Clik here to view.
Hangul Day
October 9 is Hangul Day (한글날Han'gŭllal), an annual commemoration of the 1446 proclamation of the invention of the Korean alphabet by King Sejong (세종) and / or his scholars. Hangul is the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Garlic Origins
There were a couple of longer items left over from the garlic post. I am periodically reminded of this; most recently by a new frozen fusion item from the Super-88 Market, โรตีเมดิติวเรเซียน ตรา ฮิปโป...
View ArticleShredded Wheat
My breakfast has been the same most every day for several decades: shredded wheat with soy milk.Shredded wheat, along with corn flakes and grape-nuts, is one of the staple American cold breakfast foods...
View ArticlePotato Poems
There is one batch of leftovers remaining to be served before the new year. (I take John Cleese's Linkman in Episode 18 as a cautionary tale against letting that metaphor get out of hand. So that'll be...
View ArticlePeanut
It used to be that all the local Indian markets had snack packages of Spicy Cashews, that is, cashews with chili powder, which make a nice appetizer or snack with a few drops of lemon juice. But lately...
View ArticlePeanut, Continued
Continued from here, which had gotten as far as Linnaeus naming Arachis hypogaea.Peanuts did not gain much in Europe proper. Because they require a long growing period underground, they can only be...
View ArticleBalinese Long Pepper
Something new appeared not too long ago in the spice aisle at the supermarket: Balinese Long Pepper.Is this the long pepper of ancients, as the box implies?Once hailed by Romans as the ultimate peppery...
View ArticleBranded Meat Substitutes
I have mentioned before that I collect vegetarian cookbooks from different times and places and in different languages. A number of these are from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the...
View ArticleSowing Cumin and Basil
The American edition of Uglier Than a Monkey’s Armpit, co-authored by Steve at LanguageHat, still isn't available, as far as I know. But being impatient, I went ahead and got the UK edition when I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Gilded Age
Over the holiday weekend, Tim Spalding of LibraryThing added a feature to Common Knowledge (the site's book-oriented wiki) to record a work's epigraphs. In the discussion leading up to this in Talk...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Watermelon
We probably had the last fresh whole watermelon of the summer a few weeks ago. The crate of large globular produce at the supermarket is now full of pumpkins. But the Summer 2008 issue of Edible...
View ArticleGinger
Boston still has a number of used book stores, surviving, though perhaps not thriving, despite the internet, in which browsing almost always uncovers something worthwhile. And, of course, those same...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Magnets
I'm not much of one for annual events, such as national or religious holidays. I might manage a teetotaler's Bloomsday some years. There was a Hangul Day post last year, but that is more a...
View ArticleVegetus
I apologize that posting here has been so light this year, but other demands on my time have taken priority. I have tried to adjust this post to the recent Google Books changes; please let me know if...
View ArticlePineapple
Other demands on my time have made posting here rather spotty, but I have always tried to keep notes on possible posts for when some time appears. One of the 17th century sources cited for peanuts...
View ArticleZapiekanki
With all the students around, Boston's Allston Village is chock-full of reasonably-priced restaurants: Burmese (with a separate vegetarian menu), vegan Vietnamese, vegan pizza, Egyptian falafel, Indian...
View ArticleBhut Jolokia
It was recently time to order to some more Brother Bru-Bru's hot sauce, which is my preferred condiment for home fries and Röschti. Hot sauces are fairly shelf stable, so we like to stock up, which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seitan
Greater Boston has a couple new vegetarian restaurants. The Pulse Cafe in Somerville has classic vegetarian fare from fresh ingredients, food of the sort that those of middle-age might remember making...
View ArticleVejeterianz
C. S. Lewis resolved his adolescent struggles with theodicy through the conservative Christianity of Chesterton, Belloc and so on. With a convert's zeal, he then promoted an unalloyed form, which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Green Bean
The supermarket was well stocked this week with fresh green beans. The side of the display had jars of gourmet fried onions — another postmodern reimagining of a boomer classic. In keeping with the...
View ArticleTruffle
Two years ago, in a comment at LanguageHat, AJP Crown wondered whether there was interest in writing about truffles here. Honestly, the challenge has not been material, but having time to put it into...
View ArticleMaize 1
In The City of Saints, Sir Richard Francis Burton does for Salt Lake City / Mormons / the American West what he did for Mecca / Muslims / the Arabian Peninsula. One of his many asides: It has long been...
View ArticleMaize 2
More European words following the same ideas as previously include:Catalan blat de moro'Moor's wheat'.Hungarian törökbúza'Turkish wheat'.Basque arto, which originally meant 'millet'.Bulgarian царевица...
View ArticleNotus un Protus
An earlier post here catalogued some nineteenth century brand-name meat substitutes. A number of these were produced by John Harvey Kellogg, of breakfast food fame. The earliest and best-selling were...
View ArticleIdli
March 30 is World Idli Day, a holiday started nine years ago by M. Eniyavan in Chennai, who runs a catering business specializing in idli. There are newspaper columns and videos touting the innovative...
View Article
