Whaddya Think, Doctor Fink?

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

  We play with food, laugh about food, and analyze every bite. Food is part of life – it’s been around as long as we have. As a result, there are a lot of funny stories about the precious and hopefully tasty morsels that we consume. Below are just a few true stories . . .   Spaghetti Trees It was April 1, 1957 (April Fool’s Day). Everyone knew that money didn’t grow on trees . . . but spaghetti?

  Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake            Morykwas, author, photographer It’s time to party! That adds up to a lot of celebrations and tasty birthday cakes. How much would you pay for the perfect birthday cake? Let’s find out.   According to How Stuff Works, “the ancient Egyptians were good bakers who made honey-sweetened breads.”  Their “cakes” were flat, dense, unleavened, and cooked on a smooth stone. Nothing like the colorful,

  Maybe buffalos don’t fly but their numbers are sky-high. Nearly 1.42 billion Buffalo wings are eaten on Super Bowl Sunday – a lot of wings for a critter that doesn’t fly. So where do Buffalo wings come from?

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Peanut butter. You can gobble it like Presidents Jefferson, Carter, and Clinton, or consume enough (along with fellow Americans) to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon every year. Peanuts (and peanut butter) don’t grow on trees like pecans and almonds. They’re not even a nut. Peanuts are legumes like beans, lentils, and peas that grow in pods (peanut shells). The peanut bush is green, knee high, with tiny yellow flowers.  When the flowers wilt, the stem goes underground and

I remember mom taking me to the local market. It was an old store with stained wood floorboards, sagging shelves, and barrels filled with two types of pickles – new (half sour) and dill (sour). My job was using tongs to fish out the best dill in the barrel, garlicky pickle juice running deliciously down my arm. I was fishing into history. Pickles have an impressive history. Think Shakespeare, Columbus, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, and Cleopatra. Cleopatra? She swore that pickles

Mac ‘n cheese is a win-win. Bake it, cook it on the stovetop, or get it from a box. Feast on basic, gourmet, or potluck. Win for taste. Win for comfort. It’s a foodie chameleon. Whether in America, Canada, Israel, or anywhere around the world, everyone loves mac ‘n cheese. The magic is in the recipe – it shifts to fit individual, family, and cultural tastes. Most people believe that the American version came from foodie Thomas Jefferson after he

Politics and pancakes are running mates. The only one who has more names than politicians are pancakes. Think Johnnycakes, Flapjacks, and Slapjacks. Feast on hotcakes, silver dollars, and griddlecakes. There are allies like French crepes, Israeli latkes, Australian pikelets and rivals like Russian blini and Iranian khagineh. Pancakes and politics are mixed in the batter. Consider popular Pancakes and Politics events held throughout the U.S.  How about National Pancake Day or free pancake breakfasts sponsored by candidates running for election?

    Politics and pancakes are running mates. The only one who has more names than politicians are pancakes. Think Johnnycakes, Flapjacks, and Slapjacks. Feast on hotcakes, silver dollars, and griddlecakes. There are allies like French crepes, Israeli latkes, Australian pikelets and rivals like Russian blini and Iranian khagineh. Pancakes and politics are mixed in the batter. Consider popular Pancakes and Politics events held throughout the U.S.  How about National Pancake Day or free pancake breakfasts sponsored by candidates running