1st Edition
The Making of Mamaliga Transimperial Recipes for a Romanian National Dish
By Alex Drace-Francis
Copyright 2022
226 Pages
by
Central European University Press
226 Pages
by
Central European University Press
Mămăligă, maize porridge or polenta, is a universally consumed dish in Romania and a prominent national symbol. But its unusual history has rarely been told. Alex Drace-Francis surveys the arrival and spread of maize cultivation in Romanian lands from Ottoman times to the eve of the First World War, and also the image of mămăligă in art and popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources and... Read more
List of Maps, Graphs, Tables, Introduction: The Land is Waiting Chapter 1. From the Caribbean to the Carpathians: The Coming of Cucuruz, c.1492-1700 Chapter 2. Conquerors, Cultivators, and Collaborators: Maize at Empire's Edge, 1700-1774 Chapter 3. Conflict, Contagion and Commerce: The Triumph of Maize, 1774-1812 Chapter 4. Maize, Raki or Death: The Revolt of 1821 Reconsidered Chapter 5. mămăligă 2.0: Maize on the World Market, 1821-1856 Chapter 6. Independence, Capitalism, Disease and Revolt; Or, Why the mămăligă Exploded, 1856-1907 Chapter 7. Manna valachorum: Recipes at the Interface Chapter 8. 'The sparrow dreams of cornmeal, and the idle man of a day of rest': mămăligă as Metaphor Conclusion: The Land is Waiting Appendix: Words and Things Glossary, Illustration, Credits, Acknowledgements, Index.
Biography
Alex Drace-Francis is Associate Professor of Modern European Literary and Cultural History at the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Romanian and Balkan social, cultural and literary history; on travel writing and circulation of ideas and images; and on European identity as a whole.
