Food & drink

Food & drink

If you thought Myrtle Beach was just funnel cakes, mini golf, and sunburns, think again. The Grand Strand is getting a serious glow-up in 2026, and the food and beverage industry is leading the charge. We're talking Guy Fieri's largest entertainment concept yet, Tennessee's favorite distillery heading south, a 100-foot roller coaster, and enough live music to make Nashville jealous.

Foodies, have you heard of 'grandma-core dining' or 'nonna-stalgia' yet? Well, according to Yelp's 2026 top 100 U.S. restaurants report, grandma-core is one of the hot new food trends you can expect to see in 2026. This particular trend entails restaurants embracing nostalgia and comfort. That means you, as the diner, would experience old-fashioned and traditional recipes, often made with simpler ingredients. You'll find these homey meals served in a cozy, whimsical setting.

This story starts with mass migration. In the late 19th century, economic conditions in Southern Italy had deteriorated and millions of Italians set sail for America in search of opportunity and the gold-paved streets of which they'd been told. Many settled in the northeastern United States, sometimes strictly segregated by region. In New York's Little Italy, Sicilians lived on Elizabeth Street, Calabrians on Mott. The newly settled immigrants did their best to cook familiar foods with the ingredients available in this unfamiliar country. Their children did the same, and then their grandchildren. Dish by dish, Italian American cuisine was born, a hybrid culinary tradition that has become inextricably woven into our country's foodways.

Open since 1986, Les Sisters' Southern Kitchen, a Cajun restaurant started by Clara Huling, Roda Hadi and Willie Stanford - three sisters in spirit - has moved from its original home in Chatsworth to Winnetka, but the emphasis on homestyle cooking and old-fashioned hospitality has not wavered. Now run by third-generation owner Jessica Huling, the modest strip mall destination churns out shrimp jambalaya and other regional Louisiana staples alongside soul food classics like collard greens,

It requires incredible precision and years of intense training to make, as well as an eye for aesthetics and impeccable technique. Even the slightest cut can make all the difference, which is part of the reason you should be wary of grocery store sushi. But while it's easy to side-eye that California roll sitting in an open cooler, there's one grocery store that's apparently doing it right. And according to customers, it's more than just tasty sushi - it's also a massive steal.

Classic carbonara receives a coastal makeover in an entree that combines noodles and a sauce of egg yolk, hard cheese, and black pepper with seafood such as shrimp, scallops, mussels, or clams. It may draw you in with its creaminess and maritime promises, but you'll want to resist the urge. It's a dish that's blacklisted even by top seafood chefs themselves.

If Portland's Thai food scene wasn't exemplary enough, January saw an impressive expansion with the opening of two restaurants: one returning and one brand-new. The first, in early January, was the welcome reopening of Yui, a beloved mom-and-daughter spot with a tight, focused menu of Thai staples and rarely seen dishes. After a few itinerant years as a pop-up, Yui has settled into a spacious dining hall on SE Belmont Street, formerly home to sushi and ramen restaurant Musashi's.

A Medford facility tied to one of the state's major Dunkin' franchise operators is closing, cutting 63 jobs, according to a state filing. The site, run by Medford CPL Inc. and owned by the Couto Management Group, will shut its doors by March 17. Couto Management Group started in 1986 with its first Dunkin' shop in Allston, according to the company's website. Today, it runs numerous locations across Massachusetts, from the North Shore to Cape Cod.

Subway's 5-Meat Italian sub just didn't cut it, primarily due to the presence of one ingredient that dominated the rest of the sandwich: roast beef. It's marketed as a 5-meat sub, but the roast beef's flavor and texture - along with the turkey and ham - completely overpower the cured meats, which are typically at the center of a traditional Italian sub.

Malkin's operation, Fort Mill Sourdough, is one of a remarkable number of microbakeries proliferating across the United States, in big cities and small towns alike. Sky-high commercial rents and the impossible math of how to care for children while running a business have created the need for home-based bakeries. Flexible state licensing, digital tools and a hunger for sourdough -- which many consumers believe is healthier than mass-produced bread -- have created big opportunities for home bakers.

Nutrition researcher Kevin Hall is both a committed scientist and a realist. He knows: it's pretty near-impossible for us to avoid ultra-processed foods entirely, given the food environment we live in. Hall has studied diet and metabolism for years. He spearheaded some of the biggest and most influential studies upending long-held nutrition dogmas in his lab at the National Institutes of Health, until he stepped down last year.

In modern life on the outside we are all so used to immediate feedback on everything we do. We write and publish an article and almost instantly comments start to roll in. You push to Twitter and the peanut gallery chimes in and has their say, and you as the content creator have an immediate idea of the general sentiment surrounding your work.

Depending on personal experience, travelers may associate Williamsburg, Virginia, with a few different things. For many, school field trips and family vacations brought them to the Historic Triangle: Jamestown, Yorktown, and Colonial Williamsburg. Some know Williamsburg for its theme parks, Busch Gardens and the Great Wolf Lodge water park. Others recognize the city as the home of William & Mary, the second-oldest college in the United States.

The water must be carefully measured. The calculation is easy: 10 cups of water for every 1 pound of pasta. Add the salt as soon as the water starts to boil. It is important to ensure that the pasta does not overcook, and to remove it from the heat as soon as it reaches the point that cooks call "al dente," which is when the pasta has lost its stiffness but still offers a certain resistance as you bite into it.

