Rachel Laudan

My mother grew up in straightened circumstances in Wiltshire, England. Her father died when she was two, a victim of the post World War I flu epidemic, and her mother (my grandmother) got by with a tiny pension, taking in lodgers, and help from her brother and sisters since it was not respectable for widows [...]

Maize is getting such bad press at the moment in the United States.  But it is such a wonderful grain, so flexible, so many appealing products. Arepas, as you doubtless know, are the national dish, the daily bread of Venezuela (and other parts of Latin America).  I’d had the Panamanian variety last year and was [...]

This post is in honor of the flood of stories about English tea provoked by today’s wedding.  I don’t have anything to say about the latter, since I see the Royals as an anachronism and a very pricey one at that.  But I do think of myself as something of an expert on the history [...]