An Alternative to the Salad Spinner

I own salad spinners, but I prefer to dry my greens by rolling them up in a terry cloth towel. Obviously, Jill Visit, an entrepreneur from Austin, Tex., is of like mind: She has created the Salad Sling, a 30-inch triple-layer square of absorbent Kelly green fabric. Gather up your washed greens in the sling,…

Cookbook Authors Discuss Jewish Cuisine

The cookbook authors Leah Koenig and Adeena Sussman will discuss the particulars of Jewish cuisine in Israel and the Diaspora at Symphony Space. Gabriella Gershenson, a food writer, will lead the conversation. FoodTalk: Jewish Food, 7:30 p.m., Nov. 12, $20 for members, $25 for nonmembers, $15 for people 30 and under, Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater…

Flavored Salts From Momofuku

Flavored salts are not significant in my culinary wardrobe, though occasionally some come along that tempt me, like this set of three developed by Momofuku. A kosher salt blended with crushed Sichuan peppercorns, called Tingly, was the star. The amount of the piquant, palate-numbing spice is well-balanced in the salt, so it does not overwhelm…

The Baltic States Get Their Culinary Due

Nordic cuisine has garnered interest recently, but the nearby Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, also deserve attention. They rely on similar ingredients like fish (especially smoked), potatoes, caraway, cabbage, dairy, and foraged and fermented products. This new, beautifully photographed book that explores their cuisines fine-tunes the character of each. Estonia is the most Nordic…

A Chocolate Bar With a Golden Blockchain Token

Some high-end chocolates carry the fair trade label from companies that work closely with farmers and support them. But they represent a small percentage of worldwide chocolate production. Now, with the participation of the United Nations Development Program, the FairChain Foundation based in Amsterdam has introduced the Other Bar, made with fine Ecuadorean chocolate, which…

Sotheby’s Has a Wine Label of Its Own

Wine and Sotheby’s brings to mind rare, top-of-the-line collections up for auction. But that doesn’t apply to the auction house’s new line of wines bearing its own label and sold in its wine shop and online. It sells 12 wines, each a well-crafted, almost textbook example of a particular varietal, category and region, without suggesting…

Is Crispr the Next Antibiotic?

For decades, scientists and doctors have treated common bacterial and viral infections with fairly blunt therapies. If you developed a sinus infection or a stomach bug, you would likely be given a broad-spectrum antibiotic that would clear out many different types of bacteria. Antiviral drugs help treat viral illnesses in much the same way, by…