A Harte Appetite

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.

From a culinary perspective, every season is joyous, but for me it’s always spring, at least in my kitchen. That’s because my favorite item of kitchenware is the springform pan. The function of the pan is to make it possible to take out of the pan a cake which is too fragile to trust to the conventional method of turning it upside down and keeping your fingers crossed that it comes out in one piece.

Pretzels, some historians contend, may be the oldest snack food known to humankind.

Contrary to popular belief, corned beef and cabbage is not the national dish of Ireland. You won’t find it on menus there except in places where there is a lot of tourist traffic. Some food historians even go so far as to question whether the dish is actually Irish at all.

Spain has given many gifts to gastronomy, like paella, manchego cheese, and the world’s greatest ham. But no less noteworthy are churros, or Spanish donuts.

Of all of the iconic dishes of the Deep South none is more iconic than banana pudding.

The ancient Greeks believed that our galaxy was created when the goddess Hera spilled some of her milk as she was nursing the baby Hercules. Each drop became a star in what we have ever after appropriately called the Milky Way. Likewise the Egyptians, the Hindus, and the Sumerians assigned milk a central role in their creation stories.

I think it was Moliere who observed that, "Some men eat to live while other men live to eat." I know which category I fall into. I love food, glorious food.

A mug cake is a single serving of cake made by quickly stirring up batter in a mug and nuking it in the microwave. It apparently came to widespread public attention in a YouTube video back in 2009.

Though easy to prepare and extraordinary to taste, what is truly remarkable about salmon, I've discovered, is its life cycle. Completed against overwhelming odds by means not yet fully understood.