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Video: Cuisine of Ancient Egypt (and other updates)

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After a long, hard day hauling pyramid stones or wrapping up mummies, an Ancient Egyptian needed a decent meal. But what did the Egyptians eat, exactly? What were their staple crops, ingredients and livestock? How was food celebrated in Egyptian religion, and how different is Ancient Egyptian food from the food of modern Egypt? In this talk, we’ll discover the answers to these questions and more, as we explore the role of food in Ancient Egyptian culture, literature and art.

A presentation I gave a while back for Nerd Nite NYC about the food of the Ancient Egyptians (modified from one of my Brooklyn Brainery classes) has been posted to YouTube. Check it out below:

I know it’s been a while since I did an ancient food post on this blog. For the past few months, I’ve been focusing more on fiction and writing my second fantasy novel, an Ottoman steampunk odyssey tentatively entitled The Widow and the Jackal (my first novel, a Korean-inspired fairytale about gender roles called The Knife’s Daughter, was published in July 2018). But Pass the Flamingo flies still, and I have some more food history plans in store for the future. In the meantime, I’ve been documenting my latest cooking experiments, international grocery store visits, and other culinary adventures on Instagram (@passtheflamingo). Stay tuned for future updates (and for the boatload of Chinese food I’ll be making for Lunar New Year this weekend….)

I Wrote a Book! And Other Updates

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Cover art by Dante Saunders.

Between starting a new full-time job and several other projects I’ve been working on, I haven’t had much time this past month to post recipes, ancient or otherwise. My apologies! There are several new blog posts coming soon (including a whole series on gourds, which I’ve been somewhat obsessed with recently).

I also wanted to take a moment to make a personal announcement which I am really excited about: The Knife’s Daughter, my first published novel, is now available for purchase from Pink Narcissus Press. It’s a queer fairytale set in a world inspired by ancient Korea and written in the second person, present tense, because “this is a story about you.” Check out the full description below, and buy it here (paperback) and here (Kindle edition), or wherever books are sold.

Thanks for reading Pass the Flamingo and stay tuned for further delicious ancient updates!

Your mother needed you to be a prince.

When your father was slain and your mother fled into exile, the prophecy was her only comfort. The child in her belly would be a prince, it said, who would wield his father’s sword, avenge his death and take back his throne. But when the time came, your mother didn’t have a boy.

She had you.

Raised to conceal your body, you take up your father’s sword on your eighteenth birthday and set out to fulfill your destiny as a prince, regardless of your sex. You must travel far from the bamboo forests of the mountains; under the earth and into the sky and over the walls of your father’s palace, where his enemy awaits with a secret you could never have imagined. You will face powerful monsters and painful memories as you struggle to complete a journey that will prove who and what you are.

You are the Knife’s Daughter, and this is a story about you.