Preface
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Chapter 1: The Material Resources: Rivers, Valleys, Volcanoes and
Sky
Chapter 2: The Chinook and Kalapuya People: Salmon, Camas and
Wapato
Chapter 3: The Old World Meets the Wild West Oregon”
Chapter 4: Immigrants: Their Neighborhoods and Contributions
Chapter 5: To Market, To Market: Going Grocery Shopping
Chapter 6: Perusing the Menu: Eating Out in Stumptown’s Oldest
Restaurants
Chapter 7: Drink Up: Breweries, Saloons and Bars
Chapter 8: Like Mother Used to Make: Historic Cookbooks and Home
Cooking
Epilogue: A Gustatory Wonderland
Bibliography
Notes
Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland native, is a freelance journalist and food writer. She is the author of Breakfast: A History (AltaMira Press, 2013) and Portland: A Food Biography (Rowman & Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy, 2014). She is presently writing Chilies: A Global History. In a previous life, she was a plant ecologist and blogger. She plays hobby-homesteader in Portland with her husband, son, cats, and chickens.
In this book, the fourth in Ken Albala’s 'Big City Food
Biographies' series, Portland native Anderson, author of Breakfast,
provides a personal and historical narrative of Portland’s rich
culinary culture. The book begins with the evolution of the
region’s natural resources, regional Native American foodways, and
the rapid invasion of East Coast, midwestern, southern, and
immigrant culinary influences. The largest chapter focuses on
immigrant neighborhoods and their culinary contributions, with
significant attention paid to the history of Portland’s
Chinatown(s) as well as Jewish, Volga German, and Mexican
influences. Other chapters include information on historical
restaurants, famous watering holes, and historic cookbooks.
Portland natives and newcomers will appreciate the loving attention
that Anderson gives to the past. . . .This book will be valuable
for culinary historians and a must have for Oregon history
collections and culinary collections. Summing Up: Recommended.
Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.
*CHOICE*
The book is filled with tidbits that foodies will relish.. . .The
biggest challenge of writing food history is that sources are
spotty and ephemeral: random accounts of travelers, old newspaper
ads, memoirs, cookbooks, and trade literature. Anderson makes a
significant contribution by retrieving otherwise lost stories and
weaving together disparate threads to create this first account of
Portland’s unique food heritage. While the book does not seek to
explicate how that heritage gave rise to today’s vibrant food
scene, Portland: a Food Biography is an excellent read for locals
who want to have a deeper sense of their city and its food
traditions, and it will also interest historians seeking to better
understand the critical urban hub of Oregon’s food history.
*Oregon Historical Quarterly*
Heather Arndt Anderson’s latest book, Portland: A Food Biography,
connects the history of Portland, Oregon, to changes in its local
cuisine through an engaging and humorous narrative. Her book
touches on topics familiar to academic historians, such as the
environment, first peoples, settlers, immigrants, class, gender,
and race, but her work also targets a wider audience. Chapters on
markets, restaurants, and breweries, in addition to stories about
local personalities and recipes from pioneer cookbooks, make for an
accessible history that will appeal to native Portlanders, those
interested in local history, and visitors looking for a fun place
to go out to eat or drink.... One of the strengths of this book ...
is the attention that Anderson gives to the roles that gender,
race, and class played in Portland’s food history. Anderson’s focus
on how women, racial minorities, and working-class people shaped
the history of food in Portland adds an important dimension to our
understanding of the city’s 'food biography' ... [H]er narrative is
entertaining and mostly humorous.... Portland: A Food Biography is
a must-read for anyone interested in Portland’s food history.
*Pacific Northwest Quarterly*
Heather Arndt Anderson has done it again. Portland: A Food
Biography is a brilliant book full of history and food. Heather
obviously has a passion for food and it comes across very clearly
in her book, but that’s not all that is here. She uses food, the
common denominator for all the residents of the city, as a way in
to history. Starting before Portland was a city she tells us about
the setting, what grew here and what people ate. The book gives a
good feel for Portland’s natural setting, its indigenous flora and
fauna and the lives that people have lived here in all of the
historical eras. It is an exciting way to write history, and it is
fun to read. She has written not only the tastiest history of my
favorite city, but also the most filling.
*J.D. Chandler, author, Hidden History of Portland, OR and Murder
and Mayhem in Portland, OR*
From Native American and pioneer food histories to later immigrant
traditions Heather Arndt Anderson's deeply-researched book explores
Portland's long connection with the bounty of the land.
*Tracy J. Prince, Ph.D., Portland State University*
It’s a mighty twisty culinary path from wapato wonderland, via
boiled wheat mush and crab Louis salad, to Portland’s present
prominence as a land of lush local liquoring and foodcarts galore.
Portland: A Food Biography is a fast and colorful run down that
path, and at the end you may be panting for more—more food, more
beverages, more time-tinged tales of eating in a bountiful
place.
*Richard H. Engeman, historian and author of Eating It Up in Eden:
the Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Cookbook and The Oregon Companion:
An Historical Gazetteer of the Useful, the Curious, and the
Arcane*
Food is such a critical part of history. Food and foodways have
shaped the destiny of every empire in human history, as much as or
more than anything else, and yet the topic is barely glanced at in
most history books. In this wonderfully readable, enjoyable and
thoroughly researched book, Heather Arndt Anderson fills a great
need for local historians in the Pacific Northwest and for those
who would like a taste of what life was like at mealtime for their
great-great-grandparents. History buffs, genealogists, and foodies
all will love this book, both for the fantastic tidbits the author
has uncovered in her research and for the sheer pleasure of her
writing voice.
*Finn J.D. John, author of Wicked Portland; public historian*
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