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There was so much that I could include in last week’s episode on foie gras.

Foie gras offers a fascinating insight into the role of politics in food — which happens to be the subtitle of a new book by Michaela DeSoucey, a sociologist who got caught up in foie gras just before the topic exploded all over the food scene in Chicago.

“Essential” knives and two takes each on fish farms and proxies for food quality.

A new technique for asking how one taste affects another confirms a recent change of opinion. White wine is often a better choice than red to accompany cheese.

Unclean eating, faux craft, China in London, east Germany in the World, NYT reviews, Cured of fermentation

Who knows what evil lurks beneath the wrinkled skin of an “economy” English sausage? And what delights won for the Cumberland and the Newmarket their coveted status of Protected Geographical Indication? Jan Davison, that’s who. She wrote the book on English sausages and is the guest in this latest episode.

If there’s a theme this time — and there may not be — it’s about going beyond easily available information.

Did you know that malt whisky owes its existence in the marketplace to the stock market crash of 1973-74?

Neither did I, so when one of the people I interviewed for the craft distilling episode a few weeks back made that claim, I wanted to know more. Unfortunately, if you just plug “scotch whisky economic history” into an online search engine, you don’t find anything of real interest, at least not in the first few thousand hits.

The past is a a foreign country. And foreign countries are present. London, China, Dalits, First Nations and fake sales figures

I admit, I’m taking pleasure in the continuing exposure of Josh Tetrick and Hampton Creek Foods. Bloomberg Business Week continues its exposé.