Food Culture

Learn to Cook on YouTube
The Culinary Institute of America is using YouTube.com to share culinary tips and happenings. Visit CIANetwork at YouTube.com and brush up on your cooking technique.

Once you have all the information you need to plan a party menu and prepare the dishes with panache, don’t overlook the table. If you want to make a splash with an impeccably set formal dinner table, let Lynn Rosen be your guide. Her primer on table style and etiquette, Elements of the Table: A Simple Guide for Hosts and Guests, will help you pass muster with even the most discerning or critical guest. www.clarksonpotter.com

— Kate Jackson

Edible Eccentricities
The Museum of Food Anomalies is where good food goes not just bad but horribly wrong. Here, things aren’t quite what they seem to be. A potato chip might
appear to be a religious vision, and a carrot may seem to be an alien artifact.
The online museum has quite the array of culinary aberrations and edible eccentricities. From the peculiar two-toned citrus to the freakish conjoined fruits, the museum is a smorgasbord of nature’s oddities, such as the three-lobed walnut.

Like most museums, it encourages visitors to donate. But in this case, the donation should be in the form of a food anomaly of your own. Send a photo and text to the curator, and don’t forget to stop by the gift shop. Visit the museum at www.hanttula.com/exhibits/mofa.

— Meghan A.T.B. Reese