Fall University 2025

Link to Class Notes: Street Food

I taught my first in person class for University of Atlantia. I have taught online a few times before, but I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year to teach in person. That was one of many things I included on a Bingo card. I've almost filled in a few rows (see yellow for in-progress).

But really, this is about University and my new class on Street Food. I had an excellent opportunity to develop a class knowing it was at a middle school with a Home Ec room. With that in mind, I submitted for a two hour block to do both some history/lecture as well as some cooking.

With the help of my CNU library access, I went down a rabbit hole of research on street food ranging from things I was actually look for to weird tangents that included modern studies of hygiene practices of street food vendors in Africa & Asia, and "Sex- and status-based differences in medieval food preparation and consumption: dental microwear analysis at Trino Vercellese, Italy."

I traversed through court rolls, coroners diaries, and articles about food consumption. The best I found was "Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes: Aspects of Life in an Islamic Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean." I only scratched the surface of the book, focusing on the vibrant street food culture in medieval Cairo.

I also took examples from period poetry such as The Visions of Piers the Plowman and The Canterbury Tales, both of which paint pictures of English pubs. There is so much available to give us an idea of what people ate from day to day as well as the practices they held. Court records show amercements (fines) for resellers overcharging, bakers skipping mandatory weighing of loaves (to make sure they were equal and everyone got their money's worth), and brewer's selling illegally. There were fines for not maintaining ditches in front of homes, digging them too wide or too close to the road, and for keeping livestock in the center of the village.

For the bakers, there's a bit of pop culture history here too. An article from the Journal of Medieval History titled "A simple food with many meanings: bread in late medieval England" includes the following: "Roger Wyse took issue with Thomas, the lord’s bailiff of the market, because ‘he did not wish to deliver his loaf to be weighed in the lord’s Tolhouse.’ All of the town’s bakers were boycotting the assize process." The origin of this word is 14th century England, and this is one of it's earliest references. Modernly, the Toll House we know got it's name from the building where the company was started, a former toll house between Boston and New Bedford, MA.

My slide deck including my speakers notes are linked at the top of this post.

Now for the more critical part. I ran out of time. Out of the three dishes we made, one was ready on time and that was the lamb stew which I started 30 minutes early. The rissoles were about 10 minutes past the end of our allotted time and the precedella were about 30 minutes past. Some of that was due to flow in the class. I think I can get them all to fit in 2 hours, but the cooking time on the stew will mean still mean starting early. The pretzel recipe needs work. It was tasty, but the texture was a bit off. They were especially good when dipped in the wine left over from soaking the figs and raisins from the rissole filling. There is a reason I requested the 10am - noon slot. I was the first class in the morning and had lunch right after.

After my class I was informed of the passing of Baroness Graciela. I was just getting to know her, but she was a foodie inspiration. She was loving, kind, and gave service relentlessly. We had only a few conversations, and they all revolved around providing the best feast experiences, cooking amazing things, and trying new recipes. I will miss getting to know her better, but will find inspiration in the conversations we had and always strive to serve deliciousness.

I had another conversation that day. It relates to one of the other boxes on the Bingo card. It's not complete, so I'm not going to say more about it right now, but that will be it's own post at some point soon.