Tag Archives: food
The Time the US Senate Debated Crabcakes
Senator Beall hurried back from the Senate dining room to the floor where the Democrats were filibustering. Beall, a Republican, tugged at Senator Hill’s sleeve. “Mr. President,” he thundered, “I rise to defend the fair name of the great Free State of Maryland against an insult.” The insult wasn’t the filibuster. The insult was lunch.
Back When We Ate Roses
In Victorian America, flower-scented butters were all the rage with morning mocha and afternoon tea.
Hell’s Kitchen in the 1970s
Every May, New Yorkers flock to the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival. Artist A.S. Graboyes captured what the festival was like when it first began back in the 1970s.
Kaiserschmarrn
In the mountains and ski towns of far western Austria, we uncover the world’s next great dessert.
A Tale of Two Portlands
Flannel shirts and hipster chic unite them both, but there’s a continent between them. TL;DR: Maine > Oregon.
You Can’t Go Home Again – And Sometimes That’s a Good Thing
The changing face of a Southern city rediscovering itself.
The Vulgar Pleasure of 1970s Food Photography
In a fascinating series of articles over at The Foodie Bugle, food photographer Helen Grace Ventura Thompson describes how food photography has changed over the decades. In the 1950s, she writes, “the pictures looked as though they were taken from the top of a ladder, six or eight feet away.” Beginning in the 1960s, higher-end […]
How to Eat a Hamburger in Sweden
The first meal we had in Stockholm – no, not at Ikea – was Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberries. The second was Max at T-Centralen. Founded in Northern Sweden in the late 1960s, Max is Sweden’s answer to McDonald’s. The name even sounds suspiciously similar. The chain hasn’t spread much beyond Sweden, with […]
What Food Movie Are You Craving Tonight?
Earlier this week, I determined by purely scientific means that Chocolat is the most perfect food movie ever. But that seems not right. At least one source called it the film most likely to “make a foodie shudder.” Now that’s a tad extreme. Chocolat‘s soundtrack is beautiful, the cinematography is dreamy, and it’s overall a […]
The 3 Types of Food-Inspired Fashion
You are what you eat. (This is especially true if you’re a flamingo and you’re pink because you eat shrimp.) But, sometimes, you also wear what you eat. (And we’re not talking about that mustard stain from lunch.) Two recent runway shows at Paris and Milan fashion weeks, and a bit of recent apparel history, […]
Good Fortune at Best Fortune: Dim Sum at 10AM Sharp
Dim sum is a frenzied, fast-paced way to start your Sunday. But when you’re the first to arrive, it’s an altogether different experience. My first memory of dim sum is Chinatown in downtown Washington in the early 1990s. I remember staring through the ornate Friendship Archway – blue and red and gold with unfurling dragons […]
Whatever Happened to Taco Salad?
Food trends change, no doubt about it. When I was seven, my parents took me to France and the Basque Country of northern Spain. It was my first trip abroad, and it was a big deal. When I got back to Richmond, my teacher asked me to tell the class a little about my trip. […]
IKEA (Market) Hacking
Sometimes you find more at an IKEA than an Expedit bookshelf. Sometimes you find the food. IKEA is many things to many people. It’s a place to mark life events: welcoming baby with a sniglar or a hensvik, sending her off to college with best friends lack and billy, finding low-cost accoutrements for baby’s first […]
I Found the Soul of Switzerland in a McDonald’s McGruyère
Because sometimes a sandwich isn’t just a sandwich. The trip from Zurich to Zermatt lasts three hours by train and climbs four thousand feet. It takes you from within twenty miles of the German border to within five miles of the Italian, though you wouldn’t know it by the rösti – a dish so ubiquitous […]
Takeout Astrology: The Zodiac Placemat
All those chopsticks and duck sauce packets you’ve been hoarding for years? They’re all from one mysterious company in White Plains, New York. Growing up, every restaurant had its paper placemat. Sergio’s and Gino’s had a map of Italy with illustrations of the Tower of Pisa, a Venetian gondola, and the Colosseum. Generically Richmond restaurants […]
Duck Pie 