut maven sucking on a trio of fingers. Cor!

This, of course, is one of those sexy things that academics like to use to convince you that they ain't frumps, and that what you will find inside won't all be saddled with footnotes from Derrida and Levi-Strauss, but will instead be a rollicking good read, a sort of culinary bodice-ripper with a serious bent.

And that, my friends, is pretty much what Gastronomica is. Editor Darra Goldstein, of Williams College, has brought together a funky bunch of people (including Dublin-based food writer and Bridgestone contributing editor Elizabeth Field) to ponder and pontificate on food matters in a spirited and lively style. 'Gastronomica aspires to reach a diverse and idiosyncratic audience, one thatıs now ready to sit down together', she writes. So, along with a new poem, Ripe Peach, by Louise Gluck (verse 2 of which goes some way to explain the cover shot) and a transcription of the song Happy Scrapple Daddy written by Robin Remailly for the Holy Modal Rounders legendary 1971 acid-folk album Good Taste is Timeless, there are serious pieces on Ferran Adria, on Sicilian Cheese in Medieval Arab Recipes and other marvellously obscure exotica.

Contact them at gastronomica@williams.edu to take out a subscription.

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