June 2012
36 posts
June 30 - National Ice Cream Soda Day →
Ohhhhhhhhhh man. I love this day, absolutely LOVE it. When was the last time you had an old-fashioned ice cream soda? The famous and delicious marriage of soda and ice cream has been around quite a while, and was created in Philadelphia in 1874, when soda jerker Robert M. Green ran out of cream for his flavored sodas and started scooping vanilla ice cream into them instead. That bit of...
June 29 - National Almond Buttercrunch Day →
What a strange little national food holiday this is! There’s scant information on National Almond Buttercrunch Day around the Internet, and even the articles I found on the day are also equally puzzled as to what almond buttercrunch actually is. As far as I can tell, the closest thing to almond buttercrunch—is it almond butter? is it crunchy because of the almonds??—is Almond...
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June 28 - National Tapioca Day →
Arggggh! Of course, I used up the perfectplace in New York to celebrate National Tapioca Day already. That’s just my luck! I have to look at the future national food holiday calendar more often, haha.
But let me not get ahead of myself here. Did you know that tapiocais actually a plant? It’s a starch that’s extracted from the cassava plant, native to Latin and South America,...
June 27 - National Orange Blossom Day →
Ah, the delicate orange blossom. When you think about orange trees, you usually only think about their fruit: bright orange rinds, the juicy citrusy flesh inside, the many foods and flavors associated with oranges. But those fruits, as all fruits do, have to come from flowers first! And the orange blossom is celebrated in its own right. The official state flower of Florida, the orange blossom is...
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Guest Post: The “Best” Food in New York: Eating... →
A little while ago I wrote a guest blog post for the Gray Line New York’s blog, and today they’ve posted it! I wanted to share with visitors of the city some of my favorite places to eat in New York, most of which I’ve found through creating this blog, and explain why finding “the best” food is more difficult than you may think!
I’d love it if everyone clicks...
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June 26 - National Chocolate Pudding Day →
Man, am I glad that we live in the United States, where the term “pudding” means a sweet, custard-consistency dessert instead of a savory dish made out of the by-products of beef. (No, really, what are the English thinking??) And chocolate pudding is the best of them: smooth and creamy, rich and chocolatey. I love to make chocolate pudding at home, with a big box of My-T-Fine, either...
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June 25 - National Catfish Day →
Summer feels like the absolute perfect time to eat catfish. I don’t know why, because you usually prepare catfish deep fried and thus it comes to your plate hot, but there’s just something about the distinct flavor of catfish, breaded and fried, coupled with some hot sauce and a corn on the cob, that makes me feel like summer’s arrived. In reality, catfish are eaten all...
June 24 - National Pralines Day →
I told you yesterday that pecan-lovers are going to be ecstatic this weekend, because both national food holidays celebrate pecans :) Yesterday was Pecan Sandy Day, dedicated to those crumbly, crunchy, shortbread-y cookies with crushed pecans inside them; and today is National Pralines Day, which some confectioners in the United States use as a term for candied pecans used in desserts. Actually,...
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June 23 - National Pecan Sandy Day →
Is there ever a day that isn’t worth celebrating a cookie? My answer is vehemently “no.” (Unless you’re supposed to celebrate lobster that day, then I would probably defer…) And there is just nothing like a Pecan Sandy. Called “sandy” not because they have sand in them, of course, but for their crumbly, almost shortbread-like texture. I happen to love...
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June 22 (Part Two) - National Onion Rings Day →
Wow!! June 22nd is a pretty awesome day for national food holidays. First you get your sweet fix with National Chocolate Eclair Day, and then it’s a salty, savory, deep-fried love fest with National Onion Ring Day. Everyone who’s eaten fast food knows about the onion ring : onions, sliced into their natural rings, are breaded and deep-fried to form a crunchy, tasty crust, served at...
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June 22 - National Chocolate Eclair Day →
I always loved when my parents had friends over as a kid. Because inevitably, either my parents or their friends would buy that coveted box of miniature pastries to eat over coffee and conversation. Tiny Italian and French specialties lay within that box, tied together with white and red string, delicious confections with sweet pastry crust, chocolate ganache, and creme filling—oh, the...
June 21 - National Peaches and Cream Day →
It’s more than just a pretty color combination to paint on your livingroom walls—and it’s more than just a dirty euphemism, too. Peaches and cream is a delicious, easy dessert, much like Strawberries and Cream, that just involves fruit and a bit of cool cream to make a lovely, elegant dish. And the summer is the best time to enjoy this kind of dessert, with fruits in abundance...
