If you drive along any of our country’s back roads, there is one feature that is ubiquitous: the fast food sign. Sadly, however, the variety of signs you will see along our roadways has been reduced to a relative handful of fast-food giants. Some of the old historic players, which helped build the fast-food industry […]
Food History
Are Cucumbers Really Cold? Is That Why We Say Cool as a Cucumber?
Yes, the inside of cucumbers are cooler than their surroundings, but that doesn’t mean as much as you think. If you were to pick up a room temperature cucumber and insert a temperature probe into it, you’d find it to be somewhat cooler than the temperature of the room. You may even find it to […]
Who Invented Eggs Benedict?
It would be natural to assume that everyone’s favorite brunch dish (isn’t it?), Eggs Benedict, was named after an actual person. But, there are so many stories about who this person we simply can’t be certain who invented the dish. Also possible is that the dish is a modern rendering of an old French dish, […]
Why Do We Say ‘Take That With A Grain Of Salt?’
I am an expert on everything in the culinary world. You may want to take that with a grain of salt, because, if you believe it, I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona you may like. In the previous sentence, you may understand the allusion in latter idiom without explanation. Arizona does not border […]
Shoplifter Faints From Frozen Food Under Hat
Did you hear the story about the shoplifter who tried to steal a frozen chicken? He hid the chicken under his hat and then went to wait in the checkout line to buy something cheap. Not sure what he was trying to buy. Maybe it was a pack of gum. Unfortunately, he didn’t take the […]
Flesh-Eating Bananas From Costa Rica?
There have been many fearful claims concerning bananas. In fact, bananas, due to their exotic origin, had a rocky reception in the U.S., stoking fears and myths, not the least of which was that bananas are hard to digest or undigestable. But perhaps the scariest rumor about bananas was much more recent, that they could give […]