A Harte Appetite

It's the bane of alley cats, de rigueur decoration for newlyweds' cars, and the primary device behind many children's first telephone. But, according to The Wiley Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology, it's also the greatest influence ever on the food habits of the civilized world. It's the tin can.

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

“There are only two kinds of people in the world,” an Irish saying goes. “The Irish and those who wish they were.”

If you look around on St. Patrick’s day, you might think that’s true, for on St. Patrick’s Day Americans, regardless of their ancestry, will wear green, sing Irish songs, guzzle Irish beer, and dine on corned beef and cabbage.

But not in Ireland. There you’d be lucky to find more than a handful of packages of corned beef in any of the local supermarkets.

Not long ago I made a sojourn to Lititz, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the American pretzel.  It's a town in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country not far from Philadelphia, another town that takes its pretzels seriously.

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.

Fritter-like pastries made from cylinders of ridged batter and sprinkled with sugar, churros, not unlike American hushpuppies and French beignets, testify to the virtues of fried dough.

I like to visit Southern California in February...escaping Missouri's winter weather. But good weather isn't the only advantage attendant to being in California. I think the biggest advantage may be that the strawberry season there begins in January and is practically year-round.