I’m a historian, writer and researcher, and the blog explores my interests in alcohol history and food history in Mexico, the US and beyond.
I also write about growing produce and adventures in cooking and eating. Buen provecho!
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Writing Alcohol: The Conference
The Drinking Studies Network had an absolute banger of a conference in March 2024 in the rather more humble surroundings of the University of Bristol. The theme was “Writing Alcohol” and we went a bit wild with elaborate titles
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Lemon Pepper Wet: Atlanta knows Wings
build a walking food tour into every trip, as they are an excellent way to learn about a place and its history, and get a load of brilliant recommendations for where to eat the best food. Foodtoursatlanta combined delicious food by local, independent businesses, vibrant street art along the pedestrianised and verdant Beltline
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The Magic of Maize (or Corn)
There are few more intoxicating smells than toasting corn. It wafts into your path in Mexico at any time of day when food is being prepared or eaten, which is to say, most of the time. Over the years, I’ve tried to recreate that smell in my own kitchen
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Pulque and Culinary Identity in Central Mexico
My presentation at the workshop concentrated less on pulque’s historical role as a national symbol and more on its place in regional cooking and identity. For those not familiar, pulque is a fermented alcoholic drink produced mainly in the central Mexican region from enormous varieties of the agave, or maguey, plant.
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Alcohol, Race and Ethnicity Series
It began with an idea for an academic history book – what university professors call a ‘monograph’ – charting the development of racial stereotypes about drinking in the US and Mexico between 1845 and 1940, paying particular attention to how those stereotypes circulated and interacted across borders.
Deborah F. Toner 