8 Foods That Aren’t Old As You Might Think They Are
It seems like some foods — bananas, Hawaiian pizza, garlic bread — have been around forever. They’re actually quite new.
Food & Drink
Make Yourself a Plate at Uncle John’s Backyard Barbecue
Here’s why your hot dog and Caprese salad consumption goes up so much during the summertime.
Milking it For All it’s Worth: A Very Dairy Q&A
Every question you’ve ever had about milk, yogurt, and dairy products, answered by the experts.
Peeps, Crème Eggs, and Chocolate Bunnies: Where Easter Candy Comes From
Every wonder why we eat marshmallow rabbits, pretend eggs, and chocolate bunnies at Easter? Here the origins of those seasonal treats.
Uncle John is Serving Up Hot Breakfast Facts
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so these origin stories of classic, hot breakfast foods must be pretty important, too.
Grab a Plate: We’ve Got Plenty of Holiday Food Origin Stories
As we gather to celebrate the holidays with particular and important treats, let’s explore the origins of those Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa favorites.
What’s New in Weird Baseball Food?
Here are all the wildest, biggest, and strangest new foods on offer at the big league stadiums this year.
Back Home Again in Indiana(polis 500)
Today we’re going “indy” with these interesting facts about auto-racing’s annual Memorial Day weekend event, the Indianapolis 500. Perhaps the Indy 500 is so big because it’s contested in a place that is literally huge. You could fit the entirety of Vatican City inside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway… and Yankee Stadium… and the Rose […]
Carve Out a Space In Your Day For These Pumpkin Facts
Put down that pumpkin spice latte (which doesn’t have any actual pumpkin in it, by the way) and check out these facts about everyone’s favorite gourd. Word Origins Origin of the word pumpkin: In 1584, French explorer Jacques Cartier visited what’s now Canada and reported seeing grow melons. The French then called them pompions, which […]
Forgotten Fad Restaurants
Fast food burger places, barbecue joints, and Chinese restaurants remain stalwarts on the American food scene, outlasting a lot of other types of eateries that have come…and mostly gone. Fondue While the notion of dipping pieces of bread, meat, and vegetables in hot oil or cheese and calling it a (very filling) meal dates back […]
Making Music, Making Drinks
There’s a long association between beverages and songs — there are a lot of old country tunes about drinkin’, and Jimmy Buffett’s entire career is based on liking margaritas. Here are some times when musicians told the people what to drink…and they obliged. “The Piña Colada Song” popularized the piña colada The piña colada, a […]
New Coke Isn’t It
What was the most popular activity of the summer of 1985? Hating on New Coke, Coca-Cola’s ill-fated attempt to reformulate its popular product. First Diet Drinks The first major diet drink on the market was Diet Pepsi, launched in 1964. Coca-Cola offered Tab, but as its cans bore a warning about how the sugar substitute […]
Who Knew…That Eating Healthy Was So Complicated?
We did! Here are some deep dives into some of the questions we all face when we’re standing in the supermarket, trying to decide what foods are delicious, best beneficial to our bodies…and which are also not too expensive. Is “eating local” healthier than not? Yes, but it might not be your health. Eating locally-produced […]
‘Strange Hollywood’ Tales: Celebrity-Founded Eateries That Flopped
What’s strange? Playing “make believe” and “dress up” for a living…and getting multi-million-dollar paychecks to do it. What’s even stranger? Using some of that acting money to open up a restaurant. Here are some stars who got into and then out of the kitchen. Pat Boone’s Dine-O-Mat Pat Boone made a name for himself singing […]
Wine Myths You Shouldn’t Swallow
In pursuing and sharing fun facts and interesting trivia, we sometimes like to get a little fancy around here. Pour yourself a glass of myth-busting! Myth: You’re supposed to drink red wine with beef and white wine with fish. Truth: First of all, you shouldn’t drink red wine if you don’t like red wine, even […]
The World’s Weirdest Cheeseburgers
You can get a burger with everything on it at almost everywhere these days —gas stations, convenience stores, grocery stores…but you’ll have to go a little but father for these bizarre meat-cutes. All the Cholesterol the Law Allows Since the ‘90s, Atlanta’s The Vortex has served “Coronary Bypass Burgers” to those who dare…and who should […]
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Pickles
“Dill” you like facts about brined cucumbers? Sweet! HOW OLD IS THAT JAR IN THE FRIDGE? Pickling is one of the earliest methods of food preservation, and one that hasn’t fundamentally changed all that much in the past few thousand years. Historians have found evidence that cucumbers originated in India, and that they were first […]
It’s “Eat What You Want Day” (But Don’t Eat This)
Saturday, May 11 is “Eat What You Want Day,” a time that organizers say we should all ease up on the healthy eating and just consume what we really want to consume. It might be going a little too far, however, to eat one of these record-setting giant foods, or try to match a competitive […]
