The Perfect Urban food?

The Potato?

This 270 page homage to the tuber affectionately known as “potato” walks the reader through the Andes, into the cargo holds of Spanish galleons, across the Atlantic to Ireland, then onto England, France and the rest of Europe.

Zuckerman’seasy-to-read and fun to digest writing style makes the book much less pedantic that it could have been (v. sometimes there is a usage that harkens back to the
days of yore). But this is a minor criticism.

Spud-o-rama:

The biology of the potato, it turns out, makes it a hardy, high yield vegetable that can grow in more climates than virtually any other major food crop. This means that per acre, the potato is capable of feeding more human beings than any other food crop. What is more, the potato itself is a nutritious piece of eating, and when served with a dairy product is almost a perfect food. One acre of potatoes provides over ten human beings 100% of their annual energy and protein needs, plus all nutrients except vitamins A & D. A truly remarkable little tuber.

style="font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-variant: small-caps; color: blue; letter-spacing: 3.0pt; ">Say What?:
The most interesting tidbits in this book are references to beliefs and food habits across the centuries. Food has always been a reminder of the differences between social classes. The potato, once reviled as the food of the poor and feeble minded, is also the foodstuff that allowed the growth of an industrial working class. Nutritious, easy to grow, transport and store, it is the perfect urban food. And yet for centuries, it was seen as the food of the wretched.

Not in the Book:
Zuckerman doesn’t bring the potato into the present day, where it faces a battery of new and not-so-new accusations from the diet gurus. Now, with carbo-phobe diets being all the rage, and sushi and soy being considered the food of the upper classes, the potato is despised for its linkage to fast food fries and poverty diets. Are we are coming full circle in our relationship with the spud? Do we associate it with poverty diets, fast food and government subsidized food programs? Is urban food now either expensive proteins like fish and steaks, or cheap fast food?

Stop frying everything!
We don’t have to fry everything we get our hands on. The same goes for the spud.

Another interesting set of notes in the book are various recipes culled from the pages of diaries, journals and agricultural reports. I intend to try to make a version of “cobbledy”, a thick soup made with mashed potatoes, mashed onions, butter, cream and bacon.Served with a simple salad and a glass of wine, this could be a nice winter dish.