Dear Food Doc,
I hosted several out-of-state visitors recently and picked up Runzas for lunch. They claimed to be familiar with these but with different names. How did these products originate and then spread across the U.S.?
According to their website, Runzas were introduced more than 70 years ago right here in Lincoln. Despite their local history, meat fillings stuffed inside pastry dough have been around a very long time. They certainly did not originate in Nebraska.
Surprisingly perhaps, these foods date back a thousand years ago to China. Marco Polo himself likely brought them back to Europe following his travels to the east.
These early versions were in the form of dumplings, like wontons or potstickers, and were cooked by steaming or boiling in soup or broth. In eastern Europe, they morphed into ravioli, pierogi, pelmeni, kreplach, and dozens of other versions. Eventually, immigrants brought these products to the Americas in the 1800s.
People are also reading…
To make them, they follow a common recipe - meat on the inside, dough on the outside. Still, several characteristics distinguish them from one another. They vary in shape from round to triangle to crescent to half-moons. The dough can be bread-like or pastry-thin. The filling can contain only meat (of various types) or meat mixed with cabbage, onion, potatoes, or breadcrumbs.
Indeed, one reason why these were considered “peasant†foods was because one could stretch a small amount of meat by adding fillers and wrapping it in dough.
At some point, someone got the brilliant idea of making baked versions. This led to a wide range of products like empanadas, calzones, Cornish pasties, and knishes.
One could even say the ubiquitous Hot Pocket evolved from this lineage.
Dear Food Doc,
I just heard that we need to eat more “blue foods.†What are these?
By all means, we should eat plenty of blueberries, grapes, and plums, which are a rich source of healthy nutrients. But this new blue food trend is about something else.
Rather, this refers to aquatic foods from oceans, rivers, and lakes. It includes not just fish, shellfish, and mollusks, but also marine plants like algae and seaweed.
If you think that algae and seaweed will never cross your lips, think again. You are already consuming them as thickening agents in ice cream and salad dressing. They are even in your toothpaste!
According to recent articles in the journal Nature, diets rich in blue foods provide better nutrition than beef, chicken, or pork. Plus, they can be sustainable and help address world food security and hunger problems.
Here in Nebraska, terrestrial foods like beef, corn, and soybeans get all the attention. But 70% of the planet is covered by water, so perhaps blue foods will be more than just a passing trend.