Insects Get a Tasty Makeover February 29, 2008 • Finding a bug in your meal is usually not a pleasant experience. In a popular restaurant in L.A., however, creepy crawlers are becoming haute cuisine.
Business Starbucks Baristas Relearn Art of Coffee-Making February 27, 2008 • Starbucks closed all its U.S. stores for three and a half hours Tuesday to give employees a refresher course in the art of making coffee.
Kitchen Window The Shad Are Running February 27, 2008 • The forsythia is blooming, and that, fishermen say, means just one thing: The shad are in the river — and at the market. Bonny Wolf loves the fish, but she's just wild about the roe. She shares her favorite ways to prepare the seasonal delicacy.
The Amazing Power of the Beet February 26, 2008 • One of the most e-mailed stories at NPR.org is about beets. The root vegetables aren't just for salad anymore — they are also being used for melting snow and ice. Reporter Amanda Rabinowitz at WKSU in Kent, Ohio, explains.
Dinner Decodes the Mystery of Taste February 26, 2008 • Scientists Stuart Firestein and Terry Acree host "How and Why Things Taste the Way They Do" — meals where diners learn the latest discoveries in olfactory science as they eat.
Law NYC Eateries Fight Law Requiring Calories Be Posted February 26, 2008 • Restaurants in New York City are challenging a law that goes into effect next month that requires them to post calories on their menu boards. The restaurants say the law would violate the First Amendment by forcing them to put what amounts to a message on their menu boards.
Taking the Pain Out of Cooking with Onions February 25, 2008 • Cooks who love onions but hate what the vegetables can do to their eyes may soon find relief, thanks to a group of scientists in New Zealand. The team says it has genetically altered an onion so it's missing an enzyme that's essential for an onion's pungent punch.
The Family Dinner Deconstructed February 25, 2008 • NPR reporter Alix Spiegel explores the ritual of the family meal.
Opinion The 80th Annual Academy Awards And the Winner for Best Hors d'oeuvre Is ... February 24, 2008 • At Sunday's Oscars, actors, directors, and production teams will be awarded for their hard work and talent. But Weekend Edition Sunday's food commentator Bonny Wolf thinks food should be remembered when praising supporting roles.
Environment Haagen-Dazs Gives $250K for Bee Research February 21, 2008 • Haagen-Dazs is donating a quarter of a million dollars to the University of California and Penn State to study the disappearance of honeybees. Forty percent of the ice cream company's flavors require the work of bees.
Brits Asked to Ease Migrant Rules to Save Curry February 21, 2008 • The favorite takeout dish in Britain is chicken tikka masala. But a new law restricting migrant workers from South Asia is putting Indian restaurants out of business. Authorities are being urged to ease the restrictions to avert a crisis in the restaurant industry.
Books 'Fortune Cookie' Offers New Taste of America February 20, 2008 • Growing up, Chinese-American writer Jennifer 8. Lee noticed the food at Chinese restaurants differed greatly from what her mother served at home, and an obsession was born. The result is a book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
The Science of Beating Eggs February 20, 2008 • One of the most e-mailed stories at NPR.org is this look at the the kitchen chemistry of souffles.
Kitchen Window When Pizza Gets All Dressed Up February 20, 2008 • Why mess with the simplicity and inexpensiveness of Domino's? Because getting creative with unconventional ingredients means infinite ways to enjoy one of the world's most appealing foods. After all, it's just pizza. It's easy as pie.
Hidden Kitchens: The Kitchen Sisters Hercules and Hemings: Presidents' Slave Chefs February 19, 2008 • Hercules, a slave of George Washington, and James Hemings, owned by Thomas Jefferson, began a long connection of presidents and their African-American cooks. And President Lyndon Johnson's black cook may have influenced his work on civil rights reform.