In his belligerently funny novel The Sellout, Paul Beatty eviscerates racial politics in the U.S. by aiming some of his sharpest stabs at that old and vicious shaming device: the food slur.

Cohen's friend Suzanne Verdal fed him a black tea with pieces of orange rind in it. That tea is Constant Comment, sold by the Bigelow Tea Co. First sold in the 1940s, it remains popular even today.

From the waste-not ethos behind Angel Food Cake, to the science fads that sparked chocolate cake, American Cake tells a story of immigration and ingenuity.

Nope. It's not eye of newt and toe of frog. But food — and its connection to dead loved ones — does play a starring role in the major Pagan holiday Samhain, which coincides with Halloween.

The legendary Cosmo editor, subject of two new biographies, knew sex sells – and food brings in ad money. She cannily combined them with features like "After Bed, What? (a light snack for an encore)."

British tabloids have long exploited the U.K.'s ambivalent ties to the European Union with exaggerated, funny and often unfounded stories about regulations aiming to undo English food culture.

When Jason Amundsen told his wife he was quitting his job to raise pasture-raised eggs, she was less than amused. Readers, however, will chuckle at the story of their tragicomic path to success.

Tubman's role as a professional cook has often been overlooked. She self-funded many of her heroic raids to rescue slaves through an activity she enjoyed and excelled at: cooking.

Many of Kafka's darkest comedies appear rooted in the cowering relationship he had with his father. Their only true bonding was over beer.

During the 1930s, as Hitler was rising to power in Germany, the man who would turn out to be his most implacable foe was drowning — in debt and champagne. A new book recounts the unbelievable excess.

Julia Ward Howe wrote the Civil War psalm The Battle Hymn of the Republic. She was adrift in a lonely war of her own, against a husband who controlled every aspect of her life, including what she ate.

Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish former first lady who died on Sunday at 94, was fond of saying: "A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it's in hot water."

Reagan was merely quoting a line attributed to another first lady, ...

News that British tea-drinking is on the decline is stirring a tempest in a teapot across the pond. But U.K. leaders might have welcomed such headlines in the 1970s, when the length of the tea break became a major point of political contention.

So recounts Charles Moore's acclaimed ...

As the world celebrates one hundred years of dadaism, it is worth looking at how this "anti-art" art movement that started in a café in Zurich during World War I resulted in an iconic artwork involving that most humble object of tableware: the teacup.

In 1936, a 23-year-old Swiss artist ...

Last month's dramatic arrest of El Chapo, the world's most powerful drug trafficker, brought to mind one of the most gruesome stories in the history of smuggling — one that involved not cocaine, but a substance equally light and easy to transport: tea.

In 18th century England, tea smuggling was ...

As a master of the eccentric metaphor, the great Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov used food to fine effect in his writing.

There was, for instance, that one word he used to capture the texture, tinge and luster of his watery green eyes — "oysterous." And that icky image in Lolita, ...

With the historic nuclear deal finally taking effect, a sanctions-free Iran can now get back to doing what it has excelled at for centuries: trade.

Because of Iran's strategic position on the Silk Road, that ancient highway that snaked from China to Europe, the caravans of tea, spice and silk ...

The Powerball bonanza, which has touched an unprecedented $1.5 billion, may be the largest jackpot in human history, but the frenzied ticket buying and wild hopes attending it are hardly new. Ask Charles Dickens.

In 1844-'45, the novelist spent a year traveling though Italy with his family. In a series ...

In October, Hilda Mascarenhas, who writes a popular food blog in Pune, India, began her Christmas preparations with an unusual request to her fruit seller.

After buying a pineapple, she asked the vendor to separately pack the peel and eyes that he had skillfully removed with his long knife.

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This week marks the 242nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Mad Hatter's tea party. On the surface, these two events seem to have very little in common. But if you'll follow us down the rabbit hole for a bit, you'll find ...