BALTIMORE — H.L. Mencken, the Jazz Age scribe who loved Baltimore and booze in equal measure, spared no opportunity to praise his state’s famous rye whiskey. It was, he said, “the most healthful appetizer yet discovered by man.” The Mencken family doctor, he added, apparently approved: “He believed and taught that a shot of Maryland…
“Wait —” is a weekly newsletter in which Caity Weaver investigates an unanswered question in the news and pop culture. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox. How long is life? According to Official Rules set on behalf of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, life is a period of up to 30 years, beginning at…
The first McDonald’s opened in the Philippines in 1981, ready to conquer. Instead, it met its match: Jollibee, originally a small suburban ice cream franchise that started selling burgers in the late 1970s. By 1984, it had clobbered its American rival, cornering the fast-food market on its home turf and still dominating it to this…
THE FISH REAR UP from the pie, almost a school of them, whole silvery pilchards — a type of herring — half buried, half erupting from the crust. Only their heads, eyes entreating the heavens, are visible, although some versions of the dish let the frilly tails surface, too, as if the fish were trapped…
There was a time when it wasn’t unusual to hear visitors use South Beach as shorthand for the entire Miami metropolitan area. The confusion was understandable — for those weekend warriors there was little reason to venture beyond the city of Miami Beach’s telegenic, Art Deco-emblazoned, southernmost tip. No more. South Beach’s famously louche night…
In “One Good Meal,” we ask cooking-inclined creative people to share the story behind a favorite dish they actually make and eat at home on a regular basis — and not just when they’re trying to impress. Flowers grow seasonally, of course, just like food, which presents a problem in February. “Valentine’s Day falls on…
Image CreditPatricia Wall/The New York Times CreditPatricia Wall/The New York Times But one encounter left much to be desired. My grandfather was on a Fulbright scholarship in Oslo in 1960 when he met Mr. Child, who was stationed there. One night, he returned from a visit to the Childs’ raving about the most extraordinary dish…
[Sam Sifton emails readers of Cooking five days a week to talk about food and suggest recipes. To receive it in your inbox, register here.] Good day. My job is recipes, same as Stephen Curry’s is draining threes. But I don’t always cook with them, and I know I’m not alone. In fact, for years…
I ate many great dishes when I was restaurant critic for The New York Times, and many awful ones too. The plates of the dreadful — dumplings that tasted of soap, stuffed squid the texture of rubber, rancid chicken, frozen tomatoes — I can hardly differentiate in my mind. They left me dismayed in the…
Eating highly processed foods could shorten your life, a new study suggests. The study, in JAMA Internal Medicine, tracked diet and health over eight years in more than 44,000 French men and women. Their average age was 58 at the start. About 29 percent of their energy intake was ultraprocessed foods. Such foods include instant…