Accessibility links
Food Stories on food, nutrition, recipes, cooking, cookbook reviews, and health. Download Food and Hidden Kitchen podcasts and subscribe to RSS feeds.

Food

At This Sandwich Shop, A Vietnamese Pop Star Serves Up Banh Mi

Lynda Trang Dai sits inside her restaurant, Lynda Sandwich, in Orange County, Calif. Lisa Morehouse/For NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Lisa Morehouse/For NPR

The Salt

At This Sandwich Shop, A Vietnamese Pop Star Serves Up Banh Mi

Lynda Trang Dai, known as the "Vietnamese Madonna," performs around the world. Back home in California, she's got a different starring role: she's the only one to whip up her sandwiches' secret sauce.

At This Sandwich Shop, A Vietnamese Pop Star Serves Up Banh Mi

Listen · 4:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/453152297/453509961" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Do We Waste A Lot Of Pumpkins We Could Be Eating?

You probably wouldn't want to eat these Jack O'Lanterns since they've been carved and sitting out. But this variety of pumpkin is perfectly edible and nutritious. Wildcat Dunny/Flickr hide caption

toggle caption
Wildcat Dunny/Flickr

The Salt

Do We Waste A Lot Of Pumpkins We Could Be Eating?

Halloween pumpkins are nutritious and perfectly edible — if they haven't been carved and left outside for days. And yet we throw almost all of them away. Here's what happened when we cooked with one.

Mr. Chef Goes To Washington: Cooks Learn To Lobby Congress On Food

Chefs Kerry Heffernan and Tom Colicchio pose for a photo at Bearnaise, a Capitol Hill restaurant, on Tuesday before setting out for a day of lobbying lawmakers. Kris Connor/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Kris Connor/Getty Images

The Salt

Mr. Chef Goes To Washington: Cooks Learn To Lobby Congress On Food

As food policy gets more attention in Washington, lobbying groups are training chefs to stir up Congress. The hope is that they'll sway lawmakers on issues like school lunch and GMO labels.

So Good You'll Scream? A Cookbook From Horror Icon Vincent Price

Famous horror film actor Vincent Price also co-wrote a best-selling cookbook in the 1960s with his then-wife, Mary. The original cover of the book, A Treasury Of Great Recipes, is seen at left. It's just been reissued. William Claxton/A Treasury of Great Recipes; Price Family Trust hide caption

toggle caption
William Claxton/A Treasury of Great Recipes; Price Family Trust

The Salt

So Good You'll Scream? A Cookbook From Horror Icon Vincent Price

A Treasury of Great Recipes, by the famed horror film actor, was out of print for decades until this month. It turns out, Price was also a foodie with an "omnivorous appetite," his daughter tells us.

So Good You'll Scream? A Cookbook From Horror Icon Vincent Price

Listen · 3:27
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/452660436/453072684" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Food Podcasts 1.0: These Radio Pioneers Had It Down 90 Years Ago

Evelyn Birkby interviews guests on her KMA radio program, Down a Country Lane, in 1951 in Shenandoah, Iowa. Courtesy of University of Iowa Women's Archives/Evelyn Birkby Collection hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of University of Iowa Women's Archives/Evelyn Birkby Collection

The Salt

Food Podcasts 1.0: These Radio Pioneers Had It Down 90 Years Ago

From the 1920s on, women broadcasters offered recipes, life hacks and insights for the farmer's wife. Like podcasts, their shows were often personal, off-the-cuff and right from the kitchen table.

Why Is It So Hard To Save Gulf Of Maine Cod? They're In Hot Water

Zach Whitener, research associate at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, holds a cod while collecting samples for a study. Gulf of Maine Research Institute hide caption

toggle caption
Gulf of Maine Research Institute

The Salt

Why Is It So Hard To Save Gulf Of Maine Cod? They're In Hot Water

In the past decade, the Gulf of Maine warmed faster than 99.9 percent of the global ocean. The rapid warming explains why recent fishing policies failed to rebuild the cod population, a study finds.

Why Is It So Hard To Save Gulf Of Maine Cod? They're In Hot Water

Listen · 2:28
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/451942641/452909326" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
That Salmon On The Menu Might Be A Fraud — Especially In Winter

When salmon was out of season, diners in restaurants were likely to get a species other than what they ordered 67 percent of the time, a new survey finds. iStockphoto hide caption

toggle caption
iStockphoto

The Salt

That Salmon On The Menu Might Be A Fraud — Especially In Winter

Diners were likely to get duped 67 percent of the time when ordering salmon in restaurants out of season, a survey says. Much of the deception involved farmed salmon passed off as more expensive wild.

In 'Soda Politics,' Big Soda At Crossroads Of Profit And Public Health

Soda sales have been flattening, but the industry has stepped up marketing and lobbying, according to Marion Nestle in Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (And Winning). Akash Ghai/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Akash Ghai/NPR

The Salt

In 'Soda Politics,' Big Soda At Crossroads Of Profit And Public Health

Marion Nestle's new book is Soda Politics: Taking On Big Soda (And Winning.) It reveals the industry's political and marketing tactics for protecting sales — and tips for advocates to fight them.

Business

Chipotle vs. McDonald's: The Rise Of Fast Casual Food In 'The New Yorker'

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to New Yorker writer Michael Specter about his article, "Freedom from Fries," on the rise of fast casual food and the impact on the fast food industry.

Chipotle vs. McDonald's: The Rise Of Fast Casual Food In 'The New Yorker'

Listen · 4:43
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/452316212/452316213" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Gossip Girls: Tea Parties And The Sexist Slang They Inspired

For centuries, tea drinking has been synonymous with female tittle-tattle — even though men drank just as much tea. Old dictionaries of English slang provide colorful proof of this association. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The Salt

Gossip Girls: Tea Parties And The Sexist Slang They Inspired

Tea drinking has long been synonymous with female tittle-tattle. Though men drank as much tea and gossiped as avidly as women, it was the latter who got stuck with the bad rap.