When a few humble elements are combined in perfect balance, butterscotch is born. And food writer Deena Prichep says she turns this childhood favorite into a dinner-party star with counterpoints like flaky salt or crunchy nuts.

Microscopic bugs called cheese mites are responsible for the distinctive rind and flavor of the bright orange French cheese Mimolette. But now, the FDA has blocked more than a ton of Mimolette from entering the country, because the agency says the mites left on it make it unfit for consumption.

At Passover, Jews all over the world sit down for a Seder meal, enacting an ancient ritual. But this year, many of them will be guided through it by a very modern text — a crowd-sourced haggadah. Designer Eileen Levinson launched a website inviting anybody who wants to contribute selections for the Passover service. It now boasts over 2,000 contributions — from children's activities to songs to interpretations of the exodus story through the lens of social justice or interfaith relationships — which people can click through to create a personally meaningful document. Deena Prichep reports on how modern technology is being used to create a varied, living document, and how this contemporary practice is very much in the age-old Passover tradition.

In the 1960s, Irish-born Jews living in New York started the Loyal League of Yiddish Sons of Erin. The fraternal organization's biggest event was the annual St. Patrick's Day banquet, complete with green matzo balls.

Jon Underwood, a British Web designer and self-named "death entrepreneur," helps people talk about the taboo topic over tea and cake. "When we acknowledge that we're going to die, it falls back on ourselves to ask the question, 'Well, in this limited time that I've got, what's important for me to do?' " Underwood says.

Txokos are bustling, food-centered social clubs, somewhere between dinner party and fraternal lodge. And Basques often point to txokos to explain their renowned cuisine and wealth of Michelin-starred restaurants like Arzak and Mugaritz.

Some Orthodox rabbis say that if you're keeping to the spiritual interpretation of what is kosher, you've got to get the bugs out of your vegetables.

As a quick snack or light meal, the flatbreads of Spain are a favorite of food writer Deena Prichep. Catalonia's cocas start with handmade yeasted dough, pulled into a thin oval like a pizza. They're topped with a flourish of veggies, herbs, meats or sweets.