In this authoritative but light-hearted account of beers gone by, archaeologist Tate Paulette brings the famous "land between the rivers" back to life in vivid detail. We meet not only the beers of ancient Mesopotamia, but also the people who brewed them and drank them, the places where these people lived and worked, the taverns and temples and tombs where they did their drinking, the stories they told about beer, their preferred styles of drinking, their brewing equipment and drinking paraphernalia, the gods and goddesses who governed their lives and who were also partial to a drink.

Aujourd’hui plus que jamais, notre rapport à ce que nous mangeons n’a rien d’anodin. Tout est calculé, pesé, désenchanté. Et si nous cessions de considérer l’alimentation comme un acte mécanique ? Si nous retrouvions un rapport joyeux à la nourriture ? Pour Constance Lasserre, «gastronome éclairée» à table et sur les réseaux sociaux, la gourmandise est un véritable projet de société, la promesse d’un rapport à soi et aux autres apaisé et exalté, d’une vie croquée à pleines dents, d’une curiosité plus grande que nos ventres.

Vanilla is one of the most expensive of flavorings—so valuable that it was smuggled or stolen by pirates in the early days—and yet it is everywhere. It is a key ingredient in dishes ranging from crème brûlée to Japanese purin. It is the quintessential ice cream flavor in the United States. Eric T. Jennings explains how the world's only edible orchid, originally endemic to Central America, became embedded in the international culinary and cultural landscape.