Good Taste

Taste Coordinator

Who doesn’t love a pretzel? They can be soft or hard, big or small, each with a distinctive taste!

According to Wikipedia a pretzel is a type of Baked food made from dough, which could be soft or hard. The seasoning could be savory or sweet, but they all have a unique knot-like shape. Today a pretzel can be in stick form, a circle, or a twist.

Usually seasoned with coarse salt, they can be with sugar crystals or various seeds or nuts.

Pretzels are believed to have begun in the 600’s, somewhere in southern France or northern Italy. A young monk was preparing unleavened bread for Lent. At that time Christians prayed with their arms folded across their chests, each hand on the opposite shoulder. He thought that he could use the left over dough to make a fun shape for the children to use to recite their prayers. He called it “pretiola” which in Latin means, “little reward.” Over time the pretzel’s form became a symbol for good luck, long life and prosperity.

  Many historians believe that pretzels came to America with the Pilgrims. There are several stories which claim the beginning of the hard pretzel created somewhere in Pennsylvania. Over the years pretzels have been associated with many groups of people and causes including the dance “The Pretzel Twist,” started by Chubby Checker. By the 1960’s pretzels were the fourth most popular snack in the United States, and the number one snack with beer. Today the center of the pretzel industry is still in Pennsylvania. The demand for pretzels has steadily grown, today you can find them in a variety of shapes, flavored (buttery, garlic) salted or unsalted to eat as a snack or crumbled over...

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Taste Contributor

The Chinese New Year (January 23, 2012) began the year of the dragon. (Brilliant and imaginative, Dragons are usually one step ahead of everyone else.) While January 1 is easy to remember for much of the world, the specific date of Chinese New Year changes each year, as it falls on the first day of the lunar calendar. Chinese zodiac signs are determined by the lunar year you were born. The use of 12-year animal cycles for recording the years in China dates back to 100 A.D. There is a Chinese legend that tells how each year is named after an animal. It is said that the emperor of the heavens held a race to decide how the years should be named. All of the animals took part to see what names the years would have and in what order the years would come. In case you are wondering how a rat won the race, it tricked the ox into giving it a ride on his back, and then when the ox was about to jump out of the water, the rat jumped ahead of him and won the race! Thus the order of the 12-year cycle: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster and pig. (If you are wondering why there is no cat, one legend says that the rat pushed the cat off of the oxen back into the water, thus making it come in 13th.)

The Chinese New Year is also called Spring Festival because it begins at the start of the spring term per the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated over a two-week period, so it is no surprise that food plays a major role.

The Chinese eat a large variety of foods during this period, with visual and/or verbal symbolic significance. Jiaozi, a very popular round dumpling, signifies family reunion. Clam sycee and Spring rolls symbolize wealth, as the clams resemble (gold) bouillon and the rolls are shaped like gold bars. The Chinese pronunciation for lettuce wraps, oranges, tangerines and pomelos sound...

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Taste Coordinator

Pop, pop, pop, popcorn! Everyone loves popcorn! Since January 19 is National Popcorn Day, let’s explore this favorite snack food.

Popcorn dates back thousands of years to Native Americans. They popped and ate it, used it to decorate necklaces and headdresses, used it to create popcorn beer and popcorn soup. When the English came and settled in the new world, they learned about popcorn from the Native Americans. They used it as a puffed breakfast cereal, serving it with sugar and milk.

The first popcorn machine was invented in 1885, making it possible for vendors to sell popcorn to people on the streets or outside the theater, for 5 or 10 cents. In 1914 in Sioux City, Iowa, Cloid Smith founded the first popcorn company, Jolly Time. Popcorn as a snack became popular in the Great Depression, because it was cheap. Then during WWII when sugar was scarce for candy, popcorn consumption tripled. Today, the average American consumes nearly 70 quarts of popcorn a year. Most of the world’s popcorn is grown in Nebraska and Indiana.

Popcorn can be an excellent snack food. When air-popped it is high in fiber, low in calories and fat. It has no sodium or sugar unless it is added for flavor. When eaten as a snack food beware of how much oil was used to pop it and what ingredients were added for flavor. I love Harry and David’s Moose Munch, but it sure isn’t a nutritious snack with 220 calories for a 3 oz. serving!

Growing up popcorn was a favorite snack on Saturday night and my mom often put baggies of popcorn as a treat in our brown bag lunches. On cold winter nights I pop it for an evening snack, using just a little oil and salt. This is a better choice than...

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