The Language of Food · A Linguist Reads the Menu

Why do we eat toast for breakfast, and then toast to good health at dinner? What does the turkey we eat on Thanksgiving have to do with the country on the eastern Mediterranean? Combining history with linguistic analysis, Stanford University linguist Dan Jurafsky uncovers a global atlas of culinary influences: how a fish sauce from China became America's favorite condiment, how Martha Washington helped import the French macaron that become the coconut macaroon, and why the Chinese don't have a word for "dessert". He points out the subtle meanings hidden in word like "rich" and "crispy", zeroes in on the metaphors we rely on in restaurant reviews, and determines how much your dinner will cost by counting the words on the menu. The Language of Food will leave readers with their taste buds tempted and their intellects fully nourished.