Edibles & Potables

Edibles & Potables: Gaga over Wawa? Nahnah. WHYWHY?

Recently it was revealed that New Albany’s North Side would be GETTING A WAWA. Knowing my luck, they’ll probably have a float in the Harvest Homecoming Parade. Perhaps appropriately, given the usual fan boy ‘n’ girl hosannas greeting the prospective arrival of a glorified convenience store, NA’s new gas station-cum-driver salvation dispensary will displace a day […]

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Edibles & Potables: Marmite and the persistence of umami

(This column originally appeared at F&D in 2021) In 2011, the British Broadcasting Corporation published a list of ten things “you’ll love/hate to know” about Marmite, the longtime British culinary staple which, we must concede from the outset, is a divider of opinion. Marmite does not just come in jars. Other products in the range […]

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Edibles & Potables: Vegan restaurants in the UK are closing (“or adding meat to the menu”)

The plant-based problem is complicated. Granted, the following is Brit-centric (so am I), but the issues are in all likelihood universal. There is no paywall at The Guardian, so feel free to indulge. The plant-based problem: why vegan restaurants are closing – or adding meat to the menu, by Isobel Lewis (The Guardian) There seem […]

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Edibles & Potables: Garum, the (better) ketchup of the ancient Roman gods

Roman fish sauce, along with oil and wine, formed a triad of commodities which dominated Mediterranean trade. The fish sauce is garum, and the quote comes from a publisher’s tout for The Story of Garum: Fermented Fish Sauce and Salted Fish in the Ancient World, a book by Sally Grainger published a few years back […]

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Edibles & Potables: Food halls, from Market at Malcolm Yards to Hietalahden Kauppahalli

In 2022 we booked an Airbnb in Minneapolis and took a few days off to see the Twins play the Tigers (twice), search for home plate from the team’s former ballpark as ensconced at Mall of America, explore the respective Twin Cities downtown districts (the other is St. Paul, of course), eat a lot, and […]

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Edibles & Potables: Why do eateries turn up the volume?

We dropped into a local restaurant for lunch just before noon on a Monday in July and elected to sit at the bar. The hip hop-influenced contemporary pop music was so loud that I could barely hear the bartender, so we moved outside, where it was far too hot, but the traffic at an urban […]

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Edibles & Potables: Check out a fully regenerative restaurant in Mexico City

Baldío was co-founded by brothers Lucio and Pablo Usobiaga and chef Doug McMaster, best known for his groundbreaking zero-waste spot Silo London. “In my eyes, bins are coffins for things that have been badly designed,” says McMaster. “If there was a trophy for negligence, it would be bin-shaped.” In British English, a bin is a […]

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Edibles & Potables: Spare me the “speakeasy,” tearbender

(This essay originally was published here.) Allowing for the possible exception of Mick Jagger, we’re all destined to awaken one morning and find that we’ve pole-vaulted past the invisible line in the sand that delineates prevailing fashion. Whether or not we ever cared about “cool” in the past, from this point forward the choice is […]

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Edibles & Potables: Is there a right way to say “taco”?

During the past few weeks, tacos seem to be enjoying an inexplicable resurgence, even though they never really went away. I’ve been seeing the word “taco” everywhere on social media, and it started me thinking about first causes, although I must concede that chicken is not my personal favorite choice of taco filling. At the […]

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Edibles & Potables: The Regimen Sanitatus Salernum (or, a medieval diet revisited)

 (Originally posted on May 3, 2020) The medieval period of European history — the Middle Ages, or the Dark Ages — encompassed 1,000 years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Renaissance, approximately 500 to 1500 A.D. The 15th century saw the beginning of the Age of Exploration, as […]

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Edibles & Potables: What is “normal” food, anyway?

Previously in this space, Alicia Kennedy’s book No Meat Required was offered for your consideration. Edibles & Potables: Alicia Kennedy’s book “No Meat Required” During the past few months, Kennedy has discussed two books that I intend to read when time permits. The first is Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need […]

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Edibles & Potables: Recreating the gatefold grub from ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres

 (Originally posted on November 15, 2020, and lightly retouched.) Something was missing in 2016 when an Austin, Texas chef recreated the gate-fold meal from ZZ Top’s epochal 1973 album, Tres Hombres. I’ll get to this omission in a moment. Meanwhile, queue up the album on the device of your choice. Back in 1973, it was […]

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Edibles & Potables: Welcome to “post-literate (lipstick effect) little treat culture”

Nowadays on Google, thoughtfully sifting through the options in search of something real amid the sheer weight of insulting dross has been relegated to the vapors, because AI gives you the summary right up front (whether it is accurate, or not). Customarily I push past AI and commence my merry daily regimen of zapping misinformation […]

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Edibles & Potables: A Bay Area wine bar where every glass is priced the same

Today, a Bay Area wine bar where every glass is priced the same, everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. Something like that, at least. Truth be told, wine knowledge isn’t one of my strengths, even if I drink more gratifyingly modified grape juice today than during earlier periods of my life. […]

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