Published Work Archives - Page 4 of 23

Eating China: Fast Food Surprises and Market Chaos

January 22, 2025September 12, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • Sept. 12, 2016

We’ve been subsisting a lot on hotel breakfast buffets, which the business joints we’ve been staying in offer routinely. (And do fairly well with, I might add. They’ve not yet resorted to the waffle-batter foil cups and cereal dispensers common in U.S. business motels.) But recently, for logistical reasons, we took an overnight train—which meant no breakfast on offer. And that meant our first stop was KFC for iced lattes—a treat the chain introduced in China just last year—and then to a popular Taiwanese fast food chain for a taste of domestic fast food.

Eating China: A Land of Many Grains

January 22, 2025September 7, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • Sept. 7, 2016

If you ask most Americans what grain Chinese people eat, I’m pretty sure they’d say rice.

Llike all countries, though China is not a dietary monolith. Diets here can still be deeply regional and seasonal, owing in part to the fact that most agriculture here is still quite small. In the south and northeast, water is relatively plentiful, encouraging crops like rice, that do well in that landscape. But in the drier central and western part of the country, rice doesn’t grow well at all. But wheat does.

Beyond Banjos: The Bountiful ‘Victuals’ of Appalachia

January 22, 2025August 30, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • Aug. 30, 2016

Sometimes there are cookbooks that you wish had stuck to the recipes. Witness, for example, Thug Kitchen. And then there are books like Victuals, by Ronni Lundy.

What Chili-Mango Ice Cream Says About Urban Renewal

January 22, 2025August 24, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • Aug. 24, 2016

If I ask you what Detroiters eat to cool off on hot summer days, chances are you think of two Midwestern staples: ice cream and pop. If you know Detroit you might even think Faygo or Vernors. (You may also, to be honest, think beer.)

But folks around Lawndale Street, on the city’s southwest side, have an option that might seem, to outsiders, an odd fit for Detroit: Mexican-style frozen sweets and snacks from a six-table, five-year-old shop called Mangonadas del Barrio. The shop’s namesake, a variation on a popsicle, is a godsend on a steamy August afternoon—and it’s so popular that owner Antonio Hernandez opened up a second shop in June.

I’ll Have What They’re Having, China Edition

January 22, 2025August 15, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • Aug. 15, 2016

“What are you taking with you to eat?”

This was not the question I was expecting from April, my editor here at The Plate, when I told her I’d be reporting in China this month.

Fate of Farm Pesticide Rule Far From Settled

January 22, 2025August 2, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • August 2, 2016

It might not seem controversial to require regular certification for handling highly toxic chemicals, or to restrict their usage to workers over 18 years. But proposed changes to federal pesticide rules with those provisions, which generated hundreds of public comments over the last two years are largely opposed.

Walmart Brings Muscle to the ‘Ugly’ Produce Movement

January 22, 2025July 21, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • July 21, 2016

Tasty, if ugly potatoes? Funky-skinned but sweet, firm apples? In a series of low-key blog posts, Walmart—responsible for one-third of the U.S. grocery market—recently announced two new brands of produce with an unusual selling point: The produce would have, under normal circumstances, just be thrown away.

While Walmart isn’t the only grocer that’s recently embraced visually challenged fruits and vegetables, (see How ‘Ugly’ Fruits and Vegetables Can Help Solve World Hunger) its status as the country’s largest grocer could mean very big things for ugly produce.

Do Corn Subsidies Really Make Us Fat?

January 22, 2025July 12, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • July 12, 2016

Bad health can be linked to wheat, corn, dairy and meat—and a range of foods currently subsidized by the government. That was the catchy finding that researchers announced last week with a study showing a correlation between an increased consumption of subsidized foods and health problems like obesity and high cholesterol. But is it actually the farm subsidies that make people eat those foods?

Bog Butter and Other Odd Ways the Ancients Preserved Food

January 22, 2025July 6, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • July 6, 2016

John Conway, an Irishman, was at work in a bog when he made an interesting discovery recently: a 22-pound lump of ancient “bog butter,” sunk into the depths of peat, likely from about 2,000 years ago. Though it sounds surprising to Americans, finding a clump of dairy fat in a bog is fairly commonplace, with 430 instances currently on record. The butter can be as old as the Iron Age—roughly 600 B.C.—or as recently as the 1600s. Even today, the stuff retains a buttery smell—a chef who tasted an ancient specimen said “it goes right up your nose;” a modern variation produced by the Nordic Food Lab in 2012 drew reviews ranging from “animal” to “salami.”

World Food Prize Winners: Why Sweet Potato Color Matters

January 22, 2025June 28, 2016

National Geographic

“The Plate,” National Geographic • June 28, 2016

A handful of scientists have spent the last 15 years convincing Africans to swap white sweet potatoes for their more colorful and vitamin-packed cousins, orange sweet potatoes. But if a tuber associated with holiday excess in the U.S. sounds like a strange focus for science, consider this: Those scientists are receiving the world’s most prestigious prize for agricultural research, the $250,000 World Food Prize, which celebrates agricultural efforts that combat food insecurity.