Soft, chewy and slightly sweet, mochi seems almost otherworldly. Bite into it and the texture resists before yielding, a pleasurable contrast to the creamy ice cream or red bean paste often hidden inside. Mochi’s roots lie deep in Japanese history. Pounded rice cakes are mentioned in texts from the Yayoi period (around 300 BCE), and […]
Walk into a convenience store in Honolulu and you’ll see neat rectangles of rice topped with a slice of Spam, wrapped snugly in a band of nori. This is SPAM musubi, a beloved snack born from the blending of Japanese and American food cultures in Hawaii. Its story begins in the 1930s and 1940s, when […]
Close your eyes and imagine the perfume of a perfectly ripe melon: sweet, heady and slightly floral, it fills a market stall with the scent of summer. Slice through the green-striped rind and the flesh glows apricot‑orange, dripping with juice. In Turkmenistan, melons are not just a fruit but a national treasure. The Central Asian […]
Apples are so ingrained in our culture that they have inspired proverbs, fairy tales and national symbols. National Apple Week celebrates the fruit during the second full week of August, just as early varieties start to ripen in orchards. Apples originated in the mountains of Kazakhstan and spread along trade routes to Europe and Asia. […]
There’s something inherently comforting about rice pudding. Perhaps it’s because its ingredients are so modest — rice, milk, sugar, sometimes eggs or cream and spices — yet when simmered slowly they create a dessert that is creamy, fragrant and soothing. The history of rice pudding is as old as rice cultivation itself. Sweetened rice dishes […]
A crackling campfire, the smell of pine and smoke, and a circle of friends and family passing a bag of marshmallows and a bar of chocolate — these are the ingredients for s’mores. Roasting marshmallows over an open flame is a rite of summer. The perfect marshmallow is held over glowing embers until its outside […]
Afternoon tea is a ritual of pause and pleasure. National Afternoon Tea Week, held during the second full week of August, celebrates the tradition of sitting down mid‑afternoon to sip tea and nibble delicate treats. The custom is credited to Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, who in the 1840s began taking tea with bread […]
Close your eyes and imagine the perfume of a perfectly ripe melon: sweet, heady and slightly floral, it fills a market stall with the scent of summer. Slice through the green-striped rind and the flesh glows apricot‑orange, dripping with juice. In Turkmenistan, melons are not just a fruit but a national treasure. The Central Asian […]
A bombe glacée is a showstopper dessert: layers of ice cream, sherbet or custard frozen in a domed mold and unmolded to reveal concentric bands of color and flavor. The dessert originated in France in the late nineteenth century, when molded frozen desserts were the height of culinary fashion and elaborate molds filled with ice […]
A tart is the essence of simplicity and precision: a crisp pastry shell baked until golden and filled with something delicious. In the case of a raspberry tart, the filling showcases the berry’s pure flavor. Tarts have deep roots in European pastry tradition. Medieval cooks made open‑faced pies filled with savory meat and later sweet […]
Panini is the Italian plural for panino, a small bread roll or sandwich. In Italy, a panino can be as simple as prosciutto and cheese between slices of ciabatta. The concept of grilling or pressing a sandwich, however, has long roots. In cafés in Milan and Florence in the mid‑twentieth century, bars served pressed sandwiches […]
St. Louis has many culinary claims to fame, but few inspire as much local pride as gooey butter cake. The dessert began, so the story goes, with a happy accident in the 1930s at a German American bakery. A baker preparing coffee cake reversed the proportions of butter and flour in the topping, producing a […]