I've always been happy when people break out the shortbread cookies around the holidays. Sweet? Crumbly? Pairs well with everything? Sign me up. But – ask me the story behind shortbread? Until now, crickets. I decided I needed to look into the matter; today, let's talk about shortbread's origin and history. The Skinny on Shortbread What […]
The relationship between humans and apples has a long and complex past. Countless myths and stories include the seductive apple, and it has remained a popular food across different regions of the world. How has this fruit – arguably the most popular fruit in existence – had such an enormous cultural and economic impact since its […]
Have you ever heard of the mystery around the origins of the sweet potato? Its full history is a puzzle even to the most well-versed historians. Many agree that it spread across Europe – and eventually much of the world – through the Columbian exchange. However, India and Polynesia were ahead of the curve by […]
Pumpkin beer is one of my favorite – if controversial – tastes every fall. And for me, autumn doesn't really begin until I see pumpkin beer on the shelves. But apart from being a fall staple, did you know that pumpkin beer has deep roots in American history? I've spent the past weeks researching the story of […]
Eggplants are an interesting (culinary) vegetable. Exotic seeming yet delicious, eggplants make their way into numerous dishes without always stealing the show. It's got an interesting flavor profile and texture – and oh, wow, that color. Like its nightshades cousins, the tomato and tomatillo, it's also been unfairly labeled as poisonous. What an intriguing food! […]
Try this: go to your pantry and pick up a boxed food. The odds are pretty good you'll find corn in there in some form: corn syrup, cornmeal, plain old corn, or one of many variants. Corn makes the world go around nowadays – it's a staple in many diets and provides a reliable food […]
Aluminum foil – sometimes incorrectly called tin foil – is a thin, prepared sheet metal made of aluminum, often used in cooking (and food storage!). Although it may seem a little dull at first glance (especially on its dull side), aluminum foil has quite a fascinating story behind it. Many incredible things occurred before it became a staple in […]
Waffles – with their crispy outsides and perfectly sized syrup holes – are a breakfast staple in the US – one that certainly blurs the line between breakfast and dessert. But beyond your breakfast plate, the history of waffles goes back further than you might expect. Waffles first added their trademark honeycomb design to flatbread sometime in […]
The tomatillo, or "little tomato" in Spanish, is a Mexican cuisine staple – and very popular in America. You might have tried this distant relative of the tomato that gives a lovely acidic punch to soups and salsas. Personally, I first ran across them in college in Los Angeles (there aren't many on the East […]
What fruit inspires cultivar names like Baby Boo and Warty Goblin, makes a great-tasting beer, and was an everyday dinosaur snack thousands of years ago? (If your guess was the pumpkin, you've probably read the title of this article.) Jokes aside, there's so much more to pumpkins than what meets the eye. From its domestication 10,000 years ago to its journey across […]
