Traditional Dietary Culture of Southeast Asia : A Culinary History

Foodways are the key to the strongest and deepest traces of human history, and this pioneering volume is a detailed study of the development of the traditional dietary culture of Southeast Asia, stretching from Laos and Vietnam to the Philippines and New Guinea. Beginning in the Paleolithic era and continuing to the present day, the author portrays the dietary life of the area and the many changes that have produced a cuisine that though influential and popular globally today has never before been studied in such depth. Beginning with the physical and social formation of the Southeast Asian world, the work covers the Neolithic food production economy, the ancient hunting cultures of the pre-European age, the development of agriculture and of alcoholic drink-making, the influence of the European colonial age on traditional dietary culture, the contemporary food practices of the area including agriculture and stock raising, and the ancient traditional foods that survive today, such as black sugar, fish sauce, and soybean products, which are so widely used in fusion cuisine. Here is the history behind Southeast Asian recipes and restaurant menus -- a history of invasion, invention, and enslavement that is both fascinating and scholarly, supported by full geographical, archaeolgical, biological, and chemical data. Based largely upon Southeast Asian sources which have not been available up until now, this is essential reading for anyone interested in food, culinary history, and in an area of the word that is rapidly developing and changing.