Technically speaking, these two words have different meanings. Healthy means to be in a state of good health, as in the Olympic athletes are all healthy. In contrast, healthful refers to something that is good for your health, for example kale and tofu are healthful foods.
But languages change, and with respect to English the meaning of the word healthy is rapidly changing and, more often than not, healthy is used to mean healthy. Traditionalists and grammar Nannies may not like this, but there is no going back.
Well, sorta but not really! To be precise, Clementines are a type of Mandarin orange. In other words, all Clementines are Mandarins but not all Mandarins are Clementines. Does it matter? There are some differences between the two:
Mandarins are slightly larger and often have a lot of seeds (pips), whereas Clementines have a few or no seeds.
Mandarins are very aromatic and sometimes have a bit of tartness, whereas Clementines are less aromatic and sweeter.
Clementines have a thicker skin and are easier to peel.
Mandarin oranges have been cultivated in China and elsewhere for thousands of years. Clementines are the result of a natural hybridization (a cross between two species) between a sweet orange (Citrus × sinensis) and a Mediterranean willowleaf mandarin (Citrus × deliciosa). This was discovered in the late 19th century in Misserghin, Algeria by Brother Clément Rodier, a French missionary monk who worked at an orphanage in the region. In 1892, he noticed an uncultivated citrus tree near the orphanage garden. His interest piqued, Brother Clément made grafts from this tree, thus cultivating the first Clementines. The fruit is, of course, named after him. Note that Clementines are often marketed as “Cuties” or “Sweeties.”
As a point of interest, tangerines are also a type of Mandarin orange. According to the Citrus Variety Collection of the University of California, there are 167 different hybrids and varieties of Mandarins.
This is a common error because, in English, the prefix “re” means “again.” The Spanish name for this dish is frijoles refritos, and refritos means “well fried” (frijoles = “beans”)–so what we really have is well-fried beans. And of course the basis of this dish is frying and mashing cooked beans with flavorings, so there you go. Here’s a recipe for homemade.
Bagels and lox, lox and bagels–and lox means smoked salmon, right? Wrong! I thought this was true for many years, and indeed it is common usage. Buy nay, this is not what lox means.
Lox starts with salmon fillets. They are covered with a good amount of salt (always), sugar (usually), and spices/herbs (optionally). This mixture is called the cure. They sit for a while, at least overnight and usually longer. Then the cure is rinsed off and, voila, you have lox (sometimes called gravlax). The curing process will have drawn a lot of water out of the fish, making it a lot firmer, and imbued it with salt and other flavors. Yes it’s raw, but the cure has killed any nasties. It’s yummy enough now.
Cured salmon (lox) ready to be smoked and made into Nova.
But then, you can smoke it. This is cold smoking where the fish is exposed to smoke but not heat. After quite a few hours in the smoke, the lox has absorbed the smoke flavor and is, at least in my opinion, even more delicious. It’s a light smoke, usually done with fruit wood, nothing like what would be done for BBQ or ribs (hickory or mesquite). The salmon is now known as Nova. The name Nova is capitalized because it comes from the name of Nova Scotia, the Canadian province where a lot of the salmon is–or at least was–caught.
Now of course a lot of people refer to Nova as lox so the meanings may be changing, as word meanings tend to do. But now if someone offers you Nova you’ll know what they mean.
And then there is hot smoked salmon, smoked and cooked at the same time. Delicious stuff, but very different from lox and Nova.
Most of us have heard of Cincinnati Chili, if not actually tried it. Most folks are surprised when they first taste it because they are expecting the traditional southwestern style chili with beans, meat, etc. The Cincinnati version is really more of a meat sauce; it’s served over spaghetti and traditionally topped with grated cheese and chopped raw onion, with beans and oyster crackers sometimes added to the mix. And while it contains chili powder, it also contains other flavors like cinnamon and chocolate that are not associated with traditional chili. So, enjoy your Cincinnati “chili” as long as you know what you are in for!
This is a commonly believed myth, yours truly included (until recently). But the truth is much more mundane. The term is actually used for the largest peppercorns; they are grown on the same plant and processed just like “regular” pepper. Apparently some people find the large corns to be more visually appealing, so they sometimes command a price premium. Taste-wise, no difference.
As an aside, the city of Tellicherry is now known as Thalassery.
OK, before you start rolling your eyes, I am well aware that this myth falls, for most people, in the “who cares” category. But who knows, you may find yourself on Jeopardy someday!
From a scientific standpoint, a “fruit” is the part of a plant that contains the seed(s). Thus, apples, oranges, cantaloupes, peaches, and grapes are all fruits. No surprise there! But by this definition, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, cucumbers, okra, peppers, and many other “vegetables” are fruits. True vegetables include lettuce, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, celery, ginger, garlic, asparagus, and so on.
Of course, we all use the common distinction that vegetables are not sweet and are typically eaten with the main course, while fruits are sweet and are more often eaten on their own or as part of dessert.
Much is made these days about using sea salt in recipes, as if it is automatically better than regular salt, which is mined. Sorry, but this is not true. Fact is, all salt is sea salt–but some ended up underground after ancient seas dried up and the salt deposits were buried by geological processes. In contrast, sea salt is made by letting sea water evaporate in shallow ponds. So when a recipe specifies sea salt, take it with a grain of salt (sorry, couldn’t resist!) and use whatever you have on hand.
This is not to say that all salt–mined or sea–is the same. In some locations, the salt has, for various reasons, been infused with tiny amounts of other minerals that can change its color and perhaps its taste. For example, Himalayan pink salt is mined in the Himalayas and contains, according to the manufacturer, 84 additional minerals that make it a delicate pink color. Likewise, Malden sea salt, from England, is supposed to be unusually pure and comes in large, irregular flakes that give it different mouth feel.
They are, to tell the truth, quite similar. But not the same. In most cases it does not make any practical difference. Navy beans are smaller yet take longer to cook than great northern beans. They feature in famous recipes such as Boston baked beans and Senate bean soup. But great northern beans taste pretty much the same. So don’t worry about which kind you have as long as you are aware of the cooking time difference.
This myth is so embedded in our culture that it may be impossible to get rid of. How many hundreds of films, TV shows, and books show us a drunk person being fed “strong black coffee” to get them sober. But it just ain’t so.
Being “drunk” with the attendant loss of mental and physical abilities and loss of judgement is directly related to the amount of alcohol in your system. Once you have had a drink (or two, or three, or eight), the amount of alcohol in your system slowly decreases due to metabolism of the alcohol by several enzymes including aldehyde dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase. Coffee does nothing to speed these processes. Drink all the coffee you want, you’ll be just as drunk in an hour as if you had not. But … and here’s the rub … the caffeine in coffee tends to make people feel more alert and more in control even though they are just as drunk and just as impaired. So, they think they can do things that they really cannot, driving being the prime example, and they go out and cause an accident.
So, if you have a drunk person on your hands, don’t give them coffee. Give them some ibuprofin and a big glass of water (hangover prevention) and put them to bed.
