Food news antipasto

The notion of eating something stuffed between pieces of bread predates the 4th Earl of Sandwich, but it is he for whom the food was named in the mid-1700s. Since then countless sandwiches have been eaten, but only a few of them are iconic. Writing for Vittles, Hester van Hensbergen gives us a timeline of iconic London sandwiches from the 18th century to the present. This isn’t an exhaustive list of sandwiches, however, it only describes those “sandwiches that announced themselves, generating queues and crowds and noise, from hollers in the streets to streams of hyper-colourful Instagram photos.”

If you’re a fan of Japanese souffle pancakes, you might enjoy SBS Food’s brief history of the delicate, fluffy dessert. For starters, you will learn that the pancakes got their start in Honolulu, Hawaii, by a restaurateur whose patrons, largely Japanese, were disappointed that there were no pancakes on the menu. The owner decided to combine his love of French soufflé to create a light and airy pancake that has since travelled across the world and has spawned many variations on the theme.

The doner kebab is a popular street food that is wildly popular in EU countries, especially Germany and Turkey, who both claim to have invented the snack. The latter country recently put in an application to have the word doner be designated as a “guaranteed traditional speciality”, meaning that only products that met strict standards would be allowed to use the name throughout the EU. Germany has protested the request, saying that it would create unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and drive up the price of the popular snack.

Those of us who were around in the 1990s probably remember the dainty collectible ceramic spice storage sets that were all the rage during the early years of that decade. You would sign up for a monthly delivery of a couple of jars, which made the outlandish price somewhat bearable. The most famous of these collectibles is the Lenox Spice Village, which consisted of 24 diminutive houses, each representing a different style, that served both an aesthetic and functional purpose (if you had those exact 24 spices at least). I once owned the Lenox Cats of Distinction set, but never got into the Spice Village. Made from 1989 to 1993, complete Spice Village sets can go for over $1,000 on the resale market – there’s a complete set with the shelves on Etsy right now for $2,500. If you are nostalgic for the Spice Village set but aren’t willing to shell out a grand or more for them we have good news. Lenox just announced that they were bringing the village back for a limited time. No launch date has been set, but you can sign up to be notified when the set is available.

Here’s a trend that no one saw coming: fridgescaping. You’ll be forgiven if you think this sounds a little odd, but the trend involves decorating the inside of one’s refrigerator to achieve a certain aesthetic, with vintage dishes, flowers, and picture frames or all matching storage containers for an extremely tidy fridge. One person named in the story did a Bridgerton-themed fridgescape that she called  “Fridgerton.” As another person interviewed for the article noted, “I don’t think it’s a trend by people that cook.”

For those who eschew anything with a political bent, please feel free to ignore this bit, but some Members may be interested so I am sharing it. Esquire Magazine wrote an article about Kamala Harris’s cookbook collection. It’s not often that a politician’s cookbook collection becomes a story – in fact I don’t remember it ever happening before. How this came about was through a candid photo, that came not from the campaign but instead from a selfie by a private citizen, showing a stack of cookbooks in Kamala’s kitchen. Cookbook lovers, including author Diana Henry, were quick to spot the books and comment on them. Esquire dives into the books and what they say about the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.

In case you missed Saturday’s post find out what kind of grocery shopper you are,