From fingers to finger bowls

the long version

Helen Linsenmeyer's rich cooking history of California starts with Indian foods and follows with the Spanish influences both from the padres and the rancheros. Along the way, time is devoted to the Silver and Gold Rush days with the recipes brought west by the 49’ers and brought east by the Chinese to California. She pays tribute to the sophisticated restaurants of San Francisco, and the growth of the wine, olive, date and citrus industry. Just as one would imagine, California’s cuisine is a hodgepodge of all manner of ethnic influences and the author has written in a lively style and compiled unique history of the foods, with numerous recipes of all types. The varied illustrations were carefully chosen. There are marvelous full color illustrations by W. H. D. Koerner (1878-1937), an illustrator of the West whose work was well known in many publications such as the Saturday Evening Post and Colliers. Line drawings have been picked up from many sources and include those done by James M. Hutchings, a gold seeker whose California Magazine was published in 1856. Also found in this profusely illustrated book are drawings by James Ross Browne and Charles Nahl. If one could not read at all, the book would nonetheless tell the story of California by its illustrations alone.