Procrastadabbler

I just returned from several days of hanging out on the Maine coast with some friends. Lots of walking, talking, some bike riding, good food, good wine. No work. Not even much reading even though I brought four books along. I did manage to finish The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation. It was a somewhat entertaining book, but not as engrossing as I had hoped. Too much gossip about the different chefs, their love lives and their bickering and not enough about the changing way people have been thinking about food and the sociological, cultural, and even political implications. It only hints at how Americans have been trained to think and eat a certain (industrialized) way and focuses way too much on the whole French food thing that has dominated so much of supposed fine cooking.

But I’m back now and took today off to somewhat get the house back in order and begin to refocus my mind on my research. I’ll write about what I’m thinking in another post.