When it came to going to school my sisters and I lived in a world that was routine. No home schooling existed. Many of you would add; mercifully. The only thing that prevented us from attending grade school every weekday from September until June would have been a white out blizzard. I…

Archeologists have discovered signs of potato cultivation as early as 9,000 years ago in the Andean valley. Researchers believe that people first domesticated the wild tuber on the shores of Lake Titicaca, along the borders of modern-day Peru and Bolivia. These early inhabitants bred yellow potatoes and white potatoes, fat ones and…

We have been together on this program awhile you and I. We are getting close to A Word On Food show #400. Yet how have I not yet done a show on pasta? It is one of those things that is so common in our lives we can forget them. But that…

Saying medianoches might sound to some like I’m saying midnights as in a plural of them. But since is this is “A Word On Food” and we are in Southern Florida many of you knew I was and am… speaking of the sandwiches so named. The debates as to the birthplace of…

Evidently we need to handle the fact that … though the virus we are beset with may ebb and flow … it is not likely to go altogether away anytime soon. It will take longer if folks don’t listen to the medical and science experts that I am sure of. Maybe it…

Very few sandwiches have attained the notoriety that we know them by their initials alone. Take five. Think about that. After P.B.J’s it gets a little tougher to think of others that make it to that pedestal of comestibles we arrange between slices of bread or, if you prefer … as do…

I’m thinking maybe more than a few of you folks listening might have wondered what I meant by the word preserves. We don’t converse about preserves like we did in the faraway 1950’s. Nor the term canning. But preserving and canning were big in our childhood home. And it is my bet…

In these times of worry, confusion and even the sense of confinement it is good to look back with gratitude to the people who have made life marvelous as well. It is especially nice when it is a local hero who our community was so very proud. I was a long time…

In Uruguay and Argentina, where the cuisine is strongly influenced by Italy, there is a curious tradition of unknown origin. It is believed that if you eat gnocchi on the 29th of each month, you’ll have plenty of cash for the next 30 days. Some people even place wallets on their laps…

We had a restaurant in Los Angeles for awhile. “Norman’s On Sunset”. It was a wild ride for many reasons. One of the things that made it spectacular for a person who loves to cook is their magnificent bounty of produce out there. Oh. Don’t get me wrong. I think in South…

Joyce Carol Oates wrote, “In a time of social distancing writers find themselves, surprisingly, at an advantage.  Ever adaptable, we humans are also the storytelling species:  No matter the technology, no matter the grimness of our condition, we want to be told stories.  In November of 1959 a delicious story began at…

When folks get the food they have ordered at a restaurant .. and it accompanied by a side of french fries I’d lay heavy odds that the very first thing that is touched, tasted, sampled, eaten and enjoyed … will be the fries. It is a lock. I’ve seen it time and…

As many of you know I have lived a good portion of my life in Key West. Though a fishing paradise, my primary interaction with fish is to cook them. I like to think I do it with reverence. When I learned that it was considered ill mannered if not corrupt to…

When I was a boy we lived in a sylvan place in Northern Illinois. A town not far from our was named “Half Day”. It was given that name in that it took half of a day to ride there from Chicago by horseback. Our town was Diamond Lake due to the…

We were in France on vacation some years ago. The people of Cannes were sauntering down the boulevard, many in bright scarves on an Easter Sunday afternoon … holding or walking their tiny dogs. The dogs almost seem like accessories to a wardrobe…like a scarf or a jaunty chapeau. Not like our…