Taste Buds

As they sail east from Annapolis toward France on Monday, the crew of the fleet leader in the Volvo Ocean Race will dine on a repast of roast turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberries. All served up in dog bowls. The meal is rehydrated turkey and slopped-over powdered potatoes dotted with Craisins, heated over a butane burner and served up in deep-dish plastic bowls normally suited for the family pet. All to keep the goop from sloshing out in rough seas. "Real elaborate, huh?" says Richard Clarke, a crewman aboard first-place illbruck Challenge.

IMAGINE A tea party where guests scrutinized the scones, critiqued the curd and judged the jam. It sounds like afternoon tea with the Mad Hatter, except that this party played a valuable role for the hostess, Toni Johns of Kings Contrivance. Johns is preparing to open a Victorian-style tearoom, which she will manage, on Main Street in Ellicott City this fall. Called Tea on the Tiber, it will be on the first floor of the building that houses Source, Unlimited, an interior design shop owned by Oakland Mills residents Bill and Barbara Andrews.

Named after Napoleon Bonaparte, Bonaparte Breads recalls a time when a family-size loaf of bread cost 60 francs. Loaves of Bonaparte walnut, rosemary-lemon, quatre fruits (with apricots, golden raisins, almonds and prunes) or olive Kalamata bread cost from $3 to $7 at this authentic French bakery. The Lefilliatre family, which owns the bakery-restaurant, has a long history with breads -Bonaparte Breads has operated since 1788 in Paris, where it sits on the Seine's Left Bank. Lefilliatre family members opened the business in Savage Mill in 1996.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Colleen Chapin calls herself a food detective. You didn't know there's a problem with missing food? There is. Somewhere in the Midwest, a housewife misses Bre'r Rabbit Molasses. A father in California dreams of eating Frankenberry cereal one more time. And a baby boomer in New England wistfully recalls the long-lost Sky Bar. These reunions are now possible with the click of a mouse. Chapin has tracked down these products and more. Her Web site, www.hometownfavorites.

AFTER 40-PLUS hours toiling away at the office every week, spending the weekend in the kitchen is not my idea of how to unwind. Fortunately, two local churches are offering tasty solutions. St. John's Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American will hold its annual soup and baked potato sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the church social hall. It always features an assortment of homemade soups, baked potatoes with toppings, and desserts. The cost of a bowl of soup with bread is $1.50, and a baked potato with toppings can range from $1 to $2. A carryout quart of soup may be purchased for $3.50.

LUFKIN, Texas -- Do you believe everything you read? After perusing this list of "little. known facts" e-mailed to me by a friend, I have to admit some of these items are a little far-fetched. But then again, the same can be said abput astrology and wrestling.You be the judge. Here are some facts you may have never known until now:A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.A shark can detect one part of. blood in 100 million parts of water.The 57 on a Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of ingredients in the sauce.

You've come a long way, sushi.From Japan. To the West Coast. To the East Coast.And, now, to the supermarket, America's newest melting pot. Sushi chefs are becoming as commonplace as the neighborhood meat butcher and produce buyer. "Sushi's very popular," says Jeff Metzger, publisher of Food World, a Columbia-based trade journal. "It's pretty hot right now. It's something new and different."But we were curious. After all, it's one thing to grab a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store for dinner, another to pick up a plastic tray of seaweed and fish with strange-sounding condiments like wasabi (green horseradish paste)

Of all of the views in New York City, the best one is often from whatever restaurant, greengrocer or food vendor a visitor happens to be enjoying at the moment.From Harlem to Chinatown and everywhere in between, a passion for food can be a visitor's best guide. Manhattan is nothing if not a place to let the taste buds do the walking and lead the traveler on a tour of gastronomical, visual and cultural delight.Harlem"Can you raise your hands in praise? Can you raise your hands? I know you can because I've seen you lifting that fried chicken to your mouth."