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Salsa was originally made by the ancient Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas from tomatoes, native to the region, along with onions and spices. It was served as a condiment by Aztecs rich enough to have meat and fish on their tables, while the poor used it on tortillas. Today salsa means the Mexican dip used with chips that in the United States is even more popular than ketchup.

APPLES

Although the apple has them—and there is the legendary figure named Johnny Appleseed who is usually pictured inaccurately as spreading them from a bag over his shoulder—seeds do not produce a consistent variety of apple. The long history of the apple has been one of cultivation and grafting—cuttings from a good tree grafted onto another where they bear the desired fruit. The result of planting apple seeds is a series of trees whose fruit is unpredictable.

The apple that Eve is holding in many paintings is not mentioned in the Bible—the fruit there is unnamed, merely from the tree of knowledge. Probably its depiction results from the value it had in ancient times—to the Romans it was a luxury. In ancient Greece, cultivated apples were also rare and expensive, so much so that there was a decree that a bridal couple might share only one apple before proceeding to the marriage bed. In Sicily today, tradition has it that a girl who tosses an apple into the street beneath her window will marry the boy who picks it up. If a priest picks it up, she will die a virgin.

Apples—and there are more than ten thousand named varieties—are available year-round, though more plentiful and of higher quality in the summer and fall, the time of their natural harvest. Markets carry the most profitable, not necessarily the best, apples, and it is usually blandness that results in popularity.

Of those that appear in most supermarkets, some are good for almost every use: Jonathans, McIntosh, Gala, Courtland, Granny Smith. Some varieties tend to be better for one purpose than another:

• Applesauce: McIntosh, Cortland, Fuji, Gala

• Pies and tarts: Granny Smith, Rome Beauty, Cortland, Pippin

• Cider: Winesap

An apple has only about ninety calories, abundant vitamin C, no fat, and aids digestion. Three medium apples equal about a pound, and two pounds, or six medium apples, are about the right amount for a pie.

BISTROS AND BRASSERIES

Bistros are small bars or restaurants, and brasseries were originally breweries but are now restaurants. It can be difficult to tell them apart—the definitions are somewhat elastic.

A bistro is really a place where one can have something to eat and drink in relative informality. The idea of simple food served in a warm atmosphere has appeal. The origin of the word itself is the subject of debate. One school believes it is from the Russian word for “quick” and came into use after Russian troops occupied Paris in 1815. Another theory is that it comes from the French word bistrouille, which is a mixture of coffee and brandy.

The word “brasserie,” on the other hand, has meant brewery from the beginning, and brasseries have evolved from places where beer was made to those where it was sold, along with food and other drinks. Brasseries serve a basic menu all day and often until quite late at night. They have traditionally been favored by artists, writers, journalists, and politicians.

In Paris there is the haughty Brasserie Lipp, celebrated by Hemingway and later the choice of Herman Goering. Also Bofinger, a Belle Époque treasure from the 19th century, along with one of our favorites, Flo, on a narrow alley in the tenth arrondissement. At Lipp, unknowns are sent up to exile on the second floor, but Flo has only one floor.

PARMESAN CHEESE

During the Great Fire that destroyed London in 1666, Samuel Pepys took measures to protect certain valuables from the almost total destruction. “[I]n the evening Sir W. Penn and I did dig another [pit in the garden] and put our wine in it, and I my parmazan cheese.”

Parmesan cheese—Parmigiano-Reggiano