Laura 
For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make. It’s all Chaucer’s fault! He was the first major writer to begin associating Valentine’s Day with romantic love as seen in the passage above from The Parlement of Foules, written in 1382 to honor the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. His seasonal reference … Read more
Food not only nourishes us, but when well prepared, it can bring excitement, pleasure and contentment. When shared, it can bring dining companions together around the table as they enjoy and comment on delicious dishes. I had a wonderful dining experience recently when I shared some great Nepalese food with colleagues from work. On the last night of a week of meetings to discuss an … Read more
We had friends over again, and as usual, I spent a couple of days in the kitchen preparing for their visit. This time I whipped up a regional tasting menu of Caucasian specialties from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. As they ate and in between the “yummy sounds” my friends kept on commenting that there were, “so many flavors on the plate”. Many thanks to my … Read more
The earliest known winery has been uncovered in a cave in the mountains of Armenia. A vat to press the grapes, fermentation jars and even a cup and drinking bowl dating to about 6,000 years ago were discovered in a cave complex near Areni, Armenia by an international team of researchers. They also found grape seeds, remains of pressed grapes and dozens of dried vines. … Read more
“It comes without ribbons. It comes without tags. It comes without packages, boxes or bags. . .” Christianity arrived in North Africa in the first or second century, coming first to Alexandria – the great melting pot of culture and scholarship. From there, it spread across North Africa and down the coastal cities to the east until it reached Ethiopia and was adopted as the … Read more
Imagine the world around 400 BCE. The Phoenicians in Carthage were the dominant power in North Africa; Socrates had just been condemned to death; in Mesoamerica, the Olmec civilization entered a period of terminal decline; and a Chinese nobleman was laid to rest in his tomb in Xian with soup and wine to see him through to the afterlife. After 2,400 years the cauldron or … Read more
Mother, goddess, harlot, sister, stateswoman, linguist, assassin, daughter, diplomat – Cleopatra, the last Queen of Egypt. Rarely has a woman been so revered and reviled at the same time, and even more rarely have so many half-truths been handed down through the centuries about one. Ask someone in the west what springs to mind when they think of Cleopatra and they will probably cite a … Read more
You have now a broken banquet; but we’ll mend it. A good digestion to you all: and once more I shower a welcome on ye; welcome all. . . Thus in Act I, Scene IV of The Life of King Henry the Eighth does the king, in disguise, crash the party at Cardinal Wolsey’s house. That night was both magical and fateful, foods were … Read more
A news item caught my eye recently that blended two of my favorite subjects – cuisine and biology. Long story short is that a species of asexual lizard previously undocumented by scientists has been discovered in Southern Vietnam recently. Neat thing about the story is that the lizard was discovered in a restaurant – grilled and plated and ready to be consumed. A Vietnamese scientist stopped for a … Read more
We toasted to the mountains and how they have perseved Georgian culture over the millennia, to our ancestors, to our homelands, the men stood and toasted to the beautiful women in their lives and we all toasted to the future. Those were amongst the many toasts that we shared over glasses of Pheasant’s Tears last night at Levante’s restaurant in downtown Washington’s Dupont Circle. Our tamada, … Read more
Muslim Communities in Central China have female religious leaders as well as their own unique food culture. Despite a deep historical tradition of female religious leadership beginning with Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet Mohammed, modern China is one of the only countries in which Muslim women are widely accepted as heads of their religious communities. These female religious leaders also fulfill most of the … Read more
We take so much for granted these days. Almost every household cupboard has ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks in them. Mass produced cinnamon is cheap and readily available at almost every market and even higher quality cinnamon sticks from the far reaches of the globe are accessible and relatively affordable via the internet. In times past, however, spices were rare and expensive and significant portions … Read more
This year, for the first autumn birthday, we took the family and a guest to a nearby Korean barbeque that has gotten some great reviews. Honey Pig really is a small slice of South Korea tucked into the DC suburbs. From its dark and industrial-styled interior to its straightforward, unembellished service and the thumping pop on the sound system it feels like stepping into another … Read more
The wind whistling across the cold, high, plain; sky-high mountains to the south and west and an endless desert to the north. You walk with your pack and your pony across the desolate, dry meadow. In the distance there are horns and bells crashing and booming to banish evil spirits. Silence and then a rhythmic batrachian chorus of monks starts to invoke a powerful Goddess. … Read more
A share of stock issued in 1606 by the sea trading firm Dutch East India Company has recently been discovered in the Netherlands. Locked away in forgotten city archives, the share was made out to Pieter Harmensz, from the Dutch East India Company has recently been found in the northwestern city Hoorn. As the Netherlands’ largest trading company in the 17th and 18 centuries, the … Read more
When in Rome – we did as the tourists do. With our young children in tow, we spent unspeakably hot days touring the Forum and Coliseum; spent a morning in the Capitoline Museum and an afternoon on the Palatine Hill under the pines of Rome. Being raised in my father’s Italian-American hometown, every face seemed familiar to me – dark hair, big brown eyes, aquiline … Read more