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June 20 - National Vanilla Milkshake Day →
Who doesn’t love a milkshake? Made of ice cream, milk, and other flavorings, milkshakes have become one of the best food inventions to come out of the United States, ever. (Screw soda and Baked Alaska and all our other food inventions!) Super sweet yet cool and refreshing, milkshakes have been around since the turn of the century, served at malt shops (where the malted milkshake was born)...
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June 19 - National Dry Martini Day →
“Shaken, not stirred.”
Real martini connoisseurs hate James Bond. His famous line for ordering a martini has been repeated by bar amateurs for decades all over the world, and all it leads to is a weak martini and disapproving looks from experts. I learned a lot about the martini when researching for this national food holiday, particularly that stirred is the preferred method of...
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June 18 (Part Two) - International Sushi Day →
Now for the food holiday that I was really looking forward to today! It may be Cherry Tart Day in the United States, but all over the world it is International Sushi Day! Sushi has become popular in the U.S. in the past years—so much so that it’s difficult not to stumble upon a sushi bar on every street, especially in New York City. (On Sheepshead Bay Road in my little neighborhood...
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June 18 - National Cherry Tart Day →
I’m not going to lie to you: I’m not all that interested in National Cherry Tart Day. Since the past two weeks have been all about strawberries in Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie and Strawberry Shortcake—not to mention the delectable Apple Strudel Day just yesterday—I’m just about full up of summer fruit pastry national food holidays right about now. (What I am excited about...
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June 17 - National Apple Strudel Day
Forget about those frozen, fake fruit-filled pastries you’ll find with a doughboy on the box. That’s not real apple strudel, not by a mile! The tradition of Apple Strudel has been around in Central Europe since the 18th century, originating in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Filled with cooked apples, sugar, cinnamon, and sometimes raisins, the pastry is made of unleavened dough...
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June 16 - National Fudge Day
Like I said on National Nutty Fudge Day, we normally equate fudge with rich, gooey, warm chocolate, but that isn’t the case! The real definition of fudge is a mix of sugar, butter, and milk that’s slowly heated to a specific temperature. It’s only the American version that’s predominantly chocolate—and why we can have so many different flavors and it can still be...
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June 15 - National Lobster Day →
Ohhhhhhhhh my goooooooooood. Is there anything in this world better than the king of proteins, the lobster? (Okay, maybe chocolate. And those are two things that definitely do not mix.) When I was a kid I hated shellfish of all kinds, but when I grew to be about ten, my tastes changed and I started embracin’ the crustacean. Now I love lobster in bisque, sandwiches, salads, and of course,...
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June 14 - National Strawberry Shortcake Day →
Sometimes I’m very excited to do some research on a particular national food holiday for this blog, and National Strawberry Shortcake Day is definitely one of those times! My uncle loves strawberry shortcake and we regularly have it for his birthday cake. But what I learned through research for this day was that the “strawberry shortcake” we have isn’t a shortcake at all!...
June 13 - June Is National Papaya Month! →
Yummmm, papaya! June is National Papaya Month…which is strange for the United States to have, considering that papaya trees need such a tropical environment to grow that they’re not native within the U.S.! They’ve been found naturally in Mexico, Latin America and South America, and their fruits have become big staples in indigenous cultures’ diets, medicines, and everyday...
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June 12 - National Peanut Butter Cookie Day →
The peanut butter cookie, unsurprisingly, was invented by that king of the peanut, George Washington Carver. His first “recipe” for the cookie was published in 1916 and used crushed peanuts; it wasn’t until 1920 that he changed the ingredient to peanut butter. It’s obvious that Carver was a scientist and not a baker, but where would we be today in home cooking without the...
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June 11 - National German Chocolate Cake Day →
German chocolate cake may be my favorite way to eat chocolate cake—and that’s really saying something! What makes a German chocolate cake so special is the frosting: a regular chocolate layer cake is traditionally topped with a coconut-pecan frosting. The coconut adds another layer of sweetness to the cake, plus a different flavor and texture that you wouldn’t get with a normal...
June 10 - Head to the Egg Rolls and Egg Creams...
Oy vey! While everyone else in the city may be uptown today for the Puerto Rican Day Parade (or staying home to avoid all the traffic from the parade!), you can check out a unique food festival happening in the Lower East Side. The Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival is an annual block party, celebrating the historical Jewish and Chinese communities who lived in the Lower East Side. Of course, now...
