Meet The Team / Nadine Rubin

Have you noticed how the centers of your steaks have become bloodier over time? Since, say, 1982, according to New York Times food writer Florence Fabricant?

Susan Burton has. In an essay on Slate.com, Burton publicly declares her meat preference as "cooked through, gray, no trace of pink." And while you may think that sounds like she's ordering up shoe leather, Burton says "that [her choice] signifies 'food safety.'" With that, she sets off on a fascinating historical journey of how the tradition of cooking meat well done has slowly slipped out of favor in American kitchens.

You may not be able to watch the World Cup Soccer tournament in South Africa, but that doesn't mean you can't get a taste of that country's munchies (snacks), meals and drinks.

South Africans have nicknamed their food "Rainbow cuisine" to encompass the melting pot of cultures who have joined the indigenous people since the Dutch built a half-way stop in Cape Town for the Dutch East India Company. Next came the French Huguenots who planted vines that were the beginnings of the Cape Winelands. Sugar farmers in Durban brought laborers from India, others came from Malaysia. The British arrived looking for gold, as did Germans (though they staked their claim on South West Africa, now Namibia). Plus, the Portuguese, who colonized nearby Mozambique, brought the flavor of spicy peri-peri to South Africa on chicken and prawns (large shrimp).