Robin ShulmanBesprekingen

This is the first book I won in a "First Reads" Giveaway and I was simply happy to have won, I didn't actually expect to enjoy it.

Robin Shulman is a writer for the Washington Post and New York Times and her journalistic craft is evident. She's also a New Yorker. In this book (with the unfortunately long title), she's accomplished the impossible in my mind: she's made me appreciate newspaper writers again and she's broken down the resistance I have towards all things "city" and actually planted a sort of nostalgia in my mind for America's city, New York.

The Introduction begins with Shulman describing the heroin addict that used to shoot up on her front stoop in New York City in the early 90's. Not long afterward, she began to notice little things happening around the vacant lots - little plots of herbs and vegetables popping up, a rooster crowing, sweet smells in the air. She began to see more people tidying up than there were selling drugs. It was gradual, but it was a certain, a change taking place. And as she looked into the history of her adopted city, she learned that this struggle between producers and destroyers was an eternal theme on the city's stage. Each chapter is devoted to different hidden "producers" of the city, weaving a seamless narrative that gives a vibrant life to the past and a far-reaching connection to the present; the glue that holds the story together is, and has always been, food.

This is a book chock full of fascinating individual stories and important history that most natives of New York City probably have little understanding of, all of it based upon food: from the brave bee-keepers that traverse the city's rooftops looking for honey to the meatcutters who butcher cows in vacant lots to the homeless men who defiantly fish the polluted waterways; from the 100' grape vines climbing apartment buildings to the sugar cane growing in the windowsills to the hops plants overflowing the back yards; from the original Indian inhabitants to the Dutch and English colonist and on through every nationality of immigrant that has made New York a new home.

From the Epilogue:

"Writing this book revealed to me a rich and complicated city that I didn't know existed. New York had a brilliant agricultural past, which it cast away. For generations, planners have sought to move food production out of the city, but people have persisted in tending, growing, fermenting, butchering, and manufacturing basic foods to share and eat and sell - because they need to and they want to. People think that New York City is not a place for growing things, but it turns out to be absolutely a place for growing things. It is a place where people practice alchemy, taking the stress and hardship of city life and turning it into something nourishing."

Five stars for great writing, thorough research, and for making me see New York again for the great city it was and still is.

If you enjoy reading about food and NY City, both in present time and the past, this is a wonderful read. The author treats 7 subjects: honey, vegetables, wine, beer, meats, sugar, and fish, and discusses the history of each in the City while describing a current purveyor of each of these commodities and how they interact in their neighborhoods with their specialty food or drink. The history is fascinating and the folks involved now in producing these foods and beverages have great stories to tell. This is a great bok.

With each chapter covering a different element of food, (honey, vegetables, meat, sugar, beer, fish, and wine), this book covers both the history of how New York City supplied it's citizens with food as well as following some current urban pioneers in their quest to bring the local back into the NYC food chain. Rooftop beekeepers, urban gardeners, home vintners and others provide a thoughtful insight on what might become the future of food in America.½

Eat the City
a tale of the Fishers, Foragers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Bee Keepers, Wine Makers, and Brewers Who Built New York
By Robin Shulman
Crown Publishers (Random House), 335 pgs
978-0-307-71905-8
Rating: 4

"Go on bite the big apple..." Richards and Jagger warned us. I always took this to be a metaphor. Who knew one of the world's megalopolises had such agricultural bounty? Turns out New York has a history of growing and producing any number of crops: honey, beef, fish, sugar, beer, etc., etc.

Chapter 2. During the economic catastrophe of the 1970s hundreds of vacant lots appeared where buildings once stood. Today a large percentage of those lots are no longer vacant. Community gardens have sprung up all over the city thanks to passionate local growth advocates and many transplants to the city from the South with rural agricultural backgrounds. Community gardens are producing everything from corn and potatoes to squash and tomatoes, even sugar cane. Okra is itchy to pick, did you know that? I did. I used to pick okra in my aunt and uncle's garden as a little girl in West Texas.

Chapter 3. New York was the largest meat processing center on the East Coast until Work War II. Cattle were herded down the middle of city streets. Millions of immigrants flooded the city and discovered that meat was plentiful and cheap, unlike in their homelands. Eating meat was a measure of success. One man recalled that his grandfather would put a toothpick in his mouth as he left home "to give the impression that he had eaten meat." By 1980 there were only six slaughterhouses left in the city. Then came another wave of immigrants and a slaughterhouse renaissance of sorts. Now there are eighty. Another reason for the growing number of slaughterhouses is the large Jewish population that ensures a healthy kosher slaughter business. How you ever considered there to be anything sexy about butchers? Try this on for size, regarding a butcher named Tom: "He's confident and sure of his touch and his impact on the meat, and if there's something sexy about butchering, it's that - it shows a man who's comfortable with flesh." Think about it.

Chapter 5. Beer has been brewed on the island of Manhattan since before the Dutch bought it in 1626. One might think that the Midwest was the king of beer in this country but this was not always so. New York was the king of beer until refrigeration technology made it possible to get ice-cold beer from Milwaukee and St. Louis to the larger markets on the east coast. Breweries declined precipitously in New York. Then came the local micro-brew movement. Now apparently every hipster has a still in the laundry room. The same can be said of wineries. They are making a comeback. Time was when people bought grapes from upstate and fermented their own wine. Like bell bottoms, it's cool to be a vintner again in Manhattan. Friends of another aunt and uncle tried their hand at homemade wine back in the 80s. Word has it that the wine was terrible but I wouldn't know about that. I was just a kid, certainly never tasted it. Certainly.