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June 10 - National Iced Tea Day
Isn’t it a little weird that there’s a National Iced Tea Day, but no national hot tea day? You’ve got to put a little ice in your tea to celebrate a national holiday! Not that I’m complaining on this day, however—the middle of June is the perfect weather to sit outside, on your balcony or at a sidewalk cafe, and sip a cool, tall glass of freshly brewed iced tea....
June 9 - It's the 10th Annual Big Apple BBQ Party!
Come one, come all, carnivores! The Big Apple BBQ Party is this weekend! For those that don’t know, for the past decade the Big Apple BBQ Party has been a big to-do right in the middle of Madison Square Park. Pitmasters from all over the country descend upon the city and offer up samples of their best barbecue fare, from ribs and brisket to pulled pork and delectable chicken wings....
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June 9 - National Strawberry Rhubarb Day
We may have had straight-up Rhubarb Pie Day back in January, but this national food holiday—National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day—is much more flavorful. Strawberries are in peak season right this second in the Northeast, and their super sweet flavor (especially if you pick them wild!) mixes well with rhubarb’s tartness. It mellows out the pie into a gooey, pink/red, delicious...
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June 8 - National Jelly Doughnut Day →
How can anyone resist a good jelly doughnut? Doughnuts are an amazing little sweet treat to begin with: you can’t really go wrong with deep-fried sweet dough that’s powdered, sugared, or even filled with jelly or cream? Usually, a doughnut is just too sweet for me to have more than one (unless it’s a little chocolate Entenmann’s doughnut, and then all bets are off). But a...
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June 7 - National Chocolate Ice Cream Day →
I’ll gladly play around with Rocky Road and Salted Caramel and all of those fancy ice cream flavors for this national food holidays blog. But can we be a little serious here? Is there anything better than a high quality, rich, creamy cup of pure chocolate ice cream? Just as a chef’s expertise should be judged based on how well she executes a classic dish, an ice cream shop is only as...
June 6 - National Applesauce Cake Day →
You’d think that applesauce cake is a strange thing to eat, much less have a national food holiday for, but it’s far more common than you think. The habit of using applesauce as a binder in cake mixes is thought to have started during World War II, when such food items as eggs, oil, and milk were being rationed for the war, but fruits like apples were plentiful. Applesauce acts as a...
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June 5 - National Gingerbread Day →
I’ve never been a huge fan of ginger. My parents love it and put it in a lot of the dishes they make at home, and so growing up I learned I had to pick it out of my chicken stir-fry or get a rude, spicy awakening when I chomped down on what I thought was a slice of garlic. Not fun. :-\ I’ve come around slightly to the idea of ginger in my savory foods, and now mostly keep it around...
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June 4 (Part Two) - National Cognac Day →
Fuck FroYo, man! Especially when June 4 is also National Cognac Day. (I have never seen such clashing foods have the same national food holiday before. Definitely not two things you can mix together.) Cognac is a type of brandy, but has a ton of rules for fermenting and developing than its parent liqueur: it must be made from the specific grapes of the Cognac region of France (much like true...
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June 4 - National Frozen Yogurt Day →
FroYo, Frogurt, Yogart…whatever you call it, frozen yogurt is here to stay. I mean, it’s been around for a while—frozen yogurt was invented back in the 1970s as a healthy alternative to ice cream—but it seems to have only gained popularity in the last few years. Frozen yogurt boutique stores have popped up all over the city, nevermind the entire country, offering sweet,...
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June 3 - National Egg Day
The incredible, edible egg!
National Egg Day encompasses a lot, as can be imagined. We humans have been eating other creatures’ eggs since prehistory, particularly those of birds like quails, ducks, and of course, chickens. The chicken egg has become the most popular egg to be consumed by people, and celebrated for its punch of protein in a little package, and its versatility as a binder,...
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June 2 - National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day
There are so many things that I learned while researching for National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day! First off, Rocky Road ice cream was created in 1929 in California by William Dreyer, the ice cream magnate behind the Dreyer’s brand (known around these parts as Edy’s). He added walnuts and marshmallows to his chocolate ice cream, and named it “Rocky Road” after the stock...
June 1 - National Hazelnut Cake Day
The hazelnut is such an underrepresented nut. Most often seen in American cuisine as a flavor additive to coffee or as part of the heavenly combination of nuts and chocolate known as Nutella, hazelnutshave been cultivated in Europe and Asia for thousands of years. They’ve been heralded as a gift from the gods by the ancient Chinese and used in marriage ceremonies in ancient Rome. They...
