A Harte Appetite

In Scotland, their oatmeal, or porridge, is a hallowed dish, celebrated every year at the World Porridge Making Championship in the village of Carrbridge.

“Beer is proof God loves us,” Ben Franklin supposedly said. If so, God must have a special fondness for the people of the Czech Republic. Beer is the most heavily consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and the Czechs are doing their part to keep it that way. They rank #1 in world beer consumption.

For those of us used to modern conveniences, it's hard to imagine what life was like before the invention of the tin can.

Red velvet cake was all the rage years ago, but its popularity has faded since the 1970s amid safety concerns about the red food coloring in use back then to tint the cake. Perhaps it's time to bring red velvet cake back.

Sweetened condensed milk is a clear exception to the notion that when something is condensed or reduced it is inferior to the original.

In Hungary they take their paprika seriously. Just as seriously as the Italians take their pasta, the Japanese take their rice or the English their tea.

The Instant Pot is fundamentally a pressure cooker, a device invented way back in 1679 by the French physicist Denis Papin.

Pretzels, some historians contend, may be the oldest snack food known to humankind.

Even before Cracker Jack became inextricably linked to baseball, it hit a home run with the public when it was introduced at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago by Frederick “Fritz” Rueckheim and his brother Louis.

Spain has given many gifts to gastronomy, like paella, manchego cheese, and the world’s greatest ham. But no less noteworthy are churros, or Spanish donuts.

Feta cheese -- sometimes referred to as the princess of cheeses -- is every bit as admirable as any other Greek invention, and it is surely just as ancient. It is likely as old as Greece itself.