food

Mike Odette, chef and co-owner of Sycamore Restaurant, finds beets and turnips that will make tasty refrigerator pickles at the Columbia, Mo., farmers market.

Arts

Pickling Up Your Next Summer Picnic

5:55pm August 03, 2013

by Abbie Fentress Swanson

Heat is no friend to mayonnaise. The perfect way to preserve produce for hot summer picnics is by pickling — not just cucumbers, but cherries, green tomatoes, okra, kohlrabi — all kinds of seasonal produce.

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The Martha's Vineyard beach where Heidi Feldman collects saltwater to make sea salt.

National

Massachusetts Revives The Lost Art Of Making Sea Salt

11:08am August 02, 2013

by Katherine Perry

Farmers are mining the sea for salt on the same shore where the salt industry boomed 170 years ago. Fans of local food are buying up the favorite condiment collected close to home.

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Zwetschgendatschi is the Bavarian word for plum cake. The dessert uses Damson plums, which are only in season for a few weeks each year.

Arts

Zwetschgendatschi, A Mouthful That Captures The Perfect Plum

5:48pm August 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

Bavarian plum cake reminds Gesine Bullock-Prado of her mother and childhood split between Germany and the U.S. The dessert uses Damson plums, which are only in season for a short time each summer.

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The label for the berry blend recalled in June because of pomegranates linked to a hepatitis A outbreak.

Science

What Poisoned Pomegranates Tell Us About Food Safety

5:48pm August 01, 2013

by Dan Charles

The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a plan to try and prevent American food companies from importing contaminated produce from abroad. The case of the poisoned pomegranates from Turkey shows that our safety systems for imported food, however helpful, are not foolproof.

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Jack Bishop of America's Test Kitchen says the trick to grilling peaches is using fruit that's ripe but firm.

Books
Arts

'America's Test Kitchen' On Grilling Peaches, Tofu And Burgers

1:26pm August 01, 2013

Bridget Lancaster and Jack Bishop advise using ripe fruit, extra-firm tofu and poking your hamburgers so they don't puff up like tennis balls.

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People gathered outside a Wendy's restaurant in New York City on Monday as part of a one-day strike calling for higher wages for fast-food workers.

Fast-Food Strikers Demand A 'Living Wage'

8:22am August 01, 2013

by Joel Rose

Picketers in seven cities say McDonald's, Wendy's and other fast-food chains should pay employees $15 an hour. But the restaurant industry says that would force those companies to cut jobs.

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Anglers fish off Galata Bridge in Istanbul in 2011. The bridge is within site of the modest waterside restaurant Akin Balik.

Catch Of The Day, Grilled The Turkish Way

10:17pm July 30, 2013

by Peter Kenyon

The fishermen are out in all weather in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait. So there's no question that the fish is fresh, as area chefs carry on the tradition of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Ottomans in putting fish to the fire.

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Some NPR staff members taste recipes from the contest finalists.

And The Winning Taste Of Summer Is ...

12:01pm July 29, 2013

by Melissa Gray

After careful consideration, gnashing of teeth and cleansing of palates, we have a winner in the Found Recipes Taste of Summer contest. Listeners wrote in, and NPR staff sampled recipes from the three finalists.

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Jill Pasquarella (right) pours powdered sugar on Brandon Connelly, who dressed as a baker from Hubig's Pies, during Mardi Gras in New Orleans in February.

Pie-Deprived New Orleans Roots For Bakery, A Year After Fire

12:59pm July 27, 2013

by Eve Troeh

Eating a Hubig's fried fruit pie has been a ritual for decades for the local food-obsessed in New Orleans. But a year ago, a fire destroyed the baking facility and much of its custom machinery from the 1920s. Rebuilding is a long and expensive road, but fans are eagerly awaiting the bakery's comeback.

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Health & Safety

Why Skipping Breakfast Might Raise Risk Of Heart Disease

3:18pm July 25, 2013

by Allison Aubrey

A new study finds that men who routinely skipped breakfast had a 27 percent higher risk of having a heart attack or dying from coronary heart disease compared to men who ate breakfast.

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