and so we eat ...

With the Culinary Arts, human beings elevate the biological imperatives to consume food and liquids to an art. And within that broad exercise of human creativity we find “high art” as well folk art. At their best, both can achieve excellence and be more than worthy of notice and emulation. And as with the other arts, people -- many of whom consider themselves experts – can argue endlessly about what constitutes “great food.” Fortunately for anyone reading this, I have no interest in jumping into that fray.

And so we have here a number of recipes and culinary hints and occasional hacks. But, as in all good art, with every good dish comes a history, and so one mission of these pages is to highlight some aspects of that history, be they cultural or personal. We’ve all heard commentaries on well-known musical performances, novels, or works of visual arts where the commentator was able to set the work in some biographical or cultural setting that enriched out understanding of the piece. We hope to do a little of that with food and drink, and so each recipe here is accompanied by a brief historical sketch that either looks at the history and evolution of the dish, the circumstances of its creator, or the family history associated with it.  Bon appetite. And bottoms up.