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About this book
War changes every part of human culture: art, education, music, politics. Why should food be any different?
For nearly twenty years, Michael Shaikh's job was investigating human rights abuses in conflict zones. Early on, he noticed how war not only changed the lives of victims and their societies, it also unexpectedly changed the way they ate, forcing people to alter their recipes or even stop cooking altogether, threatening the very survival of ancient dishes.
A groundbreaking combination of travel writing, memoir, and cookbook, The Last Sweet Bite uncovers how humanity's appetite for violence shapes what's on our plate. Animated by touching personal interviews, original reporting, and extraordinary recipes from modern-day conflict zones across the globe, Shaikh reveals the stories of how genocide, occupation, and civil war can disappear treasured recipes, but also introduces us to the extraordinary yet overlooked home cooks and human rights activists trying to save them. From a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh and a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka to the drug wars in the Andes and the enduring effects of America's westward expansion, Shaikh highlights resilient diasporic communities refusing to let their culinary heritage become another casualty of war.
Much of what we eat today or buy in a market has been shaped by violence; in some form, someone's history and politics is on the dinner table. The Last Sweet Bite tells us how it got there. Weaving together histories of food, migration, human rights, and recipes, Shaikh shows us how reclaiming lost cuisines is not just a form of resistance and hope but also how cooking can be a strategy for survival during trying times.
For nearly twenty years, Michael Shaikh's job was investigating human rights abuses in conflict zones. Early on, he noticed how war not only changed the lives of victims and their societies, it also unexpectedly changed the way they ate, forcing people to alter their recipes or even stop cooking altogether, threatening the very survival of ancient dishes.
A groundbreaking combination of travel writing, memoir, and cookbook, The Last Sweet Bite uncovers how humanity's appetite for violence shapes what's on our plate. Animated by touching personal interviews, original reporting, and extraordinary recipes from modern-day conflict zones across the globe, Shaikh reveals the stories of how genocide, occupation, and civil war can disappear treasured recipes, but also introduces us to the extraordinary yet overlooked home cooks and human rights activists trying to save them. From a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh and a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka to the drug wars in the Andes and the enduring effects of America's westward expansion, Shaikh highlights resilient diasporic communities refusing to let their culinary heritage become another casualty of war.
Much of what we eat today or buy in a market has been shaped by violence; in some form, someone's history and politics is on the dinner table. The Last Sweet Bite tells us how it got there. Weaving together histories of food, migration, human rights, and recipes, Shaikh shows us how reclaiming lost cuisines is not just a form of resistance and hope but also how cooking can be a strategy for survival during trying times.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access The Last Sweet Bite by Michael Shaikh in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Author’s Note
- Prologue: The Language of Food
- 1. The Czech Republic: How the Communists Tried to Kill a Cuisine
- 2. Sri Lanka and the Tamil Diaspora: Call It What It Is: Eelam Tamil Cuisine
- 3. Myanmar and Bangladesh: Rohingya Cuisine, the Incredible Food You May Never Know
- 4. China and the Uyghurs: The Genocide of a Cuisine
- 5. Bolivia and the Andes: Cooking with Coca
- 6. The Pueblo Nations: Amaranth and the Return of the Fourth Sister
- Epilogue: The United States: Eating the Atomic Bomb
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- About the Author
- Plates