As cooks, we have not done right by the tomato.

How we eat, with whom we eat, even when and where we eat—all of these, together, mark us as a certain sort of person. So, let’s mark the differences, as well as the similarities, between the foodways of the two Jewish peoples widely called Ashkenazim and Sephardim.

For Hanukkah, Jewish families ritualistically light a home menorah for eight evenings. Too, they preeminently prepare foods cooked in oil, latkes commonly taking center stage.

From a photo of the statue of Dom Pierre Pérignon at the headquarters of Champagne Moët et Chandon, by Dan Dickinson on flickr

Gene Amole, the late and much-beloved Denver native, radio DJ, and Rocky Mountain News columnist, wrote many dozens of columns for that sadly departed newspaper, but the one with his recipe for turkey stuffing was the sizzler. His recipe is here, with the directions in his words.

The Spring Fling Cake begins as an egg, sugar and flour batter substantiated with shredded zucchini, and ends in flourishes of flung spring fruits.

What the original German’s Chocolate Cake well might have looked like when it was invented in 1957. In Dallas. Photo by Ayesha Firdaus on unsplash

The recipe for Long-Cooked Vegetables is perfect porridge for gardening season’s end.

You can always tell where a person is from by listening to them at the end of their dinner. Photo on flickr by Frédérique Vosin-Demery.

Make others’ travel experiences your own. Read.

Is there a more colorful vegetable dish than Ratatouille?

A serving of Chilled Fennel and Leek Soup, a turn on the famed French recipe for Vichyssoise.

French fries, as we know them, aren’t French; they’re Belgian.

Migas, flavored fried pieces of old bread, are a Spanish staple.

A serving of Poulet au Vinaigre (Chicken in Vinegar), a specialty of Lyons, France.

For its early life, ketchup and catsup had nothing to do at all with tomatoes.

The first “restaurants,” so named, weren’t restaurants, as we understand them.

The most fundamental of all things culinary—the foundation of the fundament, as it were—is the recipe.

Recipes work for us in different ways.

Recipes—such as a simple Risotto Verde—reflect how people speak about their food & cooking.