If you have a passion for food and words, check out Ort of the Week, an online feature from Gastronomica, the journal of food and culture that just won a 2007 Utne Independent Press Award for social-cultural coverage. In the delectable column, Mark Morton, author of Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, picks apart gastronomical vocabulary, discussing meaning, history, and linguistic origin. Past entries include cornucopia, aperitif, and plague-water–a brew that was supposed to cure the Black Plague. An ort, by the way, “was originally a scrap of food or leftover fodder not eaten by cattle or pigs,” which later came to refer to people-food leftovers, as well.
