Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Among the Contributors: Alexandre Dumas Charles Baudelaire Frederick Douglass David Foster Wallace Harper Lee Hilaire Belloc Julia Child John Milton Ralph Ellison Duke Ellington Marcel Proust Evelyn Waugh Gerald of Wales William Carlos Williams Matsuo Basho Alice B. Toklas Tobias Smollett Anthony Bourdain Jonathan Swift Balanced Diets by Daniel Mason If we are what we eat, what does it mean when we eat the inedible? The strange and sordid medical history of pica.

Introducing Our Summer 2011 Issue: "Food" Our far-flung correspondents report on all things culinary, around the globe and throughout time. Trimalchio Hosts Another Feast By PETRONIUS Rome, ITALY — At his plush villa notorious for scandalous parties, Trimalchio held an indulgent dinner some time around 64 BC. The main course was hog. Boy Asks for More Gruel; Adoption Pending By CHARLES DICKENS London, ENGLAND — At a house for boys in 1837, Oliver Twist requested second helpings and is now available for purchase at the cost of 5 pounds. Wife Eaten During Winter Of Discontent By CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH Jamestown, VIRGINIA COLONY — In what is now known as "starving time," a few colonists resorted to cannibalism, says a report released in 1609. Waitress Told to Hold Chicken Between Legs By CAROLE EASTMAN and BOB RAFELSON NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — Plates were broken into more than five easy pieces in 1970 after a customer became angry about a "no substitutions" policy. EDITORIAL, Op-Ed "Why I Started Eating Fish" by Benjamin Franklin "Being Force-Fed Is the Worst" by Constance Lytton "My Typical Breakfast" by Hunter S. Thompson Pastoral Romance by Brent Cunningham The message of food-reform movements resonates in Brooklyn and Portland. What about in Huntington, West Virginia? Death in the Pot by Deborah Blum. Food kills—at least when it's been poisoned. The U.S. government set up "poison squads" in 1906.