Out of Neccesity

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the British East India Company colonized and controlled trade in the Indian Subcontinent. Their army, tasked with defending their control of the region, struggled with the harsh conditions in this tropical region, including the disease of malaria.

After research in the 18th century by British doctors showed that quinine, a chemical compound obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree, which is present in the region, could be an effective compound in curing this disease.

The Perfect Balance

Quinine was added to water, creating what we now know as “tonic water,” one of the two main ingredients in gin and tonics. However, its bitter taste was unpalatable by itself, so the soldiers began to mix sugar into the water, along with gin, lemon, and lime with it to make a tastier drink that they fell in love with.

Not only were gin and tonics delicious, but they also helped keep these soldiers alive and free of complications from a deadly tropical disease.

Think about this the next time you’re enjoying this classic cocktail!

The post How Was the Gin and Tonic Created? appeared first on Cooking 4 All.

Fortune cookies are, in fact, a recent invention and one that doesn’t even trace its origins back to China! In the 19th century, people in the Japanese region of Kyoto began to make tea cookies which contained small fortunes known as omikuji which were started by Buddhist temples.

This tradition was exported to the United States and Americanized in the late 19th century when a Japanese worker named Makoto Hagiwara started serving a version which closely resembles the contemporary fortune cookie in Golden Gate Park at the Japanese tea garden in San Francisco.

These cookies began to be made by local bakeries and shipped out and served at Japanese restaurants. During the World War II period, Chinese-Americans also began using the fortune cookie idea and making and serving their own at Chinese restaurants.

While fortune cookies are undeniably a part of Chinese-American restaurant traditions, it’s surprising to learn that they can actually be traced back to their close neighbors of Japan. What an interesting story!

The post Where Do Fortune Cookies Come From? appeared first on Cooking 4 All.

According to him, there’s no real reason we need to have three meals every single day. It’s simply a pattern we adopted because it’s easy and predictable and because in the past, most families gathered to eat together. More women stayed at home being housewives than today and made sure their families got hearty breakfast, lunch, and dinner day after day. 

Today, a majority of people leave work late or don’t have a fixed schedule for coming home, and this is true for all the adults in a household. Therefore, we turn to snacking throughout the day because it’s faster and more convenient. We consider ourselves lucky if we get to have dinner together as a family, and dinner spontaneously became the biggest and most important meal in the day.

The post Do We Really Have to Eat Three Meals a Day? appeared first on Cooking 4 All.

Out of Neccesity

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the British East India Company colonized and controlled trade in the Indian Subcontinent. Their army, tasked with defending their control of the region, struggled with the harsh conditions in this tropical region, including the disease of malaria.

After research in the 18th century by British doctors showed that quinine, a chemical compound obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree, which is present in the region, could be an effective compound in curing this disease.

The Perfect Balance

Quinine was added to water, creating what we now know as “tonic water,” one of the two main ingredients in gin and tonics. However, its bitter taste was unpalatable by itself, so the soldiers began to mix sugar into the water, along with gin, lemon, and lime with it to make a tastier drink that they fell in love with.

Not only were gin and tonics delicious, but they also helped keep these soldiers alive and free of complications from a deadly tropical disease.

Think about this the next time you’re enjoying this classic cocktail!

The post How Was the Gin and Tonic Created? appeared first on Cooking 4 All.

Fortune cookies are, in fact, a recent invention and one that doesn’t even trace its origins back to China! In the 19th century, people in the Japanese region of Kyoto began to make tea cookies which contained small fortunes known as omikuji which were started by Buddhist temples.

This tradition was exported to the United States and Americanized in the late 19th century when a Japanese worker named Makoto Hagiwara started serving a version which closely resembles the contemporary fortune cookie in Golden Gate Park at the Japanese tea garden in San Francisco.

These cookies began to be made by local bakeries and shipped out and served at Japanese restaurants. During the World War II period, Chinese-Americans also began using the fortune cookie idea and making and serving their own at Chinese restaurants.

While fortune cookies are undeniably a part of Chinese-American restaurant traditions, it’s surprising to learn that they can actually be traced back to their close neighbors of Japan. What an interesting story!

The post Where Do Fortune Cookies Come From? appeared first on Cooking 4 All.

According to him, there’s no real reason we need to have three meals every single day. It’s simply a pattern we adopted because it’s easy and predictable and because in the past, most families gathered to eat together. More women stayed at home being housewives than today and made sure their families got hearty breakfast, lunch, and dinner day after day. 

Today, a majority of people leave work late or don’t have a fixed schedule for coming home, and this is true for all the adults in a household. Therefore, we turn to snacking throughout the day because it’s faster and more convenient. We consider ourselves lucky if we get to have dinner together as a family, and dinner spontaneously became the biggest and most important meal in the day.

The post Do We Really Have to Eat Three Meals a Day? appeared first on Cooking 4 All.