Tom Harte

The Roman emperor Nero had a mercurial personality. For example, he killed his wife by kicking her when she was pregnant, but then he gave her the most lavish funeral imaginable. He burned on her pyre all of the cinnamon in Rome.

“I never worry about diets,” observed Mae West. “The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.” Considering the source, such a view is, perhaps, understandable, but it is certainly shortsighted. After all, the carrot is among the most multi-faceted of all root vegetables.

The French think they're superior to us when it comes to clothing, wine, and food -- not to mention romance! And, admittedly, they do have a way with each; and perhaps nowhere is French sophistication more evident -- at least in the culinary world -- when it comes to pancakes.

“There are only two kinds of people in the world,” an Irish saying goes. “The Irish and those who wish they were.”

If you look around on St. Patrick’s day, you might think that’s true, for on St. Patrick’s Day Americans, regardless of their ancestry, will wear green, sing Irish songs, guzzle Irish beer, and dine on corned beef and cabbage.

But not in Ireland. There you’d be lucky to find more than a handful of packages of corned beef in any of the local supermarkets.

As California restaurant critic Merrill Shindler observes, "Like politics and religion, nobody agrees about the one true chili." It's a dish that's easy to get into an argument over. For example, some people vehemently claim that real chili does not contain beans while others claim just as vehemently that it does and, what is more, they'll specify the particular type of bean which must be used. Some contend that pork, chicken, and even lamb can be used while others insist that true chili contains only beef.