Another factor in the decline of breweries was Prohibition. However the New York Telegram claimed in 1929 that you could buy alcohol in the following places: "In open saloons, restaurants, nightclubs, bars behind a peephole, dancing academies, drugstores, delicatessens, cigar stores, confectioneries, soda fountains, behind partitions of shoeshine parlors, back rooms of barber shops, from hotel bellhops, from hotel headwaiters, from hotel day clerks, night clerks, in express offices, motorcycle delivery agencies, paint stores, malt shops, cider stubes, fruit stands, vegetable markets, taxi drivers, groceries, smoke shops, athletic clubs, grillrooms, taverns, chophouses, importing firms, tearooms, moving-van companies, spaghetti houses, boarding houses, Republican clubs, Democratic clubs, laundries, social clubs, newspapermen's associations." Smile.

Eat the City is a great book. I love this sort of thing, sort of esoteric history, learning something in an entertaining, humorous way. It does lag in a few places but I think you'll find it worth it in the end. Not all is good news though. The situation with the water quality is truly atrocious and I hope something can be done so it's safe to eat the fish again. It hadn't occurred to me that this sort of agricultural history existed in a city the size of New York. (Have you been? Wow.) Omaha I would have believed. I am a fan of organic, locally grown, community-based foodstuffs. We even have a community garden here in Colorado City, Texas. I sincerely applaud the residents of New York in their attempts to take back the city's more blighted neighborhoods.

In closing, can you guess why David Selig's Brooklyn bees began making red honey? Have you ever considered that the color and flavor of honey depends upon the diet of the bees making it? This had never occurred to me, though it makes perfect sense. You'll never believe what David's bees had gotten into!

The author, Robin Shulman, is a writer and reporter whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Slate, etc. For more from the author: www.robinshulman.com

For more from the publisher: www.crownpublishing.com

My mother grew up on a farm in during the Depression and throughout World War Two. Although at some point my grandparents quit farming and moved into town, much of the rest of the family still farmed and those that didn't gardened. My Great-Uncle Shed raised gorgeous pigs and did all the butchering, sausage-making, smoked pork, and country hams. When I was a little girl, he used to take me to see his pigs and I would scratch between their ears and chuck them under their chins. I knew we were going to eat them, but it seemed cool to give them affection - for respect their coming sacrifice if for nothing else. My mother and I were laughing about the fact that now my Great-Uncle Shed would be an "artisanal" butcher. Funny, that.

I also grew up in a family of foodies so there were often gardens around us and I've been going to farmer's markets since I was a kid - sometimes just a few trucks, sometimes a bunch of farmers underneath a closed off highway underpass - always beautiful food with great value for the money. We ate locally and seasonally and never thought anything about it. I compare those markets to local ones - here in Berkeley and the Ferry Building Farmer's Market in San Francisco and always end up sort of depressed. These markets aren't bringing affordable produce into the neighborhoods, but rather extra fancy, overpriced, yuppie food. It's sad - we all think we're closer to the farm and to local sustainability and, instead, we're building food economies for the wealthy.

Despite all of that, regular people continue to garden, keep bees, brew beer, make wine, learn to butcher like my Uncle Shed did, hunt and gather, fish, and use all of these ongoing activities to build community and feed their families fresh and healthy food, particularly in places where none of that is available. Eat the City tells the New York side of this story. Spotlighting modern individuals and weaving the history of the city and its industries throughout, the book is unputdownable. The absolute second that I finished it, I wanted to read it all over again.

Ms. Shulman has a wonderful clear voice, her reporting is excellent, and most of what she wrote about was uplifting to me. I loved the stuff about beekeeping, although it's something I could never do since I'm deathly allergic. It was fascinating, though, to learn about all the beehives on rooftops and the terroir of honey that tells the tale of the neighborhoods.

I was also very fond of the section on brewing beer. When I was a little girl my father and one of his friends brewed beautiful beers in the basement of one of their houses. I loved the idea of a potter and a sculptor using their creativity in a different and almost alchemical way. As an adult I lived in Seattle for ten years - the ten years that saw an explosion of local craft beers and have been spoiled ever since.

I have to admit that the section on fishing made me so very sad. My grandfather took me out on Puget Sound to fish pretty much all year round if I was around. I caught the biggest Petrale sole and the biggest salmon ever caught by anyone in the family. I share credit with my father for the salmon because it took both of us to haul that sucker up. I remember vividly how beautiful it was, but I also remember the amazing meal that it made for the entire family - grilled on a special grill for large cuts of meat and fish and treated with tender loving care. I cleaned every piece of fish I caught - it was a requirement - and I can see now how much it connected us to the creature we were going to eat. It is heartbreaking how much of our water is so polluted that the fish is essentially poisonous, but people eat it anyway.

This book just went up there with The Omnivore's Dilemna by Michael Pollan as one of my very favorite food books that we will be recommending to everyone I know. One of the best books I've read all year. You must read this book.

Even if you are not from New York, even if you aren’t interested in food, even if the curious title doesn’t intrigue you, even if history doesn’t ring your bell, nevertheless, I urge you to try this book. The author is a Writer. She knows how to Research. And more important, she knows how to Tell a Story.

And what a story she has taken on. The author tells the little stories behind the food in NYC. She makes connections I’d never thought of (Prohibition and WWI, for example). She tracks down vegetable gardens and hives of honey and old beer breweries and sugar refineries and shares the ways these changed the city we know and love.

Absolutely captivating stories. So, even if, even if, even if…give this book a read.