World of Food And Cooking

           Pasta  is often considered a prime example of "fine dining". The epiphany of fancy food. Surely, food held in such high regard is worth the 20-30 dollars each dish typically costs at an Italian restaurant. But..is it really worth it?       First off, we should start off with pasta's origin. According to the Italian food company Delallo , pasta's roots could be traced back to 1700-1100 BCE in China. Pasta was also featured as a part of the Greek diet and had a variation in Africa as well. Several hundred years later in 400 BCE, pasta was introduced to Italy.       The dish's popularity continued to grow over the centuries, becoming a part of Italian culture, Like other foods in Italian cuisine, pasta became an art form. Its decadence and abundance would give it the status it has now during the 19th century. But is that really all there is to it? The ingredients to make pasta have stayed consistent over ...

  Bread, butter, cheese. These are the building blocks of one of the most popular comfort foods of all time, evident in the fact that it has a whole month dedicated to its honor...and I get it! I love this sandwich. The fact that I can make it in less than 10 minutes is amazing. A seemingly simple, yet delicate dish that can go from plain to something particularly gourmet. But where did it come from? How does one make it? Is it possible to improve upon perfection? Cheesystreetgrill.com  traces the origin of the dish all the way back to Roman times when recipes for the sandwich were found engraved in their texts. While the French had already created their own forms of the dish with the Croque Monsieur, grilled cheese as we know it wouldn't appear until the early 20th century when Kraft's founder patented a process of cheese pasteurization that allowed it to be transported without spoiling. Soon after, the creation of sliced bread would be born, changing the world of sandwiches ...

       Pickles, sour kraut, kimchi, alcohol. All these foods are products of a long-practiced food preservation technique known as fermentation . The technique was developed to prolong the shelf-life of various foods, but would eventually become a staple method for various wonderful dishes around the world. Even after refrigeration, this technique persisted as the populace began to grow fond of the flavors provided by it. But where and when did it start?      Before refrigerators and canned foods, there was a time when humanity let food sit untouched for a while, leaving it at the mercy of the elements. After all, those big ice boxes we keep around in our homes are a modern-day luxury our ancestors never had.       According to an article by Living History Farms , fermentation began as far back as 10,000 BCE. However, it began as an unintentional process. It was believed that microflora already present in dairy products, combined w...

  When people think of MSG, they fall into one of two groups:  They either believe it to be "the ingredient that makes all food taste good", or "the ingredient that's gonna kill you."  Opinions of this seasoning are very mixed. It's often considered one of the most controversial ingredients in the cooking and food world. But why? Where is this reaction coming from? To start off, we need to ask the question:  what is MSG? According to Ajinomoto.com , MSG, also known as Monosodium glutamate, is a type of salt found in ingredients like tomatoes and cheese. It was made in 1906 when biochemist Dr. Kikunae Ikeda sought to extract the savory flavor of dried seaweed his wife used in a broth. Ikeda managed to extract a crystal compound from the seaweed, which turned out to be glutamic acid.  Upon tasting the crystal, he'd dub the ingredient "Umami", a play on the Japanese word "Umai", meaning delicious. Soon after, he filed a patent for the ma...

           "No time to cook at home" .  This is a sentiment that many Americans resonate with. Of course, they can't just go out for work, hungry and de-energized. Without food in your system, how can you possibly be productive? So, a solution was needed, and so a solution was born: Fast-Food.    America's relationship with fast food is practically synonymous with the country itself. As Colby.edu describes it: "Fast -food is a presence in almost everybody’s life on a daily basis." Often times when people think "fast-food", they think of McDonald's or Burger King and then think of America (and its citizens, for the better or worse). But why? Why is this industry so widespread and associated with the US?       The answer comes down to three factors: convenience, accessibility, and cost. They're convenient in that they're served fast, accessible in that there are fast food restaurants scattered across every city, and are ine...

       How often do you look into your fridge and spot some leftover ingredients that you forgot about weeks ago, rotting in your fridge? For a lot of people, including me, this happens rather often.   There are countless cases where after we are done cooking, we're left with some vegetables or meat that just end up rotting in the fridge after a week or two. People don't do this intentionally. Leftovers tend to be in small amounts where they're not worthwhile or are ingredients that they are unsure how to make use of.  Of course, we wouldn't want to leave them to decay, that would be wasting food! the  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations calculates that nearly one-third of food is wasted due to consumers purchasing and cooking more than what they can eat, resulting in the leftovers being thrown out or left to expire. But if you're not sure about what to do with these leftovers, what can you do?        ...