Dining With The Dead

Dining with the Dead is an unforgettable cultural and culinary odyssey. Traditional, celebratory Mexican food is the soul of this one-of-a-kind cookbook. Make tamales, pozoles, pan de muerto, and many other festive, iconic dishes. Learn about altars, sugar skulls, and decorations. Unlock the essence of chiles, make scratch tortillas, and perfect the king of the moles. Highlights:? 112+ delicious recipes? 540+ beautiful and mouthwatering photos? 8 x 10-inch hardcover? Ingredients and how to find them and treat them? Numbered instructions? Photographic step-by-step instructions? Homemade foods, created from scratch? Crafting instructions included as well? Learn the origins of Día de Muertos? Learn about altars and ofrendas (offerings)? Venture into the night vigil at the cemetery in Mexico

Food has played a major role in funerary and memorial practices since the dawn of the human race. In the ancient Roman world, for example, it was common practice to build channels from the tops of graves into the crypts themselves, and mourners would regularly pour offerings of food and drink into these conduits to nourish the dead while they waited for the afterlife. Funeral cookies wrapped with printed prayers and poems meant to comfort mourners became popular in Victorian England; while in China, Japan, and Korea, it is customary to offer food not only to the bereaved, but to the deceased, with ritual dishes prepared and served to the dead. Dying to Eat is the first interdisciplinary book to examine the role of food in death, bereavement, and the afterlife. The contributors explore the phenomenon across cultures and religions, investigating topics including tombstone rituals in Buddhism, Catholicism, and Shamanism; the role of death in the Moroccan approach to food; and the role of funeral casseroles and church cookbooks in the Southern United States. This innovative collection not only offers food for thought regarding the theories and methods behind these practices but also provides recipes that allow the reader to connect to the argument through material experience. Illuminating how cooking and corpses both transform and construct social rituals, Dying to Eat serves as a fascinating exploration of the foodways of death and bereavement.

For readers of Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air, the acclaimed founder of Death over Dinner offers a practical, inspiring guide to life's most difficult yet important conversation. Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death—and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered. Yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner—an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and really talk about the one thing we all have in common. Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date; in just three years, it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having these end-of-life conversations. As Arianna Huffington said, "We are such a fast-food culture, I love the idea of making the dinner last for hours. These are the conversations that will help us to evolve." Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations—not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time—and dinner—tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful—ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American—“in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself” (NPR). • CELEBRATING OVER ONE YEAR ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.

An “engrossing” history of the restaurant atop the World Trade Center “that ruled the New York City skyline from April 1976 until September 11, 2001” (Booklist, starred review). In the 1970s, New York City was plagued by crime, filth, and an ineffective government. The city was falling apart, and even the newly constructed World Trade Center threatened to be a fiasco. But in April 1976, a quarter-mile up on the 107th floor of the North Tower, a new restaurant called Windows on the World opened its doors—a glittering sign that New York wasn’t done just yet. In The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World, journalist Tom Roston tells the complete history of this incredible restaurant, from its stunning $14-million opening to 9/11 and its tragic end. There are stories of the people behind it, such as Joe Baum, the celebrated restaurateur, who was said to be the only man who could outspend an unlimited budget; the well-tipped waiters; and the cavalcade of famous guests as well as everyday people celebrating the key moments in their lives. Roston also charts the changes in American food, from baroque and theatrical to locally sourced and organic. Built on nearly 150 original interviews, The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World is the story of New York City’s restaurant culture and the quintessential American drive to succeed. “Roston also digs deeply into the history of New York restaurants, and how Windows on the World was shaped by the politics and social conditions of its era.” —The New York Times “The city’s premier celebration venue, deeply woven into its social, culinary and business fabrics, deserved a proper history. Roston delivers it with power, detail, humor and heartbreak to spare.” ?New York Post “A rich, complex account.” ?Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Recipes and food photography from the 1940s, '50s, and '60s assembled with humorous commentary.

In this play about the death of a philandering family patriarch in a small town, characters reveal shocking secrets and struggle to decide if, when, and how they will ever see one another again. This moment marks the end of who each character is and allows us to understand who they will become. Dining with the Dead features eight characters. Margaret, fragile and in her early 70s, is the new widow. Joe is a mid-40's father of teens. His wife, Tina, is an early 40's woman who has always done her best to be a good mom. David, their son, is about 16, and he's working hard to look tough. Tina, 15, is his sister. She dresses younger than her years and like she just went to church this morning. Ker is Margaret's late 30's son, and Josh is his mid-30's gay lover. Leslie, in her late 40's, is Margaret's unmarried daughter.This is a great play for small groups to perform as a table reading or staged event. Contact the author for permission to perform.

An easy to produce play about the death of a family patriarch in a small town reveals secrets and reinvents a family. This wry and witty play is perfect for production companies and reparatory theaters looking for a cost effective, meaningful, and entertaining project to share with their community. Synopsis The death of an philandering family patriarch in a small town reveals secrets and reinvents a family in this wry and witty drama. Joe and Tina are on the brink of divorce when they are summoned home to bury Joe's Dad, Jerry. The old man has died in the arms of a woman who is not his wife, Margaret, and no one is sure how she or the town will handle the scandal. David and Jane, Joe and Tina's teens, have a ring side seat at their parent's first attempt to run a funeral, their grandmother's disgrace, and the evolving battleground that is their parent's marriage. Growing up sure isn't looking easy. Ker, Joe's brother, returns home to bury his homophobic father with his gay lover in tow. This is his family's last chance to accept him for who he is or say goodbye forever. Leslie, scarred by her father's infidelity, had expected to feel nothing but relief at his demise. Instead her grief and rage know no limits. Margaret, ailing matriarch of a dysfunctional family, has lost her husband and any shred of privacy she had left. Drawing her family together will require pulling back the curtain on the life she shared with her husband in this deceptively "Norman Rockwell" small town.