“In The Devil's Garden” Review and Commentary by D. Vour Part 1 of 4

Review and Commentary by D. Vour
Gourmand and Food Critic at “The Home“

“In The Devil's Garden” - “A Sinful History Of Forbidden Food”
Ballantine Books
by
Stewart Lee Allen

Chapter One – of Four

I just finished reading one of the most interesting books I've ever come across. I found it completely by accident . As these things usually do, I was looking for another book with a similar title, but mistyped the search, and by pure synchronicity 'The Devils Garden' popped up. I saw that it was a history of forbidden food .. which immediately caught my fancy, how fascinating .. I checked it out from the library, and started reading the prologue. I was hooked, … line and sinker! I could see that I was going to be caught up in an exciting maelstrom of swirling, new ideas to me about food: Taboos ! Food as social engineering – who knew?

How could we not be fascinated with forbidden foods? What foods are forbidden? I quickly wondered to myself – hmm … religious food bans of course … (or curse) .. but nothing else came to mind. After reading a few paragraphs, I realized that this was covering way more than just 'don’t eat pork'! I saw a comment about being a taboo to enjoy, and a taboo to not enjoy, eating!? This begs the question, if it's a sin to enjoy food, and a sin not to enjoy food – which side are you on: Saint, or Devil ? With food, don’t both views have some allure?

I love food and cooking stuff, and have always had a curiosity about foods people have eaten in bygone days. Likewise, I've been curious why certain foods are always identified with people or places; think of sauerkraut, and Germany comes to mind, think wine – et voila La Belle France, and pasta is of course “Italian”. Of course today, these items come from everywhere, but we still think of them as things related to those people or places.

What do you think of first, if I say 'watermelon', 'garlic', curry, or 'sweet potato pie' ? I suspect that cultural factors reflect your personal view of these; We ate Chinese food on special occasions. Garlic, when I was a kid, was avoided in school as being for 'Italians, as was the dreaded salami sandwich – garlic breath is death'. Curry was 'foreign food'. I didn’t eat curry 'til I got to college. Watermelon somehow ascribes to black southern culture, as does 'fried chicken' – even while both are readily available anywhere around the world and equally popular or famous ! What about the poor and oft maligned sweet potato, and sweet potato pie, which is not as quite popular as its' Pumpkin pie cousin. The lowly sweet potato was once a product allowed for European royalty only, and now in modern times, it is thought of as something more for 'poor folks'. In spite of this, the sweet potato is becoming respectable and trendy with modern foodies again. The sweet potato, and other veggies are seeing a re-surging popularity among the hip young organic crowd. You could not give kale away 10 years ago. Its only use was decoration on a salad bar. Now kale s everywhere, and in everything !? Our ideas about food are constantly evolving!

We do assign our belief structure to our food. Would you eat a live baby octopus ? Apparently, this is quite popular in Korea – but not so much here in USA.!? My point exactly!. One mans meat is another mans throat choker - err - I mean 'poison'! Snail, grubs, brains offal, sweetmeats, organ meat, wild game, bush meat : how do you feel about eating these ? What emotions are stirred pondering a bite fried insects? These emotions are used to control us, by making certain foods approved, or taboos.

This tale is brilliantly told with compactness and alacrity. The scope is remarkable, making connections, and contrasts with the ancient and modern views on our constantly evolving and changing attitudes, rules, and laws about food, and food items. There are amazing and incredible histories and anecdotes into the whys and wherefores of how these taboos, superstitions, and traditions have come about … and usually not what you previously expected or believed !

End of part 1 ... to be continued..



In The Devil's Garden
A Sinful History Of Forbidden Food