Posted
on January 16, 2016
People
like to eat yummy food. I guess, since people have to eat every day,
why not make eating fun and delicious? And most holidays have their
share of feasting and special foods that go along with that day –
like turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, chocolate eggs on Easter, and
cake on birthdays.
But
then there are all those days that are NOT major holidays...and most
of them are dedicated to one food or another!
Today
is Soup Swap Day, Fig Newton Day, and International Hot and Spicy
Food Day!
And
the entire month of January is Hot Tea Month, Oatmeal Month, Slow
Cooking Month, Soup Month, Baking Month, and Fat Free Living Month!
And
every day seems to be some sort of special day to honor a food (or
two, or three). Check out this calendar from Foodimentary.
Speaking
of Foodimentary, I read that food writer John-Bryan Hopkins, who
founded the popular website, did some research when he started his
food blog, trying to gather together all of the various food holidays
stared by organizations and companies, probably to promote their
particular product. He discovered about 175 food holidays. Clearly,
many days were not designated as any particular food holiday – so
Hopkins simply shrugged his shoulders and filled in the rest of a
calendar so that there was at least one food holiday per day of the
year!
I
suppose a food writer creating a day honoring Oreo cookies (March 6)
is at least as valid as the marketing department of a company
creating the same food holiday, right?
Anyway,
I'm not sure if Hopkins made up any of today's food holidays, but
let's check them out:
Soup
Swap Day
This
holiday was definitely not a Hopkins creation. Instead, a fellow
named Knox Gardner started the day in Seattle, Washington. By 2006,
the holiday was being celebrated by people all over the U.S., and
today the day has gone global.
Soup Swap Day isn't always on January 16; rather, it's the third Saturday of January. The idea is to gather family and friends, each bringing homemade soup in enough small containers to pass out to other guests. Of course, the host also shares homemade soup pre-packed in containers for the others to take home.
Soup Swap Day isn't always on January 16; rather, it's the third Saturday of January. The idea is to gather family and friends, each bringing homemade soup in enough small containers to pass out to other guests. Of course, the host also shares homemade soup pre-packed in containers for the others to take home.
Everyone
takes home the same number of containers she or he brought – but it
will be a variety of soups!
I
bet most who celebrate Soup Swap Day serve hot soup to the gathering.
That way the day goes like this: make soup, bring soup, eat soup,
take home soup.
Fig
Newton Day
In
1891 an American man named James Henry Mitchell invented a machine that was like a funnel-within-a-funnel. And the folks at Kennedy Biscuit Works
(which later became Nabisco) realized that they could use this
machine to make fig cookies using a recipe they had purchased from
another fellow.
The
outside funnel of the machine pushed out the cookie dough, and the
inside funnel pushed out fig jam.
Loooooooooong filled cookies were
produced in this way and then cut into smaller pieces.
Check out this video of the manufacture of fig cookies.
The
cookies were called Newton because they were “born” in Newton,
Massachusetts.
By
the way, the Newton is one of Nabisco's top sellers, with more than a
billion bars sold a year!
 |
| Why are old ads so often so creepy? |
International
Hot and Spicy Food Day
People
have been using hot spices in their food – to preserve the food, to
promote health, and of course to provide flavor! – for more than
6,000 years.
Check out the Greatist list of spices, the guide to using spices found at WikiHow,
and the article on health benefits of spices found at AuthorityNutrition.
Also
on this date:
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