Food and Foodways

As Germany celebrates the 500th anniversary of its Beer Purity Law, beer-drinking hits historic lows.

The best-known of Palermo's four markets, the Vucciria winds through the narrow streets of the city's historic center.

Those tasty little bites that can add up to a delicious meal of an evening will now be honored with a special celebration.

The traditional French bistro, or cafe-bar-restaurant, might be an endangered species. The numbers have been dropping since the 1960s.

More and more airports and food vendors are finding ways to donate unused food rather than discard it.

Dijon's historic center is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, with well-preserved buildings, an unusual Gothic church and a Michelin-star lunch.

PurpleDinner offers to match up hosts and guests for dinner while traveling.

Ibi, in Eastern Spain's Valencia region, was a battlefield Monday as two "armies" fought each other for control of the town, using flour, eggs and firecrackers as weapons. It's hard to say who won. The mock battle takes place every Dec. 28, which is Dia de los Inocentes, roughly equivalent to April Fools' Day in effect. In the 200-year-old tradition, the insurgents seizing the town under the slogan of "New Justice" served as "Enfarinats," or "flour police," levying fines under a mock system...

There's an old saying that it's a bad idea to go shopping when you're hungry. Now we find it's that way for burglary, too. An otherwise successful German burglar has been taken down by a bite of sausage. In February, burglars broke into a supermarket in Anspach by breaking down a door. They tried the office safe and couldn't get in, but they did take €300 worth of cigarettes with them. And one of the burglars, unable to resist a delicious temptation, took a hefty bite out of a pork...

It's clearly winter now at Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket, with only a few days left until Christmas, and only the hardiest of crops remaining—but those include lovely piles of scallions with their roots showing, and plenty of turnips, beets and carrots. Not to mention lots of apples of many varieties (no, those aren't tomatoes in the boxes) as well as meats, baked goods and specialty foods. And, of course, it's the season for some non-edibles as well, in the form of holiday...

Not just any market, Mercado de Abastos on a Saturday morning, numbers swelled by sellers and buyers from the countryside, is said to be the largest in Mexico. Intimidated, PortMoresby reports on a Tuesday.

Burger King, which long ago lost out to McDonald's as #1 fast-food burger chain in France, has a double-pronged plan for getting back in the ring: It's bought out the 400+ French outlets of the Belgian chain Quick, and it's entering the halal fast-food market to serve France's 5 million Muslim residents. French competition authorities last week approved the takeover by Burger King, which has only 30 restaurants in France, saying "this deal does not harm competition. They did require...