Articles
National Lasagna Day
Today’s spotlight is on Lasagna.
Lasagna is considered one of the oldest pasta dishes in Italian cuisine. Lasagna has a long history and cultural significance in Italy and other countries. It symbolizes comfort, tradition, and family and is often served as a shared meal at the dinner table. Initially, lasagna was originally reserved for special events and holidays.
National Chicken Wing Day
Today’s Spotlight is on Chicken Wings.
Chicken wings were invented in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. The bar's co-owner, Teressa Bellissimo, cooked leftover wings in hot sauce as a late-night snack for her son and his friends. The story goes that Bellissimo mistakenly ordered a case of chicken wings when she meant to order chicken necks, which her husband used to make the Anchor Inn's famous spaghetti sauce. Bellissimo covered the wings in her own special sauce and served them with a side of blue cheese and celery.
National Hamburger Day
Today’s food spotlight is on the Hamburger.
There's some controversy over the origin of the hamburger because its two basic ingredients, bread and beef, had been prepared and consumed separately for many years before they were combined. Some have pointed to a recipe for "Hamburgh sausages" on toasted bread, published in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse in 1747. White Castle traces the origin of the hamburger to Hamburg, Germany, with its invention by Otto Kuase. According to legend, Louis Lassen invented the burger in 1900 at his small restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. He placed a beef patty between two slices of bread and added cheese and condiments, creating the first “hamburger sandwich”.
National Creme Brûlée Day
Today’s Spotlight is on Crème Brûlée.
Crème brûlée is a custard dessert with a hard caramel top that's rich, creamy, and delicious. It has a slightly caramelized and burnt taste, with a combination of light and airy vanilla custards, the nutty flavor of caramelized sugar, and a sweet and bitter burnt taste. The caramel topping adds a slight burnt sugar flavor and crunch to the dessert.
Some say the contrast between the soft and silky inside and the crackly brown top makes crème brûlée such a great dessert. It's also simple to make, without a long list of ingredients or complex processes.
Bagelfest Day
Today’s Spotlight in on Bagels.
National Bagelfest Day is celebrated on July 26th each year to recognize the tasty and light bread that is the bagel. The holiday was started in 1986 by Murray Lender, the owner of Lender's Bagels. The first festival was held in Mattoon, Illinois to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lender's Bagels, a popular brand that has been produced in Mattoon since 1960. The festival became a multi-day event with music, rides, a parade, and a bagel breakfast.
National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
Today’s spotlight is on the Hot Fudge Sundae.
The prevailing theory is that the first hot fudge sundae was created in Los Angeles, California in 1906. Clarence Clifton Brown, the owner of C.C. Brown's Ice Cream Shop in Los Angeles, is thought to have created the hot and cold concoction. Brown was a candy maker who experimented with several hot fudge recipes before finding the right formula. He opened his ice cream parlor on Hollywood Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. He had the idea to create a topping that would slowly melt the cold ice cream.
A hot fudge sundae is ice cream topped with hot fudge sprinkles, nuts, whipped cream and a cherry on top.
National Tequila Day
Today’s spotlight is on Tequila!
A drink similar to tequila likely originated around 1000 B.C. among the Olmec people in what is now Southeastern Mexico. Tequila first came into existence between 250 and 300 A.D. when the Aztec Indians produced a fermented agave juice of the agave for their ceremonial wine, "plaque". The liquid was important to Aztec culture because they worshipped two gods, Mayahuel (the goddess of the Maguey) and her husband Patecatl, the god of pulque. The earliest version of tequila was known as pulque and was made from the fermented sap of the agave plant by the Aztec civilization in what is now northern Mexico. Pulque was a milky liquid that was sacred in Aztec culture and often linked with feasting and ritual ceremonies
National Vanilla Ice Cream Day
Today’s spotlight is on vanilla ice cream.
According to the International Dairy Foods Association, chocolate was the first ice cream flavor invented, and vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor in the world. The first documented ice cream recipe was by Englishwoman Lady Anne Fanshawe in 1665, which suggested flavoring the "icy cream" with orange blossom water, mace, or ambergris, which was enjoyed by the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great.
Fortune Cookie Day
Today’s spotlight is on Fortune Cookies.
Fortune cookies can symbolize luck, wisdom, fate, and the unknown. The message inside the cookie is for you, and you picked that cookie out of all the others. Fortune cookies are a dessert served primarily in Chinese restaurants. They have a distinctive shape and a hidden paper slip with a fortune inscribed on it.
Some say that fortune cookies can predict what will happen in the future. However, others say that fortune cookies don't have special powers of foresight. If a fortune comes true, it's just coincidence.