The Devil's Food Dictionary: A Pioneering Culinary Reference Work Consisting Entirely of Lies
by Barry Foy
The Devil's Food Dictionary is a full-blown culinary dictionary parody. Uniquely loony, edgy, and funny, it boasts nearly 1,100 entries, 250 footnotes, an extensive phony bibliography, and 26 illustrations.
A unique satire of food references, food history and food writing in general.
Sample Entry:
SAFFRON: Tiny red filaments that lend both flavor and color to such celebrated dishes as France's bouillabaisse and the Italian risotto alla Milanese.
Perhaps the most famous vehicle for saffron is Spain's paella, which is fitting, since that country supplies most of the world's stock of the ingredient. Saffron is often described as threadlike, but this is a misnomer, since it consists quite literally of threads. These come--either by deliberate plucking or through abrasion due to wear-and-tear--from the stout crimson rope, hundreds of kilometers long, that traces the traditional pilgrimage route honoring St. James and terminating in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. By royal license dating to medieval times, only the nuns of the Convent of Santa Zafarana are legally entitled to harvest saffron. But recent years have seen a troubling rise in poaching, leaving the rope threadbare in spots, even to the point of periodic breakage. One well-publicized break in 1992 caused a group of Polish pilgrims to stray far off course, ending up at a topless nightclub just outside Bilbao.
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