Hello Friends,

My favorite lovely and hopeful happening of the week was seeing the California bald eagle couple, Jackie and Shadow, overcome past years' disappointments as they hatched an eaglet this week. They've had so much heartache, so to see them fussing over their newborn is special. 

I went to the dentist this week. As I sat there in the chair and looked at my X-rays, I thought about how weird teeth are, how they’re the only part of our skeleton we can see. They're bones, albeit the hardest bones in the body, so marvelously adapted to our survival because they allow us to chew. Here are a couple of teeth facts. Did you know that your teeth can adapt to your diet? Over time, your teeth can develop slight changes in shape and wear patterns based on what you eat. For example, those of us who consume a lot of tough, fibrous foods (like raw vegetables or meat) may develop flatter molars from the grinding action (the teeth become mini mortar and pestles), while those who eat softer diets might have less wear. Also, teeth have a "memory" for bite force. Our teeth and jaws are equipped with sensory receptors that help you gauge the force of your bite. This is why you can bite into a soft piece of bread without crushing it or crack a nut with precision. Your teeth "remember" how much pressure to apply based on past experiences. Amazing. So what have you used your teeth on lately? 

I finally made my way over to Lorenzo in Beverly Hills to try one of their sandwiches. I chose the “tonno”, their tuna sandwich made with tuna, celery, red onions, dill, parsley, mustard, arugula, and house-made giardiniera. I had just told someone that I don’t like mustard or dill in my tuna salad, but I pushed myself to try it anyway. Delicious, and so huge I chewed through half for dinner and had the remainder for breakfast the next day. As for home cooking, the week's highlight was a dinner of Spaghettoni alla Puttanesca. I consider myself a puttanesca sauce specialist and man was it good! 

Just keep putting one food in front of the other, Evan

Ever since I spoke to Karen E. Fisher about the cookbook she facilitated in Zaatari, the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world, I've wanted to hear more about the camp. As Ramadan approached, we were curious to know what it’s like to celebrate Ramadan in Zaatari, which is now home to nearly 80,000 Syrian refugees. In the photo above we get a peek at a Zaatari kitchen and a little girl holding Eid bread, the festive bread made with olive oil and nigella, sesame, and anise seeds. Its decorative top is made when the dough is rolled over a mold. 

We check in with Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder and editor-in-chief of Food Fix, a newsletter focused on food policy — the sweeping changes we've seen with the new appointments of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 

When did seed oils become the target of wellness influencers? And why? We decided to ask Professor Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine and the director of nutrition studies at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center. For the last two decades, most of his research has been focused on the potential health benefits of various dietary components, and in January of this year, he wrote an op-ed for MSNBC urging people to continue consuming seed oils in moderation.

Caroline Eden writes of destinations where many of us will never go that have a whiff of deep history and the exotic. Samarkand, Black Sea, and Red Sands are her previous books, and in each, Eden seamlessly weaves stories of history, art, politics, and food. She looks at places of historic change along with a kind of modern loneliness and comfort. Her latest book, Cold Kitchen, begins in her home, a place she's never shown us before.