food

National

NYC's Fast-Food Workers Strike, Demand 'Living Wages'

8:20pm April 04, 2013

by Joel Rose

Fast-food workers in New York City are on strike for the second time in six months, demanding higher wages that they can live on. Workers complain that $7.25 an hour, New York's current minimum wage, is not enough to live in the city.

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Arts

A Fossilized Confection Baked For Easter 1807

10:34am March 30, 2013

A British couple believes they've come across a hot cross bun that was baked more than 200 years ago. Host Scott Simon explains.

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Tuscany's sweet spinach pie is a dish that's often associated with Easter and spring.

Arts

Tuscan Pie A Sweet Springtime Take On Spinach

12:55pm March 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Francine Segan, author of Dolci: Italy's Sweets, discovered the unusual treat while traveling in Tuscany.

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A sign outside Lou Caracciolo's winery, Amalthea Cellars

The Trick To Selling Fancy Wine From New Jersey: Don't Say It's From New Jersey

11:14am March 29, 2013

by Robert Smith

Instead, say it's from the "Outer Coastal Plain." (It's part of a plan to kick the state's reputation for making cheap wine.)

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Farm Bill's Sugar Subsidy More Taxing Than Sweet, Critics Say

11:55pm March 28, 2013

by Dan Bobkoff

A government sugar subsidy program is often criticized for keeping sugar prices too high. But now prices are falling and the government may buy 400,000 tons of sugar to help struggling sugar processors. Critics say the government's involvement in the sugar business should end.

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Nick Wiseman, partner at DGS Delicatessen, inspects the kitchen as an employee prepares pastrami sandwiches for lunch in Washington, D.C.

Reviving The Spirit And Schmaltz Of The Jewish Deli

10:55am March 28, 2013

by Padmananda Rama

Smoked salmon pastrami may sound heretical, but owners of a revisionist Jewish deli in Washington, D.C., say it's all part of a revival of traditional Jewish cuisine.

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Workers clear honey from dead beehives at a bee farm east of Merced, Calif.

Are Agriculture's Most Popular Insecticides Killing Our Bees?

10:42am March 28, 2013

by Dan Charles

Neonicotinoids are pesticides widely used to coat the seeds of agricultural plants, especially corn. But some evidence suggests these chemicals may also be poisoning bees. A tell-tale clue: reports of massive bee die-offs that all took place during corn-planting season.

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Tastes like chicken, but it's OK for Lent: Fried alligator, as served at New Orleans' Cochon restaurant.

Forget Fish Fridays: In Louisiana, Gator Is On The Lenten Menu

5:59pm March 27, 2013

by Tina Antolini

Move over, tuna fish, shrimp and clam chowder. Alligator is here for your Friday Lenten meals, thanks to confirmation from the archbishop of New Orleans that it is, in fact, a seafood.

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Mount Vernon Visitors Can Sip History

7:25am March 27, 2013

A batch of George Washington's straight rye whiskey is being made in a reconstruction of his old distillery. Historians who have tasted it say it's very bad rye whiskey.

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Cookbook author Marilynn Brass says eating Virginia Lima's traditional Portuguese Sweet Bread is like biting into a cloud.

Arts

A Sweet Bread, A Wash Basin And A Shot Of Whiskey

6:45pm March 26, 2013

by NPR Staff

As part of All Things Considered's Found Recipes series, cookbook duo the Brass Sisters share a friend's memories of his mother's Portuguese Sweet Bread. Her tradition involved a big enamel basin, a nip of whiskey and a little prayer that the bread would turn out right.

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