Honey Do
Q. Sweet as honey. A taste of honey. A honey of a deal. You’re my honey (as long as you complete your ‘to do’ list) How did honey, of all the sugary alternatives, come to epitomize the ultimate, love-worthy sweetness? . A. Sweet, sweet honey finds it place in the
First Wipes, Then Cloves?
Q. If you happened to visit the Gulf Islands last August, you might have noticed two strange things: i) a lot of people smelled like cloves, ii) there were no cloves to be found in the grocery store. Why was there a late summer run on cloves and should we
Dinner With Louis
Q. If you were lucky (?) enough to be invited to feast with the ravenous King Louis XIV, what would you be expected to eat? . A. Well, here’s a peek at a Sun King party menu that was recreated by chefs at the Palace of Versailles in 2010. A
Jamaican Jerk Spice
Q. What is in Jamaican Jerk Spice? . A. When people learn that I’m half Jamaican, conversations quickly turn to the beautiful Blue Mountains, the turquoise sea, reggae, fresh mangoes, hard dough bread, and jerk spice. Jerk chicken, jerk pork, jerk breadfruit. The origins of jerk spice are up for
Ice Cream Quiet
Q. Wanted: a moment of peace away from the madness. A sensory distraction. What types of food are particularly comforting? A. I scream. You scream. We all scream. For friends, jobs, and freedoms lost to a vicious virus. For George Floyd and a long list of Americans hunted down for
Truffle Toil
Q. Why, for centuries, have people worked so hard to find truffles? . A. There is no easy peasy picking for this fungus. Citizens across France, Italy, Spain have sent pigs, dogs, foxes, even badgers to sniff these ‘black diamonds’ out of hiding. Why? Plutarch thought truffles were baked by
Baked Alaska
Q. When and why did we start Baking Alaska? A. Who wouldn’t be excited about a meringue topped, ice cream cake dessert? And what about the Bombe version that arrives covered in rum-fueled flames? Baked Alaska, particularly popular in the 50s and 70s, had a resurgence in May of 2012,
Spilling The Tea
Q. Why do people talk about ‘spilling the tea’ when they are gossiping or revealing hidden truths? . A. It’s an expression popularized by black drag culture, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary. The ‘T’ that was being spilled could also stand for ‘Truth’, as evidenced in an interview with The