Entries tagged with 'history'
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"It's a place where you feel like you should sit up straight but you're too weighed down by the meal to actually do so." Scilly Isles Lobster served cold with asparagus. [Photographs: Kerry Saretsky] After living in England for a year, I can attest that the country is as steeped in history as its tea is steeped in water. It’s also a place where, admittedly, I had a hard time eating happily. I love stews, fish, cheese, peas, and anything fried, so I couldn’t understand why the food and I never got along. But I was always on a quest for really excellent old English food and at Rules, the oldest restaurant in London, I finally found it. Smoked Highland...
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No, this is not the name of a grocery store hidden behind some trees—it is an online grocery store for items that are hard to find. At the Hard-To-Find Grocer, you can find various rare food products, like Sioux City Berry Berry Soda or Van Camp Beanee Weenee. It also carries products from larger brands that often don't make it into stores, such as Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme Cake. Items are added to the site based on suggestions and requests. Sadly, it doesn't yet have the food of my childhood, Tastykakes (only available in the mid-Atlantic), so I'll have to stay near Philadelphia to get my fix. [via Manhattan Users Guide]...
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Photograph from Michigan Beer Buzz Weburbanist rounds up photos of beer cans since the 1930s and shares the history behind beer can design. Although I'm a fan of this uber-generic design, there's an interesting reason behind the need to jazz up the cans: After methods of packaging beer into durable cans were developed, the real treat for consumers and collectors were the colorful designs on the cans. Beer would still not taste great coming from a can for several decades. Manufacturers began releasing special edition and novelty cans with lively images and color schemes to attract consumers and compensate for the canned beer taste. Some of these early cans, if still in good condition, are now worth thousands of...
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On April 3, 1892, the ice cream sundae was born at the Platt & Colt Pharmacy in Ithaca, New York. Or was it born in 1881 at Ed Berners' Ice Cream Parlor in Two Rivers, Wisconsin? What's Cooking America shares some history behind the "Sundae Wars" between these two cities who claim to be the birthplace of the sundae. Ithaca appears to have the most written documentation to back up its claim as the sundae's birthplace, including the oldest record of an ice cream sundae in the form of an ad placed in the Ithaca Daily Journal on October 5, 1892. There's even disagreement about the origins of the word "sundae," the most popular explanation being that it was changed...
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In January, I received an unexpected gift in the mail from my beloved aunt and godmother: a wine book, full of labels and notes, that she had kept during the1970s when she and my uncle were living in Germany. To make your own, you don't need anything more glamorous or expensive than an unused diary.
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The Economist takes a look into the evolutionary role of cooking with the help of anthropologist Dr. Richard Wrangham of Harvard University. Wrangham believes "that cooking and other forms of preparing food are humanity's 'killer app': the evolutionary change that underpins all of the other—and subsequent—changes that have made people such unusual animals."...
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What was George Washington's diet like back in the 1790s? Hoe cakes, fish, ice cream, smoked ham, and homegrown vegetables were some of his regularly eaten foods....
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From left: Lincoln Cake from bakinghistory.wordpress.com; Abraham Lincoln. When you think of Abraham Lincoln, who would have celebrated his bicentennial this week, do you think of pound cake? This vintage recipe for Lincoln Cake found on the blog Baking History was first published in The Godey’s Lady’s Book Receipts and Household Hints in 1870 to honor the sixteenth president. The lemon pound cake doesn't have any overt Lincoln qualities, but sure looks tasty. [via Frederick Kaufman]...
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The Morton Umbrella Girl over the years. From Neatorama. Did you know Chef Boyardee and Sara Lee were real people, but Betty Crocker and Aunt Jemima weren't? Neatorama covers the stories behind the logos of 10 famous food companies: Morton Salt, Heinz 57 Varieties, Jolly Green Giant, La Vache qui Rit (The Laughing Cow), Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker, Chef Boyardee, Sara Lee, Quaker Oats, and Gerber Baby....
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The 2009 Inaugural Luncheon china. Image from inaugural.senate.gov/luncheon After Barack Obama takes the presidential oath of office tomorrow, he will be escorted to Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol for a three-course luncheon: seafood stew followed by pheasant and duck (with sour cherry chutney and molasses sweet potatoes) and apple cinnamon sponge cake for dessert, each paired with a wine. To eat in solidarity with the new administration, download these recipes. You'll also need a copy of "View of the Yosemite Valley" painting by Thomas Hill hanging—which represents the majestic dawn of a new era—as well as Hot Lady roses and blue and purple hydrangea arrangements. Check out menus, recipes, and even video footage of past inaugural luncheons....
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