Although it's always been a staple around the world, tinned fish has really been having a moment in the spotlight for the past couple of years in the U.S. Home-grown brands like Fish Wife are all over social media and have colorful, enticing packaging that's so much more exciting than basic round, silver tins. And many European brands are all the rage, too.

IoT tech is seeing increased use and paying dividends, fuelling operational efficiency, improving front-of-house guest experiences and reducing downtime in the kitchen, according to research from MachineQ. The 2026 restaurant readiness: ops meets tech report, conducted by independent research firm Censuswide, took the opinion of more than 400 US-based quick service and fast casual restaurant leaders about the effects of technology in their industry, highlighting how technology adoption is transforming day-to-day restaurant operations.

This rundown sauce is popular across the Caribbean and named for the way it runs down ingredients, coating them in its creaminess. Go with a large, hollow pasta here or any shape with enough structure to hold the mouthwatering sauce. Versions of rundown sauce are popular across Jamaica, the Caribbean and its diaspora. Known for the way this sauce runs down and coats any ingredient introduced to its deliciousness, this version cooks down anchovies, ginger and lime into a fragrant broth

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess what people usually order at Pizza Hut. Nonetheless, this pizza chain offers items beyond standard pizza with offerings ranging from cheesy breads to melts and wings - we even ranked some of the most popular Pizza Hut menu items. Apparently, pizza lovers want something other than cheese-covered bread to go with their pies, and wings seem to be quite popular as Pizza Hut currently offers an impressive range of boneless or traditional wings with a slew of flavor options.

Classic spicy vodka rigatoni is such a glorious sight, beautifully orangey-red and glossy. That iconic look and luxurious texture sparked the idea for this dish. This pasta highlights the humble carrot by making it the star of the show and the base for a creamy, spicy orange sauce. I like buying carrots with the tops attached for this to make a lovely herby topping to balance the richness of the pasta, but if you can't find them, this dish is still a stunner.

A sharp increase in grocery bills arrived soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. As supply chains all around the world were suddenly disrupted, the cost of pantry and fridge staples noticeably increased. But once the pandemic was over, prices kept climbing, resulting in a sharp and rapid inflation, the likes of which we haven't seen in half a century.

The star of the show, the meatballs, get seasoned with a mix of crumbled feta, smoked paprika, and cumin, resulting in a tender, flavorful meatball that tastes far more complex than its trim ingredient list might suggest. The rice underneath is just as fun. Speckled with salty pistachios and plump golden raisins, and perfumed by a cardamom pod and a stray cinnamon stick, it strikes the ideal ratio of salty to sweet, contrasting with the savory meatballs.

Skip to main content Photograph by Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Food Styling by Michelle Gatton, and Prop Styling by Christina Allen Fermented black soybeans are a staple ingredient in Chinese and other Asian cuisines, and they have phenomenal depth of flavor and umami. While you can purchase loose fermented and salted beans, they are most convenient when purchased in sauce form, having been combined with other ingredients like soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar.

I've been getting requests for a blue cheese dressing recipe ever since I shared these buffalo cauliflower wings a few years ago. After testing and tweaking this one with various ratios of mayo, buttermilk, and sour cream, I'm happy to report that it works perfectly as a dip for wings or veggies. With a little more buttermilk (or regular milk) stirred in, it becomes a flavorful, pourable salad dressing too.

Residents in Minnesota spend $579 a month on average for groceries, according to the study. The data also reflects local wages and shows that residents of Minnesota pay the lowest percentage of their overall spending on groceries at 6.4%. The lowest grocery bills were in West Virginia, averaging $505 a month, however lower wages mean West Virginians spent 8.7% of their money on groceries overall.

We've become accustomed to fruit-flavored foods tasting nothing like their fruity counterparts, from artificial banana essence to cherry-flavored things tasting more like medicine than fruit, but what specifically makes artificial watermelon taste so off-base from its authentic fruity muse? Well, it's simply because we don't yet have the capabilities to synthesize watermelon's complex flavor, which includes compounds like (Z)-3-hexenol, citrulline, and amino acids.

Prime rib is one of those dishes usually reserved for special occasions and holiday meals, and for good reason. The cut of beef from atop a cow's rib bones is known for its undeniably tender and juicy texture. However, large cuts of beef can easily turn chewy or overcooked if you're not vigilant while they cook in the oven. This means watching factors like time and temperature.

Stroll into nearly any Italian restaurant in the country and you'll likely get a glimpse at a row of oddly shaped bottles sitting in the oft-forgotten back bar. Those bottles contain grappa, a spirited sip most often enjoyed after a lengthy dinner when belts start feeling tight, when diners recline in their seats taking lazy last bites of half-eaten desserts.

Eating vegetables is always an excellent way to help you get your daily intake of fiber, but people who need an extra dose in their diet need to choose the most fiber-rich veggies possible. Broccoli is often named as a great source of this essential nutrient, yet you can find some superior options in the produce kingdom. Green peas are a nutritious legume that outclasses broccoli in terms of fiber content.

Pasta and peas was one of the staple meals my mom made for us growing up. We probably had it at least once a week. She learned the recipe from my grandma Tina, and it was a simple, inexpensive dish to throw together-just pasta and frozen peas cooked with a bit of chicken broth and aromatics topped with grated parm.

John Teeling, the whiskey entrepreneur who founded the Great Northern Distillery outside Dundalk, says the company is already selling blended whiskey product into India that has been specially formulated and branded for that market. It's being imported by local partners there. Mr Teeling said he was previously concerned that Great Northern Distillery was primarily focused on the US market. Now he says that India and the broader Asian market including countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand could become significant markets for Irish whiskey.