New Beer's Eve

www.Pixel.la Free Stock Photos, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

New Beer's Eve is on April 6th in the United States.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed on January 16th, 1919. One year later, on January 17th, 2920, Prohibition went into force in the United States as the Volstead Act went into effect, which prohibited the production, sale and transport of "intoxicating liquors."

On December 5th, 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, making it once again federally legal to, for all intents and purposes, make, sell and drink alcoholic beverages, including beer, though some states remained dry.

The Twenty-first Amendment went into effect on April 7th. New Beer's Eve falls on April 6th, celebrating that.

National Strawberry Day

February 27th is National Strawberry Day in the United States.

The strawberry is yet another food that has a name that is not actually accurate. Rather like how few things called nut, especially those with nut in the name, are actually nuts in the botanical sense, many fruits with berry in the name are not actually berries in the botanical sense. The strawberry is an aggregate accessory fruit - which were once called by names such as false fruit or spurious fruit.

Strawberries are a comparatively modern fruit, in domesticated terms, with domestication only beginning with the growth of the first garden strawberry being in Brittany in France in the late 18th century. The fruit was mentioned in Roman literature in regards to its medicinal use, which is, even at around a couple of thousand years old, still quite modern compared to many fruit species.

Although the strawberry was being raised in gardens, especially in France, prior to the introduction of the garden strawberry, most strawberries were either wild strawberries or cultivated from them.

Strawberries are a very popular fruit, used in many different ways. They can be eaten as-is, but are also used as ingredients in jams and other preserves and pies, as well as many desserts including ice cream. They are popular in combination with dairy products. Strawberries are an excellent source of flavanoids and vitamin C. They are also a comparatively easy plant to grow at home, and can be grown almost anywhere. Today, the United States is the world's largest producer of strawberries.

National Pizza Day

igorovsyannykov, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

February 9th is National Pizza Day in the United States.

Pizza is a well-known Italian dish that usually consists of a round, flattened base of leavened wheat-based dough that is topped with a variety of ingredients. A pizza would normally have tomato and cheese as the basic toppings, with many other additional ones possible. However, as pizzas have spread across the world, both the dough and the basic ingredients have started to diverge from the traditional recipes.

The first known reference to a pizza dates from the 10th century in Laizo in Italy. The modern pizza was invented in Naples. Since the popularity of pizzas spread, it is now a common fast food and takeaway dish in many other countries, as well as being available from supermarkets, both fresh and frozen, and being a common restaurant food, though some of what is sold as pizza would probably be unrecognisable as such to someone only accustomed to the traditional Italian dish.

National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day is on February 1st in the United States.

This is one of the more unusual holidays around, as February is not known to be a warm month of the year in many countries, and certainly not in the region where it was founded. Florence Rappaport of Rochester, New York, invented the day back in 1966. Rochester is a cold place in February, and she apparently decided to serve her children ice cream for breakfast to distract them from the snow and ice outside. Since then, the holiday has spread around the world.

Ice cream itself is a frozen food typically eaten as a snack or for dessert. It is flavoured, with a wide range of different things, some of them distinctly odd, and usually sweetened.

Image: Nicolas Ettlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day

November 9th is National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day in the United States.

The fried chicken sandwich is usually a piece of boneless, skinless chicken breast served as a sandwich. It can be served in bread, in a roll or in a bun. In a fried chicken sandwich, the chicken is, of course, fried; this will normally be in some sort of crumb or batter. The chicken piece is often served with other items; salad, pickles and mayonnaise are common additions. Chicken sandwiches are often associated with fast food restaurants; most places that sell burgers will also sell chicken sandwiches as an alternative, and then there are those restaurants that specialise in chicken. The American chain Chick-fil-A claims to have invented the fried chicken sandwich in the 1940s, though this is unsubstantiated. They are the fast food restaurant who are most likely to have introduced a fried chicken sandwich.

Image: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

National Harvey Wallbanger Day

November 8th is National Harvey Wallbanger Day in the United States.

The Harvey Wallbanger is a cocktail that was apparently invented in 1952, though the earliest known reference to it only dates back to 1971, making it a comparatively recent cocktail. Though it was believed to have been created by world champion mixologist Donato "Duke" Antone, this is by no means certain.

The cocktail is served in a highball glass (an 8-12 fl oz glass tumbler). The standard constituents of it are 3 parts (45ml) vodka to 1 part (15ml) Galliano (a sweet herbal liqueur) to 6 parts (90ml) fresh orange juice. The vodka and orange juice is stirred together with ice in the glass, then the Galliano is floated on the top. The drink is normally garnished with an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

Image: User JayKeaton on English Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JayKeaton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

National Pupusa Day

The second Sunday of November is National Pupusa Day in El Salvador.

The pupusa was declared the national dish of El Salvador in 2005. It is a thick flatbread or griddle cake from El Salvador and Honduras; both countries claim to be the birthplace of the dish. They have been linked to the Pipil tribes that lived in the region now known as El Salvador and items associated with their cooking have been found dating back 2,000 years; Honduran etymologists say the Pipil language is close enough to Nahuatl that the Honduran Nahua could have created the dish.

The pupusa is stuffed with one or more ingredients including such as refried beans, squash, cheese and chicharrón, and is usually accompanied by a tomato salsa and curtido, a spicy cabbage slaw. Variations can be found in other countries using different flour and ingredients.

Image: JMRAFFi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons