Vietnamese food is a compendium of culinary contrasts: sweet and sour, mild and spicy, cold and hot — a true example, if you will, of yin and yang. If your idea of good eating is a little bit of everything (with a generous amount of fish sauce!), you should definitely give this cuisine a try.

“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack…” — “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (Norworth/Von Tilzer, 1908)

Here at The World of Food, we’re enjoying National Potato Month, a great time to celebrate one of the world’s perfect foods.

Invite the neighbors, heat up your charcoal briquettes, toss your burgers, brats, vegetables, and what-have-you on the grill, serve it all up with a bottle of grocery-store sauce and deli side dishes, and voilà! You have yourself a barbecue. Easy-peasy.

Heat. High humidity. Sunburn and sand between your toes. Deep-fried everything. Yes, those dog days of summer are upon us again.

So perhaps it would be a good time for a refreshing change of pace — a journey to someplace far away, invigorating, and entirely different.  Someplace like…

…Iceland.

Did you know that Americans collectively consume approximately 100 acres of pizza per day, which translates to 350 slices every second?

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” — Carl Sagan

Located in western South America and bordering five other countries and the Pacific Ocean, Peru is truly a land of extreme contrasts.

July is National Ice Cream Month, so designated by President Ronald Reagan back in 1984. At the same time, he also declared that the third Sunday in July would thereafter be known as National Ice Cream Day.

In anticipation of the national premiere of WTTW’s new special and website, Weekend in Havana with Geoffrey Baer, we thought we would provide a quick overview of Cuba’s mouthwatering cuisine, which goes perfectly with a generous side of salsa music, a refreshing cocktail, and (of course) a good cigar.