food Archives - Page 7 of 17 - Worldwide Weird Holidays

June 22 is National Onion Ring Day

June 22, 2017/0 Comments/in June

Today is National Onion Ring Day.

The first known iteration of the onion ring appeared in the 1802 cookbook “The Art of Cookery.” The recipe for Fried Onions with Parmesan Cheese called for onions to be sliced into 1/2 inch rings, dredged in a batter of flour, cream, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese, then deep fried in boiling lard.

For recipes and more information about onions than you might ever want to know, read the National Onion Association’s blog, written by the mononymous “Onionista.” There you will find a post describing how to cut onions in a way that will elicit fewer tears.

Have a happy, dry-eyed National Onion Ring Day!

June 12 is National Jerky Day

June 12, 2017/1 Comment/in June

Today is National Jerky Day, created in 2012 by the Wisconsin Beef Council to bring awareness to the history, nutritional benefits and status of meat snacks as the “fourth-largest-grossing sector in the overall salty-snack category.”

For 2014’s celebration, Jack Link’s beef jerky company built a replica of Mount Rushmore, covered it in 1,600 pounds of jerky and displayed it in New York City’s Columbus Circle. They called the monument “Meat Rushmore.”

Meat Rushmore

Preserving meat via drying and salting dates back at least as far as Ancient Egypt. It became popular in Spain in the 1500s when conquistadors brought it back from South America. The name “jerky” is derived from the Native American Quechua term “ch’arki” (dried meat).

Today there are hundreds of varieties: turkey, chicken, duck, buffalo, alligator, ostrich, kangaroo, camel, rabbit, python, antelope, rattlesnake, elk, venison, wild boar, alpaca and pheasant in flavors like ginger-lime, ghost pepper, butter mesquite and honey sriracha.

Shark, salmon, tuna and trout are available for pescetarian jerky fans. One purveyor offers gluten-free buffalo and elk jerky. Another offers pineapple jerky for herbivores. (Caution: Manufactured in a plant that processes meat and meat-like products.)

There’s even a variety called Zombie Jerky that is dyed an unpleasant shade of green. From the tone of some reviews, it may, in fact, consist of the undead. The saga of the company’s efforts to get its packaging approved is incredible. The USDA found the description of the main ingredient—“naturally occurring zombies”—factually inaccurate, objected to “teriyucki” as a confusing flavor and rejected the assurance that the product is “mutagen-free” and “doesn’t turn you into a zombie” as potentially misleading. (Everyone knows mutagens are a tasty side-benefit of jerky!)

Are you trying to swear off coffee but need a pick-me-up in the morning? Perky Jerky is marinated with guarana seeds, which have twice the caffeine of coffee beans, but is all-natural and therefore healthier for you, right? Well, coffee beans are natural, too, and have the advantage of containing little to no jerky, as far as we know.

A Santa Cruz company has invented marijuana-infused Reef Jerky, which supplies THC and simultaneously cures the munchies it causes. For now, though, you’ll have to travel to California to get it.

Even Reef Jerky might not make us hungry enough to try Earthworm Jerky. The only review on Amazon gives it four stars and reads, “These are really crunchy… They don’t taste gross but are a bit salty for me…”

Happy National Jerky Day!

June 10 is the Banana Split Festival

June 10, 2017/0 Comments/in June

June 10, 2016, marked the 22nd annual Banana Split Festival. Behind the scenes of this sweet celebration, a battle has raged for years between the citizens of two All-American towns.

Each year, the festivities honor Ernest Hazard of Wilmington, Ohio, who concocted the treat in 1907 to attract Wilmington College students to his establishment.

He halved a banana, added three scoops of ice cream, topped each with chocolate syrup, strawberry jam or pineapple bits, sprinkled ground nuts on top, covered it in whipped cream and added two cherries for good measure. He later brainstormed the name with a cousin.

Hazard’s Cafe, Wilmington OH

In June 1995, the people of Wilmington created the Banana Split Festival to honor Hazard’s invention. It’s been celebrated every year since.

But in August 2004, residents of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, announced that pharmacist David Strickler had originated the dessert at Tassel Pharmacy in 1904, three years before Hazard. The town instituted its own Great American Banana Split Celebration, pegged to the 100th anniversary.

The National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified Latrobe as the birthplace of the banana split. Food historian Michael Turback, author of The Banana Split Book, agreed, although he was unable to find any hard evidence such as newspaper clippings on which to base his decision.

Tassel Pharmacy, Latrobe PA

“Soda fountains were very competitive,” Turback explained of the opposing claims. “They were always trying to outdo each other, to see who had the most elaborate sundaes.”

While Wilmington, Ohio, and Latrobe, Pennsylvania, continue to duke it out for dessert dominance, the real winners are banana split fans who have not one, but two events to celebrate their love for a whole lot of ice cream with a little bit of fruit.

Ohio’s festival features live music, pony rides, a petting zoo, a baseball tournament, a 5K run and a banana split eating competition (no hands allowed!). However, the featured attraction every year is a “make your own banana split” booth. Yum!

Happy Banana Split Festival!

National Doughnut Day

June 2, 2017/1 Comment/in June

Today is National Doughnut Day, also known as National Donut Day, celebrated in the U.S. on the first Friday of June.

In 1938, the Chicago chapter of the Salvation Army, an international charitable organization, held the first Doughnut Day event to raise funds for the needy during the Great Depression while honoring the women who had served doughnuts to soldiers in World War I.

After the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the Salvation Army conducted a fact-finding mission to France and concluded that American enlisted men would benefit from baked goods, writing paper and mending services provided by canteens (called “huts”) set up in nearby abandoned buildings. Four of the six staff assigned to each hut were women, to help “mother” the men.

The reconnaissance team had failed to consider the difficulty of baking under those conditions. A couple of the 250 volunteers came up with the idea of frying doughnuts, which would eliminate the need for ovens. They were a big hit. Soon the soldiers began to refer to the women as “Doughnut Girls.”

While National Doughnut Day’s origin is all but forgotten, bakeries across the nation carry on the tradition by offering a free doughnut to customers today. Some places like Dunkin’ Donuts offer a free doughnut with the purchase of a drink which is, of course, not free at all, but who’s going to complain? It’s still an excuse to have a doughnut!

Happy National Doughnut Day!

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