- There is a new book coming out this week!
- If you are a member of our Patreon, you will be receiving a coupon for 25% off the new eBook.
- If you bought the eBook while it was still $50, we LOVE you guys so you will be receiving a coupon for 13% off the new eBook.
And now, the preview of the book that should be released Friday (barring my getting sick… again), as stolen from Jamie’s Facebook!
Here’s an excerpt from the Plague of Strength Grimoire of Victual Incantations, which I’m dropping on you people later this week. Even if you don’t buy the book, you could likely benefit from reading this. It is currently sitting at just under 300 pages of every recipe I could find from the Chaos and Pain years through the present, including all of the incredibly popular stewroids series.
As it is essentially a compendium of edited reprints designed to make using them far easier, I am going to keep the price point low and will be using the proceeds to fund an upcoming stewroids cookbook, among other things.
That said, here is a bit from the intro.
There Is a Narrative to Food
Food is not simply a conglomerate of constituent parts that one can quantify and analyze. It is not simply food for an organic machine, no matter how much you might wish it was. Human beings are not robots, and the mood and feelings that food evokes affects the manner in which your body assimilates it. Food can set a tone for your life, and it can separate success from failure as easily as a bullet could.
“You could be forgiven for dismissing all this as pretentious twaddle, but [London chef Tom] Sellers earnestly says he first embraced the narrative side of food when he had taken his technical skills as far as he could. ‘I kept asking why I was eating something. It all leads to a story,’ he says.
‘Subconsciously, when you eat something, your brain is always comparing it to what you’ve had previously; it tries to find a similarity. The more powerful the story behind the food, the more it evokes the memory, which in turn enhances the flavour.’
There is no doubt that flavour is inextricably linked with memory and emotion. They’re all processed by the same part of the brain. So in posh cuisine terms, the story element could be seen as a natural progression from the sensory play of Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adria’s ‘molecular gastronomy’, adding another cerebral and emotional layer. And a good story can engage us like nothing else” (Fleming).
This is just one of the many reasons you shouldn’t choose your food blindly, eating the same bland pap that every other half-assed lifter on the internet stuffs down their gullet in an effort to seem the most dedicated. Dedication is learning how to cook and how your forebears ate, so as to further your own ambitions- relegating yourself to banality and blandness because you think that sort of dull-eyed austerity is what builds champions is not.
Learn what foods you like and why, then eat them. The success it brings you will be more fulfilling, both from an intellectual and a gastronomic standpoint, and the gains will be all that much more dear to you. Embrace your history rather than defying it, and you will find yourself in the good company of the badasses who went before you, rather than the shallow, weak, soulless motherfuckers you “know” on social media.
Sort of explains why eating something you hunted is so satisfying.
There’s that as well, which I hadn’t even considered. Another layer, haha. Food is a deep subject when you sit and think about it.
Very cool, will definitely be picking up a copy. By the way, down 5lbs and hit a new back squat and strict press PR since starting the APD two weeks ago. Can’t thank you enough man.
Hell yeah, bro! That’s fucking awesome. And I really appreciate the support, both financial and otherwise.
Appreciate the content and the hatecast on youtube as well. Some real gold on some of those, plus the rants about today’s gymgoers are hysterical. Random question, but did you ever consider doing something professional with you Asian studies degree? I can’t remember exactly what degree you have but I mean along the lines of a teacher or college professor. You have great knowledge of history and you’re a good writer. I also have my BA in American History but never ended up pursuing it further. I ended up going back to school for nursing and am finishing that up in the next few months. But just asking out of curiosity.
Speaking of support, I might be getting a job that does not ressemble slave labour next month. As such, some disposable income is on the horizon already. Seeing how much this blog has helped me, I’d like to give something back. But can I get some info first?
I live in Brazil, how does the Patreon stuff works with delivery and all that? For Plague Merch I assume I just deal with the extra cost, but I don’t have any clue on how Patreon works. And, sorry if I come across as internet illiterate, what kind of stuff comes in the Black Box?
We built the cost of international shipping into the boxes, so not to worry. And congrats on the new job, bro!
Growing up I ate a lot of crap but youth is immortal and I have no idea how negative the impact was. Turned 18 I got into gym and cleaned up the diet, like most I ended up eating a lot of animal-origin food and likely no big deal, but past mid forties I decided to play it safe with mostly plant based. If you ever watch those youtube videos, bodybuilders who died, you will notice that there is a surprisingly tight time frame around late forties early fifties where most of those who cop for it fall. There are a few outliers who pass on in their thirties. Strikes me that past mid forties is a good time to play it safe. Its your call, I know there are a ton of conflicting perspectives, medical experts and the like advocating XYZ, but maybe there is a foundation for an age-related approach to diet. At some point in the very near future (assuming humanity has much time left…) this blog is going to be about either an old bloke battling on all fronts to stay in place, or the author will be dead. ..and most of you will end up on the tightrope of what is likely the longest stage of your life, forty plus. Food for thought.