In my native New York, I don’t feel the need to perfume the air around me with the sweet scent of challah. But here in Iowa, there is a void I need to fill.
Food
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Korean Immigrant and Michigan Farm Boy Who Taught Americans How to Cook Chow Mein
In 1922, two college classmates in Detroit — a Korean immigrant named Ilhan New and an American named Wally Smith — founded La Choy, a company that mass-produced Chinese food products. One hundred years later, to Chinese Americans the brand is “synonymous with cultural inauthenticity, even appropriation.” But, as Cathy Erway explores for Taste, the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Wings, Sweat, and Tears
While it’s not the first in-depth story about the capsaicin-fueled mayhem of YouTube talk show Hot Ones (see: this 2019 Verge story), Jaya Saxena’s piece goes beyond profile to something more like exegesis. We know that Scoville units introduce a candid new wrinkle to the tired celebrity interview; now, the question becomes what to do […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Sizzler: The California Origin Story Behind One of India’s Flashiest Dishes
Whether you’re a fan of culinary cross-pollination or just loaded nachos/fries/[insert substrate here], you’ll leave this gustatory lineage story with a growling stomach. And if you’re lucky enough to live near a place that serves sizzlers? Well, you’ll just have to try to beat me there. About ten minutes after we put in our order, […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Day in the Life of (Almost) Every Vending Machine in the World
Tom Lamont’s insightful essay makes you consider both the people standing in front of the vending machine and those behind its inception. The midget gems could go anywhere, really, and today he decided to give them a try in primetime – halfway along, halfway up. In vending, this part of the job, as delicate as […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
We’ve Underestimated Sprinkles
I love sprinkles. Always have. And somehow, as Cathy Erway shows in this delightful piece for Taste, the world has caught up to my juvenile palate. Thankfully, she phrases the appeal more artfully: “the nutritionless, mostly flavorless, tiny doodads that mimic absolutely nothing found in nature provide outsize comfort with egalitarian underpinnings. And they aren’t […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Scientific Methods of J. Kenji López-Alt
“At 42, López-Alt now has the actual dad status to justify the doofy jokes he inserts into his recipes. When Alicia was born, he left food writing to be a full-time parent. Last year he left pretty much every social media platform except Instagram, where he currently clocks more than 450,000 followers. His career has […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Less Family, More Meal
“It’s a meal that is meant to be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of job title; when coworkers can break the proverbial (or sometimes actual) bread; when cooks can break free from the constraints of making menu dishes and throw together something of their choosing. A cook at a high-end Italian restaurant might be moved to […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Flour Trip
“Two years have passed since that first baking frenzy began — are we any closer to knowing what those loaves are made from?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Welcome to Invasivorism, the Boldest Solution to Ethical Eating Yet
“Turning invasive species into gourmet meals could blunt environmental and economic costs across the US. But can Americans stomach them? Chefs and biologists are taking a gamble.”