Figs are one of the world’s oldest cultivated fruits. Images of figs appear in ancient Egyptian murals and are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament and the Qur'an (or Koran, the central religious text of Islam). Figs were known to be an important source of daily...

Making sweet and savory jellies and aspics from the sea begins with harvesting tengusa (天草 literally “heavenly grass”), a group of red marine algae that grow in fairly shallow waters. The most common variety is makusa (Gelidium amansii); in Japan most of the...

In Japan, hand-held, flat fans called uchiwa have been creating cooling breezes for millennia. Uchiwa can be many things: In addition to being practical tools in the kitchen (for fanning rice when making sushi... for fanning cooking fires when broiling), uchiwa often...