Drink
How to Toast Hemingway's 110th Birthday
If Ernest Hemingway were around to celebrate his 110th birthday today, his party would no doubt involve a staggering amount of alcohol. He was a renowned writer—with more than a dozen books and a Nobel Prize in Literature to his credit by the time he ended his own life in 1961—and he was an equally...
July 21, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Terrible Terroir
Vintners in two of the world's biggest wine-producing regions, California and South Africa, have been fretting lately, and not just about the global recession. At least the economy affects all grape-growing nations more or less across the board. But the problem these winemakers have is decidedly si...
July 17, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Land of the Lost Food Traditions, Part II - The South
Of the regions of the United States profiled in The Food of a Younger Land, the South has probably changed the most since the 1930s and early 1940s. That's when the articles covered in the book were written for the WPA's America Eats project. Racial segregation was still the norm, and some people w...
July 10, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Red Wines to Drink This Summer
As I wrote last week, hot weather often makes people reach for chilly white wines. But there's no reason to reject reds!Although most people think red wines taste best at "room temperature," that's not as warm as you might think, especially in summer. Between 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for m...
June 29, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five White Wines to Drink This Summer
Wondering which wines to pack for picnics or bring to barbecues this summer?White wines tend to be more popular in hot weather, since they're served chilled. Look for types described as light and crisp, rather than rich or full-bodied. As a general rule, wines aged in stainless steel tanks rather t...
June 24, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Is Headache-Free Wine Too Good to Be True?
If a genie granted me three wishes, one of them might be for a wine that wouldn't give me a migraine. For those of you fortunate enough to have never had a migraine, it feels a little like having a dentist drill pierce your skull from base to forehead. The fact that drinking wine, especially red wi...
June 17, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
This Week in Food: Twitter, Trader Joe's Wine, and the Secret Behind Sriracha
As Smithsonian staffers rush to close our July issue, here are a few helpful links to get you through your day:– The Internet Food Association, written by a coterie of D.C. think tank policy nerds who moonlight as foodies, directs us to a great new blog, Trader Joe's Wine Compendium, which I highly...
May 21, 2009 |
By Brian Wolly
When Food Changed History: Louis Pasteur
If you've never considered the connection between beet juice and rabies prevention, read on.This is the first installment in an occasional series about important food-related events in history. I can think of no better subject to begin with than the scientist whose discoveries led to important inno...
May 18, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
The History of the Margarita
Today marks Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. In Mexico, the observance is not as important as the nation's independence day, September 16. But, just as St. Patrick's Day is a much bigger deal to Irish expatriates and their descen...
May 05, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
The Wines of Hungary -- the Next Big Thing?
I already knew that some delicious wines come from Austria, since I lived there for a few months once upon a time. But Hungary? I was only dimly aware that they even had a wine industry.Well, after attending a recent "Austrian-Hungarian Wine Seminar," I realized what I'd been missing out on.Accordi...
April 02, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Is Guinness Really Good for You?
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, the one day of the year when eating your greens can mean cupcakes, beer, even bacon.
It’s oddly appropriate that we celebrate our country’s Irish heritage by binging on fatty food and drink; after all, Ireland is the home of the fry-up, a typical breakfast consisting of fr...
March 17, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Beer Behemoths, Part Two
Okay, let's recap. In part one, I told you about Delirium Tremens and four beers from a recent Smithsonian Resident Associates beer seminar, but there's still seven to go! So read on, if it doesn't drive you mad with thirsty envy....Even though we were sipping only a few ounces of each beer, by the...
February 26, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Did New Orleans Invent the Cocktail?
Ask most people where the cocktail was invented, and they'll probably guess New Orleans, something the city itself wants you to believe. The story goes that a fellow named Antoine Peychaud opened an apothecary shop in New Orleans' French quarter in the 1830s, and sold his own homemade bitters. Befo...
February 24, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Beer Behemoths, Part One
Remember when I mentioned in a previous post that I wished I could attend a certain beer tasting seminar organized by the Smithsonian Resident Associates? Well, my wish was granted! The "Beer Behemoths" seminar took place earlier this month at the Brickskeller, a DC restaurant that boasts a beer li...
February 23, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Lessons Learned from the DC Wine & Food Festival
I visited the DC International Wine & Food Festival this past weekend—which, as you surely already know, is "The # 2 Food & Restaurant Industry Event in BizBash Washington's Top 100 Events, Fall 2008."(I can understand tooting your own horn if you're #1, but why trumpet second-best? Especia...
February 17, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Hot Cocoa Tasting at a "Chocolate Lounge"
I know that I promised to write about historic chocolate rituals today, but I haven't had time to read that book yet. Somehow, though, I did find time yesterday to indulge in a visit to CoCo Sala, a chocolate lounge in downtown DC...you know, for research.Now, I'm familiar with wine flights—a menu ...
February 11, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Food Blog Carnival: Cabbage, Chocolate, and Coconut (Pancakes)
Welcome to the first-ever FaT Food Blog Carnival! We'll be having these at least once a month, so please drop us a line if you spot a site you think we should celebrate in the next round. There's not a particular theme this time, other than food and fun...
Amanda's picks:
Cabbage craze: Meticulous...
February 06, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Best and Worst of Food World's Obama Puns
Just about a year ago, Slate.com came out with an Encyclopedia Baracktannica widget. It was a collection of tongue-in-cheek puns dreamed up by the editors in response to what we know now was just the first trickle of Obama wordplay.As the campaign went on, the punning inventions - I like to call th...
January 29, 2009 |
By Hugh Powell
Alcohol in Archaeology and Modern Life
A colleague just dropped an academic article titled "Ancient beer and modern brewers" on my desk, culled from a recent issue of Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. (I love working with nerds...I mean, people who are far more well-read than myself!)The article focuses on the production of chicha...
January 26, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Caffeine Linked to Hallucinations
Did you hear that?Um, nothing. Never mind. I meant to say, did you hear that consuming too much caffeine could make you more prone to "hallucinatory experiences?"According to a study published this week in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, "high caffeine users"* are three times mo...
January 14, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
