Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

The Canadian astronaut didn't just tweet and sing his heart out during his five months as commander of the International Space Station. He also took time out to show the world what it's like to eat up there.

All this week on The Salt and on Morning Edition, we've explored the stories behind your ritual cup of joe. Watch archived video of our Coffee Week conversation in our first Google+ Hangout.

You think clovers and hearts are impressive? Wait till you get a load of these Japanese latte drawings. A culture that values the beauty of the ephemeral has brought us a new level of art in foam.

Artist Brendan O'Connell's paintings find beauty in a cathedral of American consumerism. His thoughtful, unironic paintings of life inside Wal-Mart stores reflect on our relationship to brands and the search for "transcendence" in a shopping cart.

As the start of Coachella this weekend reminds us, tis the season for outdoor music festivals. But great bands aren't the only things these massive, multiday gatherings can foster. Two recent studies document how such events can be breeding grounds for foodborne illnesses that rock your belly.

Both fruits are vulnerable to a nasty disease called fire blight that can devastate orchards. So organic labeling standards allow for antibiotics to be used on apple and pear trees. That exemption is set to end in 2014 — but growers say they need a little more time.

It's easy to see why a rocket scientist's obituary that led with a mention of her culinary prowess set off accusations of sexism. But food is undeniably a powerful marker of identity, as much or more of a statement of who we are as what we do for a living.

Congress on Thursday approved stopgap funding legislation that includes language explicitly granting the USDA authority to override a judge's ruling against genetically modified crops. Critics denounce the measure as the "Monsanto Protection Act." But it seems to be codifying powers the USDA already has exercised in the past.

Across Russia, pancakes and butter abound as the country marks a weeklong celebration before the start of Russian Orthodox Lent. Pagan in origin, Maslenitsa calls for plenty of eating, sledding, merrymaking — and even organized fistfights.

One of the first personal tidbits to emerge about Pope Francis: He cooks for himself. But austerity and humility are two of the new pontiff's defining characteristics. And they seem to extend to his eating habits.

A state Supreme Court justice said the regulations overstepped the authority granted to the New York City Board of Health. And the judge noted that the regulations wouldn't have applied equally across food retailers.

Some have proposed a culinary approach to the millions of locusts that made their way from Egypt to Israel this week: Eat 'em up. Plenty of world cuisines can offer inspiration, but there's a catch: Rabbis don't agree locusts are kosher.

Ad man David Neevel's quest to rid himself of his unwanted crème drives him to create a robotic Oreo separator machine, in this charming satirical video in celebration of the snack cookie.

From the jungles of Southeast Asia through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the chicken's journey to the table has been quite the odyssey, spanning thousands of years. Yet it's only in the past century that chickens came to dominate the American diet.

Dining was a very, very big deal in Edwardian England — and the food, it turns out, was pretty sophisticated. So why was British food derided as boring, tasteless fare for much of the 20th century? Here's the story.