HANUKKAH AND ITS FOODS
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.
GAD ZUKES!
The recipe for Long-Cooked Vegetables is perfect porridge for gardening season’s end.
BASTILLE DAY COOKING
A serving of Chilled Fennel and Leek Soup, a turn on the famed French recipe for Vichyssoise.
THE HISTORY OF FRENCH FRIES
French fries, as we know them, aren’t French; they’re Belgian.
HISTORY OF KETCHUP
For its early life, ketchup and catsup had nothing to do at all with tomatoes.
TALKING ABOUT COOKING AND EATING
Recipes—such as a simple Risotto Verde—reflect how people speak about their food & cooking.
A history of antipasti
Got a great chuckle one day when a patron at a supermarket deli counter said to the clerk, “Man, I need to go on a diet. Give me some of that anti-pasta,” the “anti” said as in “anti-aging.” . . .
The Colombian Exchange: The Potato
For just under one half of the year 1925, two Polish researchers ate no other food than cooked potatoes . . .
The Colombian Exchange: The Tomato
Before the year 1600, no recipes existed—anywhere—for these: spaghetti with tomato sauce, Caprese salad, red gazpacho, tabbouleh, Israeli salad, chicken tikka masala, fried green tomatoes, cream of tomato soup, ketchup, pico de gallo, chicken paprikash or, alas, the tomato sandwich. . . .