If you go into your fridge and pull out some mustard, and you happen to notice that your mustard has won a gold medal from the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, it’s a good time. All condiments, in my mind, are improved if they’ve won some [obscure medal](http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/exhibits/panam/food/medals.html). Like A-1 steak sauce—it’s actually pretty terrible stuff, but it’s won, like, four medals so that makes it OK in my book. The more obscure the medal, the better; for instance, I’d much rather have the medal come from the Royal Viennese Tasting Institute than from Good Houseskeeping. Also, the older the medal the better—if the beer you’re drinking is still flaunting the fact that they won a medal in Paris in 1862, great. A sliver medal is better than a gold medal; you want to say, “keep trying mustard, you’ll make Gold someday.”

This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2005 at 10:33 am and is filed under food.