If you look at a modern head of cabbage, you are seeing the result of centuries of selective breeding. Our modern cabbage and the plants we derived from it bear little resemblance to their loose-leaved ancestors. And, our common name for this ubiquitous source of plant foods could have been very different! Just as cabbage … Read more
While we use the phrase today to describe a low-priority task, the idiom’s origins are rooted in the literal design of early 20th-century stoves and the critical need for heat management in a busy kitchen. The False Etymology of Heat Zones on Wood-Burning Stoves Before the advent of modern gas and electric ranges with precise … Read more
I want to talk about three things. I want to talk about grits; Southern grits! I want to talk about food bloggers. And I want to talk about the language of food. Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t consider myself a food blogger. But I share something in common with them. We both share our personal identity … Read more
If you like making Thai food at home or other Southeast Asian foods, you have probably used Kaffir lime fruit or leaves in your dishes. The zest and leaves are especially used in Thai cooking. As time goes by, you may stop hearing the fruit and leaves being called kaffir. Learn more about why you … Read more
This is a tribute to the best song ever written, itself a tribute to humorously bad English. It’s called Yes, We Have No Bananas. Perhaps I exaggerate, but there was a time in the 1920s when people thought this phrase, and the song it came from, was the best thing since Eskimo Pies. In fact, according to … Read more
Two terms you may hear when someone wants to sound sophisticated or impressive concerning their French cooking are Haute Cuisine and Nouvelle Cuisine. Haute cuisine means high cooking, which, as you can guess, refers to the way high-class people cook and eat. It is a way of saying fancy, elaborate or grande cooking as done in posh restaurants. If this all sounds stuffy and … Read more