Whaddya Think, Doctor Fink?

  Are you furious at the inflated price of eggs? How about a $5 Happy Meal or a $6 bag of potato chips? It’s just pennies to a one-percenter. One-percenters are the top richest people, earning more than 99 percent of the rest of us (below). Their world is filled with the power and luxury of great wealth. In America, one-percenters earn over $820,000 a year. While you might struggle with the cost of a gallon of milk, one-percenters feast

  Would you eat eggy bread for breakfast? Names are us. There are hundreds of millions different names in the world. They tell us who we are, how we’re related to the past, and if we reflect our times. Think Finnian vs Finn, Benedict vs. Benji, or Kordula vs. Katlin. What’s that have to do with eggy bread? Would you eat it if it was called torrejas, the romantic pain á la romaine, or French Toast?  It’s basically all the

  Turn back the clock eight thousand years. You’re a young Indian living in the Andes Mountains in South America. In the distance are wild llamas. They’re eating. You creep closer and see that the critters are munching on a bitter, slightly poisonous tuber. You watch. The animals lick clay before they eat. They’re all safe. Maybe they know something that you don’t? You report back to the tribe. Michele Debczak wrote in Mental Floss that people “started dunking their

  Who doesn’t love a croissant? You can find them in London and France, South Africa and Tel Aviv . . . just about anywhere you go. Are they really all “French”? There are a lot of legends but none have been proven. That means you can choose the story – like the type of croissant – which is most pleasing to your palate. It was 1683 and the city of Vienna was surrounded by attacking Ottoman soldiers. Gareth Busby

Courtesy of Spiga Bakery My husband surprised me with a Lemon Meringue Pie from Spiga – one of the best bakeries in Long Island, New York. What’s lemon meringue pie? It’s the marriage of golden crust, tangy lemon filling, and a generous topping of sweet meringue. When was this sweet-and-tart classic invented? There are three parts to lemon meringue pie along with stories that span centuries, continents, and cultures. Let’s start bottoms up. The Crust Crusts have a long and

  Courtesy of RAF Everyone loves fajitas. They’re yummy, fun-to-eat, and come with sizzling stories. Most people know that fajitas are an authentic Mexican dish. Wrong. Step back to the 1930s and Texas ranchlands. During cattle roundups, wrote Virginia Wood in the Austin Chronicle, “beef was butchered regularly to feed the hands.” Vaqueros – Mexican cowboys – were often partially paid with “throwaway” parts that didn’t sell, like meat trimmings, entrails, and skirt steak. Skirt steak? Yes – in those

  Bake or no-bake. Vanilla, cherry, or chocolate. Classic, modern, or DIY (Do It Yourself). Cheesecake has so many versions that it’s impossible to keep track. Maybe it’s called cheesecake, torte, tart, or pie? How about New York-Style, Japanese Ube, French Tarte au Fromage, or Israeli (made with gevina levana cheese)? Try vegan, savory, or air-fryer. Top with whipped cream, syrup, fruit . . . just about anything that sounds good. Cheesecake is iconic, complete with countless stories, versions, and

Stuart Spivak, Wikimedia Commons I can’t fight it. Whenever there’s a family holiday dinner I head straight for the kugel. Thank Stacey for my obsession. Although a Gen Xer, she makes sweet buttery kugel with a crunchy top – like they did hundreds of years ago. What’s kugel? Joel Haber in The Taste of Jewish Culture describes it as a “simple food that’s not so simple.” There are four basic ingredients: starch (like noodles or potatoes), eggs, fat, and seasonings.

  The goal is the Tootsie Roll center buried in a hard-shell lollipop. There’s one rule – only licks, not bites. Tootsie Roll Pops were introduced in 1931. During the Great Depression the popular candy was cheap, colorful, and delicious. It all began when employees at the Sweets Company of America (later known as Tootsie Roll Industries) were asked to pitch ideas for a new candy. Luke Weisgram had a habit of chewing on a Tootsie Roll while licking his

  Call it what you want. Cottage or Shepherd’s Pie, Páté Chinois or Pub-style Irish. It’s all basically the same. “The key element of the dish [is] consistent: a meat and vegetable filling topped with mashed potatoes and baked until golden and delicious,” Morris H. Lary wrote in Food/World History. Who could argue with that? Why and when was this humble dish created? The “why” is clear – there’s always a need to use leftovers. Think of the endless post-thanksgiving