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Arts & Culture / Food

Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Where’s the Lunch? Looking at Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party

“It’s like a painting about the most perfect meal that ever was—but you can’t tell what most of it was,” says a Phillips Collection curator

The olive bar at Salisbury Market

Salisbury’s Medieval Market

The open-air market began in the early 1200s, when what we now call “farmers’ markets” were merely “markets” and “eating local” was merely “eating”

Snowpocalypse scrapple with ketchup, served with a side of toast.

Scrapple: the Meatloaf of the Morning

Like the McRib, scrapple is a distinctively American pork product and a regional favorite

Sign for Upper Jay

Inviting Writing: Thanksgiving

A loaf of parkin

Treacly Treats for Guy Fawkes Night

The anniversary of a failed assassination is celebrated with fireworks, bonfires, effigy burning and some very sweet desserts

Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein (1922) by Man Ray

The Other Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

In her cookbook, the author pairs food with the people and events that highlight her life

Stuffed cabbage

Five Ways to Eat Cabbage

It’s versatile and found in cuisines throughout the globe. Stuff it, fry it, shred it and more

Licorice

Is Licorice Dangerous?

After sitting down for a meal at a restaurant alone, the writer overhears an intriguing story.

Guess Who Came to Dinner

A table for one can be the best seat in the house

Pumpkin curry

Inviting Writing: Making Peace with Pumpkin

Mostly I used my sister as a means to escape unwanted food by shoving it onto her plate when nobody was looking

Baguette

How Deadly Bread Bewitched a French Village

Deviled eggs, one of many Halloween treats

Deviled Eggs and Other Foods from Hell

What, exactly, is so wicked about mixing hard-boiled egg yolk with mayonnaise and mustard?

These artifacts are thought to have been offerings from the earliest farming communities that lived in this area. Chemical analysis of charred food residues preserved inside a number of vessels shows they were used for processing freshwater fish, which supplemented their fledgling agricultural economy.

Ancient Pots Show How Humans Adopted Farming

The switch from hunting and gathering to farming was revolutionary—but was it fast or slow?

Bologna was the subject of familial intrigue.

Inviting Writing: Reading the Bologna on the Wall

Leaf plates

Turning Fallen Leaves into Dinner Plates

The paper plate was invented in 1904, and Americans now throw away an estimated trillion disposable plates and utensils per year

A male Atlantic salmon

Disease Found in Wild Salmon

Are farmed salmon the source of a viral infection off the coast of British Columbia?

What does one do with star anise?

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What the Heck Do I Do with Star Anise?

The pod from an evergreen seed is one of the signature flavors in Chinese five-spice blends and Vietnamese pho

Deer in headlights

Is it Safe to Eat Roadkill?

Enough with the jokes already. Some people are serious about looking to the roadside for an alternative to mass-market meats

Steak tartare may not have been the best choice for this meal.

Inviting Writing: Sorry I Took Your Son

I was up to my elbows in raw ground beef, anchovy paste, capers and onions, and completely panicked

A food distribution line at the Occupy Wall Street protests in Manhattan

The Long Marriage of Vegetarianism and Social Activism

As early as 1850, vegetables were identified with virtue and meat was considered “the keystone to a wide-spread arch of superfluous wants”

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