small bites

If you like to experiment with citrus, try hunting down a fresh yuzu. It's the only cirtrus that can grow this far north, and Wade Bennett at Rockridge Orchards sells the hazardously thorny plants for home gardens (he suggests that when planted under bedroom windows, they make an excellent deterrent to teens who might be tempted to sneak out).

Appetizers made with shellfish topped with or dipped in a spicy tomato-based sauce and served in small cups were popular in the United States beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We owe the cocktail in shrimp cocktail to Prohibition in the 1920s. If you couldn't drink a cocktail — not legally, anyway — you could at least eat one and make good use of your stemware in the process. 

Popcorn (with, ahem, a goblet of red wine) is my signature comfort food; it’s what I crave after a hard day or if I’m settling down on the couch for a night of TV or to watch a movie. A number of years back, I went through this Hawaiian Hurricane popcorn faze where I must have consumed this concoction of buttery popcorn with Japanese furikake (a Japanese seasoning) and rice crackers on a daily basis for weeks on end.