Allison Keene

Joined: Nov 21, 2012

Allison Keene is also a TV critic for The Hollywood Reporter, Collider, and Creative Loafing Atlanta. When not obsessively analyzing television shows, media, and pop culture, Allison works as a beat writer covering the Atlanta film industry ("ATLwood") and is a CitySearch scout. She enjoys urban exploring, napping, chuckling knowingly at New Yorker cartoons, fangirling, and supporting the Falcons and Liverpool FC.

Dietribes: Cabbage

Dietribes: Don't Hold the Mayo, I Relish It!

Dietribes: A Pocket Full of Rye

Dietribes: The Green Bean Caper

Dietribes: Vim and Vinegar

• Vinegar is, essentially, fermented fruit, though it can be made from anything containing sugar. "Typical retail varieties of vinegar include white distilled, cider, wine (white and red), rice, balsamic, malt and sugar cane. Other, more specialized types

Dietribes: Lima Beans

• Though we have come to pronounce them differently, Lima beans were indeed named for the capital of Peru where they have been growing for over 7,500 years. Through trading and cultivation, limas became popular throughout the world, spreading across centr

Dietribes: Parsing Down Parsley

• Parsley's popularity dates back to antiquity, where the herb was an integral part of life for both the Greeks and Romans. It was used in prized crowns for races, and given as a strengthening feed to Homeric chariot horses. • Though parsley was consid

Dietribes: Bloody Mary

• So what exactly is in a Bloody Mary? With its combination of vodka, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, celery salt, cayenne pepper (or Tabasco sauce) and black pepper, the drink contains hundreds of compounds and has been called "the world'

Dietribes: Maple Syrup

• It takes four maple trees that are at least 40 years old over six weeks to produce 35 to 40 gallons of maple sap, which equates to one gallon of maple syrup (which sells for about $50). • So what makes sap rise? "The sap we call maple syrup is a specia

Dietribes: Grapefruit

• Grapefruit, like all citrus fruit, is a Hesperidum: a large modified berry with a thick rind. If you see grapefruit growing on a tree, you will notice that they grow in clusters that resemble the shape of large yellow grapes, likely giving it its name.

Dietribes: Peppermint

• Peppermint has long been used as a natural supplement to aid in soothing symptoms or getting rid of "the common cold, cough, inflammation of the mouth and throat, sinus infections, and respiratory infections. It is also used for digestive problems inclu

Dietribes: Salmon

• Salmon are anadromous, meaning that they are born in fresh water, spend most of their life in the sea, and return to fresh water to spawn. President Obama made a crossover bureaucracy joke about it in his State of the Union address, saying "The Interior

Dietribes: Celery (or, "I'm Being Stalked!")

• When someone mentions "celery" as an eating option to me my first response is to scoff and say "boring." But maybe boring's not so bad - after all, a celery tonic was once prescribed as a nerve tonic. Boring is best when you're over excited! • "At the

Dietribes: Salt Water Taffy

• First, some mythology: as one story goes, in 1883 a huge storm hit Atlantic City (this isn't the spurious part!) and flooded the boardwalk and the shops, including a whole stock of taffy. When a young girl asked for some, shopkeeper David Bradley joking

Dietribes: Simply Radishing

• Radishes were so highly valued by the ancient Greeks that small replicas of them were made in gold; beets were shown in silver and turnips in lead. The Greeks of the third century B.C. wrote of the radishes of their day, and a Greek physician wrote a wh

Dietribes: Ice Ice Baby

• "But ice is not a food!" you say? The U.S. and Canadian food codes beg to differ! (although as you can see, it's not quite as easy as that). • It's a real enough industry, anyway: the average American buys four bags of packaged ice each year, 80 percen