The Kingdom of Rye, Darra Goldstein
The Kingdom of Rye, Darra Goldstein
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

The Kingdom of Rye
A Brief History of Russian Food

Author: Darra Goldstein

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Unabridged: 5 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/31/2023

Categories: Nonfiction, Cooking


Synopsis

Celebrated food scholar Darra Goldstein takes listeners on a vivid tour of history and culture through Russian cuisine.

The Kingdom of Rye unearths the foods and flavors of the Russian land. Preeminent food studies scholar Darra Goldstein offers listeners a concise, engaging, and gorgeously crafted story of Russian cuisine and culture. This story demonstrates how national identity is revealed through food—and how people know who they are by what they eat together. The Kingdom of Rye examines the Russians' ingenuity in overcoming hunger, a difficult climate, and a history of political hardship while deciphering Russia's social structures from within. This is a domestic history of Russian food that serves up a deeper history, demonstrating that the wooden spoon is mightier than the scepter.

About Darra Goldstein

Darra Goldstein is the Willcox B. and Harriet M. Adsit Professor of Russian, Emerita, at Williams College and founding editor of Gastronomica. She is the author of six award-winning cookbooks, including Beyond the North Wind: Russia in Recipes and Lore.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Marina on November 01, 2022

A dense book evaluating the ebbs and flows Russian cuisine took to get to today. Through the theatrical aspect of the multiple courses to Wheat to McDonald’s, the detail made me miss my moms Russian home cooking. Really great book about Russian culture through the lens of hundreds of years of food.......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on November 26, 2022

Fascinating book of food mores in a harsh climate with a short growing season, a place to escape from, a place accustomed to privation. I liked the giant masonry stove of many uses, "chiming the storm" to help travelers overland, and the "normal hard times", including the Soviet food shortages both......more

Goodreads review by Benjamin on August 18, 2022

A comprehensive humanization of the "common" Russian people through a detailed discussion of Russian food culture throughout the years and its connection to the Russian values of resilience and inventiveness. I read this for WGSS S263 class at Yale.......more