Tidbets: Moresels about food from around the nation
KERNELS OF TRUTH
Popping corn, estimated by radiocarbon tests to be 5,600 years old, was found by archaeologists in a New Mexico bat cave.
Commercial popcorn poppers used at movie theaters create fewer "UPKs," or unpopped kernels, also referred to as "old maids," than home poppers.
Movie theaters had a virtual monopoly on popcorn sales until the 1950s, when Americans turned to the home entertainment of television and, later, videos. Today 60 percent of popcorn is consumed at home.
The first popcorn machine debuted in 1885, but home poppers weren't introduced until 1925.
By 1945, inventor Percy Spencer discovered that popcorn popped when hit with microwave energy. Orville Redenbacher introduced the first microwave popcorn brand in 1976.
Popcorn kernels can pop up to 3 feet in the air.
-- The Kansas City Star
A HILL OF BEANS
A record 115.1 million bags of coffee are projected to be produced this year, 5.9 percent more than expected six months ago, the U.S. government says. Bigger crops in Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic accounted for most of the gain. Brazil, the world's largest grower, harvested 32.6 million bags of coffee in 2000, 16 percent more than expected last June.
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
MODERATION, MODERATION
Wine is wonderfully suitable for man if in sickness, as in health, it is administered in fair and proper measure.
-- Hippocrates
COOL-DOWN
An alcoholic drink does not drive away a winter chill. Actually, the reverse is true. Alcoholic drinks tend to increase the body's heat loss, making people more susceptible to cold.
-- Food Folklore,
The American Dietetic
Association
close