Inviting Writing: Lost Foods
For last month's Inviting Writing series, we asked you to recall the most memorable meal of your life. For this go 'round, dig into your memory banks once again for traces of lost foods—products that are no longer on the market, perhaps, or foods that you once loved but can't seem to enjoy anymore....
April 25, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Rabbit: The Other "Other White Meat"
Not the popular choice for Easter dinner...
April 22, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Five Ways To Eat Cadbury Crème Eggs
The crème de la crème of Easter sweets prepared in five unique ways
April 21, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Inviting Writing: Eating With Your Fingers
For this month's Inviting Writing series, we asked you to tell us about the most memorable meal of your life. A pattern emerged from the stories we received: nothing focuses the mind on a meal like hardship, hunger or disgust. Today's entry reminds us that meals don't have to be traumatic to be mem...
April 18, 2011 |
By admin
Way-Underage Drinking: How Young Is Too Young?
How young is too young to drink alcohol? The answer differs in various cultures, but most would probably agree that a child who hasn't yet developed fine motor skills shouldn't drink anything that would impair them. Even in European countries that have looser attitudes than the U.S. about youthful ...
April 15, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Ban the Bag: Should Kids Be Forbidden From Bringing Lunch to School?
For students at Little Village Academy in Chicago, bringing lunch to school is verboten. Principals of Chicago's public schools are allowed to implement a "no bag lunch" policy if they say it serves the needs of their students. Principal Elsa Carmona began the ban at Little Village Academy six year...
April 14, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
What the Heck Do I Do with Annatto?
Welcome to the second edition of "What the Heck Do I Do with That?"—an occasional foray into the less-familiar nooks and crannies of the spice rack, ethnic food specialty store or farmers' market. Last time, we looked at nigella seeds, which are most commonly associated with South Asian cuisines. T...
April 13, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Kae Sa Luk: The Original Edible Arrangements
At a Thai restaurant last week, my dining companion convinced me to forego the tantalizingly spicy offerings in favor of a chicken dish served with ginger, pineapple chunks and cashews in a sweet and sour sauce. When the dish came out, I was thrilled to see that it was served in half of a hollowed-...
April 12, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Inviting Writing: A Memorable Ratpack
Judging from the responses we got to this month's Inviting Writing query, "what was the most memorable meal of your life," many people's most memorable meals were memorably awful. The experiences may have been unpleasant at the time, but they make for good stories later.Today's essay comes from Eri...
April 11, 2011 |
By admin
We're Number One! America Overtakes France in Wine Consumption
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a "One-Hour Wine Expert" seminar at Lake Placid's Mirror Lake Inn with Kevin Zraly, author of the best-selling Windows on the World Complete Wine Course and the 2011 recipient of the James Beard Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award. I don't know if th...
April 08, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Food Dye Origins: When Margarine Was Pink
Last week, the FDA began to reconsider whether artificial food dyes impact our health. The nine dyes currently in use were approved in 1938, and officials have since attested to their safety. Nevertheless, the connection between artificial dyes and ADHD in children has been a matter of debate since...
April 07, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
What Is the "Right to Farm" and Who Has It?
A few years ago, while driving through rural Washington County, New York—a picturesque area that has attracted retirees and city-weary escapees—I noticed a sign declaring it a "right to farm" area. A city person myself until recently, it struck me as strange that anyone would feel the need to decla...
April 06, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Would You Eat Dinner 170 Feet in the Air?
When I read about Dinner in the Sky last week, I thought it was an early April Fools' joke. But no, it's for real—just really batty. From the company's site:
Dinner in the Sky is hosted on a table suspended at a height of 160-180 feet by a team of professionals and may accommodate 22 people around ...
April 05, 2011 |
By Brian Wolly
Visiting Bosnia via St. Louis
A burgeoning community in the Gateway City is the place to find lepini, cevapi and other Bosnian treats
April 05, 2011 |
By Aaron Kagan
The Funniest Fruit: A Brief History of Banana Humor
Earlier this week Anthony Bourdain, the chef-turned-memoirist-turned-cleaver-witted-TV-personality, used his blog to criticize the James Beard Association's food writing awards, sparking a lot of chatter about the difference between food journalism (which involves research, interviews and verifiabl...
April 01, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Traditional Cookbooks vs. E-Readers, Searches and Apps
Whenever a new cookbook comes into my possession, the first thing I do is sit down, scan through the recipes and use Post-Its to flag the things I might actually take the time to make, paying attention to ingredients and the time required to pull a dish together. It makes for easy referencing, espe...
March 31, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Boston’s Farm-to-Table Renaissance
These New England restaurants stand out as chefs fill their menus with harvests from local farms and drinks from area distilleries
March 31, 2011 |
By Aaron Kagan
Diary of a Neurotic New Gardener: The Best-Laid Plants
Urban "farming" is trendy—so much so that when a friend who lives in Berkeley, California (a hotbed of guerrilla gardening) was recently wandering around Home Depot looking clueless, an orange-vested employee cheerfully, and correctly, guessed that she was trying to build a chicken coop.Having rece...
March 30, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Renaissance Table Etiquette and the Origins of Manners
Art and culture flourished throughout Europe during the Renaissance. It was the period when Michelangelo wielded his chisel, Galileo defied preconceived notions about the universe and William Shakespeare penned some of the most enduring dramatic works. It was also a period that saw the evolution of...
March 29, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Inviting Writing: A Well-Founded Fear of British Food
This month's Inviting Writing challenge was to tell us about the most memorable meal of your life. We got a wide range of entries—stay tuned each Monday for a new one—and Erika Janik starts us off with a story about the best and worst of meals.Janik is a Madison-based freelance writer, author, and ...
March 28, 2011 |
By admin
