Whaddya Think, Doctor Fink?

Skiers wearing bikinis? There’s a heat dome over the west, floods in Hawaii, and snow in the north. The official start of spring in the northern hemisphere – where days equal nights (vernal equinox) – is behind us. Spring has rolled in our age of climate change – when we celebrate the end of winter with festivals, rituals, and tasty food. Like spring rolls. South China Morning Post reported that spring rolls came from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (China), over

Mango The perfect subject for my return to blogging. Tree Spirit Wisdom says that “mango reminds us to focus on happy times versus hard times.” Good advice for a new year. My last blog was six months ago. I broke my hip, had surgery, a hip replacement, and rehab. Doc diagnosed 6-9-month recuperation. A long road. Now I’m back! Time to focus on happy. Culturally, mangos are a ray of sunshine in an increasingly dark world. They’re the ultimate immigrants,

What was the biggest heist in Canadian history? Bank robbery? Diamonds? Gold? Guess again. Maple syrup. Why would anyone steal maple syrup? It began with the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers (later renamed Quebec Maple Syrup Producers). According to Wikipedia, the Federation was given the power to set maple syrup prices – a “legal cartel.” The cost for producers was 25% of their crops. No one likes a cartel – even a legal one. People started to think outside the

  Does your coffee have powers like Popeye’s spinach? Do you need Morning Mud to start the day? Do you guzzle java like a TV cop on a stakeout? Coffee. It has a lot of aliases like jitter juice, rocket fuel, cup of jolt, and cupped lightening. That’s no surprise when over one billion people around the world down the stuff each day. Americans alone drink 400 million cups daily, 146 billion cups yearly, or an average three cups a

Read More

Whoppers, Wimpy, and Wahlburgers. Jimmy Buffet sang Cheeseburger in Paradise and Ronald McDonald clowned for the world. Where’s your beef? Hamburgers are an American icon as well as one of the most popular sandwiches in the world. Fifty billion burgers are eaten each year in America; roughly 1.5 million Big Macs are sold every day. Globally, 2.6 billion burgers are chowed down yearly. That’s a lot of beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed

Food says a lot about you. Are you a chocolate or vanilla person? Coffee or tea?  Pizza or wonton soup? What’s in a last meal? How many “last” meals did you have before going on a diet or eating at a friend’s house (who is a terrible cook)? What about the last meal of summer or the holidays?  Last meals are fun to think about (just one more scoop of ice cream or another slice of pizza). Let’s take a

Winter. When I was a kid that meant bundling up against the bitter cold and piling into the car. Mom and Dad took us to the original Nathan’s in Brooklyn – long before most people knew the name, food, and frozen products. We bought huge servings of French Fries, smothered in salt, ketchup, and mustard, loving the steamy crunch. Little did we know that our delicious fries weren’t French but the magic of Nathan Handwerker. Handwerker couldn’t imagine that Nathan’s

Winter. When I was a kid that meant bundling up against the bitter cold and piling into the car. Mom and Dad took us to the original Nathan’s in Brooklyn – long before most people knew the name, food, and frozen products. We bought huge servings of French Fries, smothered in salt, ketchup, and mustard, loving the steamy crunch. Little did we know that our delicious fries weren’t French but the magic of Nathan Handwerker. Handwerker couldn’t imagine that Nathan’s

  Times are changing. The forks (and spoons) are getting nervous. With inflation, food shortages, droughts, and floods, our culinary future is endangered – like tigers, polar bears, and koalas. According to Hoffmann, Koplinka-Loehr, and Eiseman in their new book, Our Changing Menu, climate change is messing with our menu. Big time. Imagine life without a gooey hot fudge sundae. Face the day without a tangy Starbuck’s latte. Eat barbecue without flame broiled burgers, ketchup, and salty fries. Let’s look