Whaddya Think, Doctor Fink?

  The world was on fire. It was the morning of April 18, 1906. Northern California was hit with a massive earthquake. Devastating fires broke out in San Francisco – 80% of the city burned. Half of the city’s 400,000 residents were left homeless. Louise Boudin fled for her life. Louise was the wife of Isidore Boudin, a French immigrant and master baker. They arrived in San Francisco during the 1849 California gold rush. Hopeful prospectors, known as “forty-niners,” raced

*Humans can distinguish about 100,000 different flavors. *Taste buds on the tongue send messages to the brain about food flavors, what you like, and what you don’t like. *You need saliva. It carries chemicals to taste receptor cells on the tongue. *There are up to 10,000 taste buds in the mouth, mostly on the human tongue. *The tongue has 8 very flexible muscles. *There are five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (savory). *Sour counteracts sweetness and heat.

Imagine a gooey chocolate layer cake. How about vanilla ice cream dripping with hot fudge? Maybe a bowl of sweet red strawberries topped with whipped cream? Which would you choose for dessert – sweet carrot cake or bitter kale? Where does taste come from? Dr. Ainsley Hawthorn, author, sensory scholar, and cultural historian wrote in Psychology Today, “new research shows fetuses smile or frown in response to different tastes.” What? How can a preborn baby (fetus) taste anything? Primitive taste

  *The most expensive bowl of soup is called Budda Jumps Over the Wall. It starts with a chicken broth base and adds shark’s fin, abalone, Japanese flower mushrooms, sea cucumbers, dried scallops, Huan ham, pork, and ginseng. It costs as much as $400 a serving. *The largest bowl of soup ever made was a Guinness World Record. It was 8000 gallons, prepared by 45 chefs, during the Tarhana soup festival in 2024 in Turkey. *Cream of chicken soup is

  It’s cold outside. Get rid of the chill with a cup of chicken soup. Maybe you have a cold? Cure it with a cup of chicken soup. Or maybe it’s a holiday, dinner with friends, or a craving for comfort food? Nothing beats chicken soup. How can something so simple have such a colorful history? Picture this. You’re a Neanderthal. It’s a frigid winter. Everyone huddles around the fire in the family cave. You shiver beneath heavy animal-skin blankets.

  *According to Real Simple, spaghetti squash is loaded with vitamin C – an “antioxidant, which means it boosts your immune system and protects your memory as you age.” *A spaghetti squash can vary in color from ivory to yellow to orange. Orange has the highest amount of beta-carotene. *Cooking turns the solid inside flesh (when raw) into strands that can be easily removed with a fork. *Spaghetti squash has many different names, including spaghetti di zucca (Italy), somen nankin

There’s angel hair, elbows, and fettucine. There’s also gold string melon, squaghetti, and spaghetti squash. As William Shakespeare wrote, “a [rose] by any other name would smell as sweet.” Huh? We all know pasta is delicious, high carb, and lots of calories. What about its look-alike, spaghetti squash? Take a deep breath. You can have your cake and eat it too – minus 300 calories. Ask chefs Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, and Ina Garten. Check out The Happy Cook or

*North Dakota is the top honey producing state in the U.S. with over 31 million pounds a year. *A single bee creates 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey during her lifetime. *U.S. imports honey from India, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand, and Mexico. *One-third of the U.S. diet comes from insect-pollinated plants. *Honey lacks moisture and is acidic so bacteria can’t live in it. *The late Queen Elizabeth II gave Pope Francis a jar of honey as an official gift in

  It’s magical. Once upon a time, millions of years ago, lived tiny critters. Their colonies were large – as many as 60,000 residents. It was a powerful monarchy led by a Queen. Everyone worked for her. Each critter had its job; teamwork was essential. The Queen lived much longer than her subjects. If you were a worker – the largest population in the colony – your main job was to forage for food. Scouts located the best source of

*The average American eats about ten pounds of cereal a year. *In the mid-1800s a high protein diet was blamed for fueling “lust and laziness” – two of the seven deadly sins. *Grape-nuts today is probably the closest you’ll get to the original granula. *Nostalgia is one reason why adults love cold cereal and milk – it reminds them of their childhood. *Milk contributes to a cold cereal breakfast – it adds protein, calcium, and vitamins. *Lactose-free people often replace