Food and Recipes

Here is a place for you to play with your food -- literally: enjoy, have fun with and celebrate food -- but don't worry, we'll still help you get dinner on the table every night.

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If you've had a grocery store California roll or mixed seafood salad, you've probably eaten imitation crab meat. But what is imitation crab, exactly?

By Sascha Bos

Macaroons and macarons — they sound similar, but they look quite different. So how did we end up with two popular cookies that sound almost the same?

By Sascha Bos

Tequila and mezcal are two of the most famous agave-based spirits from Mexico, and bartenders sometimes use them interchangeably in mixed drinks. Mezcal cocktails will often have a smokier flavor than ones made with tequila, but what are the other differences?

By Sascha Bos

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In the world of rare tequila, the price is often just as much about the luxury bottle as it is about the smooth taste of high-quality liquor. These expensive spirits are not only aged in everything from Cabarnet to Cognac to well-seasoned sherry barrels, they also come in fancy, hand-painted ceramic or crystal decanters.

By Sascha Bos

If you've wondered whether a hotdog is a sandwich, you probably haven't spent much time on the internet in the last 10 years. That's OK; we'll catch you up on the debate.

By Clarissa Mitton

Which gets your vote in the great Diet Coke vs. Coke Zero debate? The labels say the differences are slight, but fans will say the diet sodas are worlds apart.

By Sascha Bos

Preparing a bowl of chicken soup for a loved one when they’re sick has been a common practice throughout the world for centuries. But does it help you get well?

By Colby Teeman

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Explore the culinary showdown of Nigiri vs. Sashimi. Learn the differences, flavors, and how to savor these Japanese delicacies.

By HowStuffWorks

In search of the hottest hot sauce in the world, we found the bottles with the highest Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) to bring you this list of the 14 most diabolically spicy hot sauces.

By Mitch Ryan

People have been pickling vegetables, cucumbers specifically, since the time of Cleopatra. Why the cucumber and why is the pickle always served with your deli sandwich?

By Muriel Vega

One of the most expensive cups of coffee in the world is made from beans harvested from civet poop. Why would anybody want to drink it?

By Carrie Tatro

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With their spiky skins, pineapples may be a bit intimidating from the outside, but they're easy to cut into rings or chunks with these easy-to-follow steps.

By Laurie L. Dove

You know the story behind the martini: James Bond always orders his "shaken, not stirred." But what's the story behind the classic glass it's always served in?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

Craft beer is big business. And breweries are banking on non-alcoholic beer as their new cash cow. But how do they brew beer without alcohol?

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

There are hot peppers and there are mouth-scorchers. Have you tried any of these seven extremely hot peppers?

By Dylan Ris

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Call it bubbly or bubbles, but don't call what's in your glass Champagne unless it truly is. How do you know? It depends on where and how it's made.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

Sherry and port are both fortified wines. But their similarities end there.

By Muriel Vega

Ah, vanilla. You can almost smell it right now, can't you? From pure vanilla extract to essence and imitation, it comes in all forms. But where does vanilla flavoring come from?

By Laurie L. Dove

Liquor and liqueur are spelled so similarly, it's easy to confuse them for being the same. But they're not. So how are they different?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

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The expression "the cherry on top" is supposed to refer to a very good thing. You may think differently once you learn how maraschino cherries are actually made.

By Alia Hoyt

There are a lot of theories about why wine bottles have dents (or punts) on the bottoms. Do they still serve a purpose?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

Don't know how to eat dragon fruit? This stunner of a fruit is as simple to slice as it is pretty to look at. So give it a try. You won't regret it.

By Patty Rasmussen

The baguette is the most popular kind of bread eaten in France. So it only makes sense UNESCO would protect it as an iconic part of its cultural heritage.

By Patty Rasmussen

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Think sweet potatoes and yams are the same? Think again. These two tubers are totally different. Yams aren't even potatoes.

By Lauren David

If you love mushrooms, why not grow them at home? It's easy if you have a mushroom growing kit.

By Muriel Vega