Maria Godoy

Being "born with a silver spoon in your mouth" has long been known to have advantages. Apparently, eating off a silver spoon also has its perks — it seems to make your food taste better.

That's the word from a group of researchers who've been studying how cutlery, dishes and ...

In Seattle, the city that sired Starbucks, you don't have to travel more than a few steps to find a decent — nay, great — cup of joe. Java is the lifeblood of the city: Where other cities might offer walking tours of historic sites, in Seattle, "coffee crawls" ...

New Englanders have never been shy about revolting against what they see as unfair food regulations. Remember that whole Boston Tea Party thing?

So perhaps it's not so surprising that in Maine, towns have been staging another revolution: They've declared independence from state and federal regulations on locally produced ...

Paula Deen may be famous for her deep-fried Southern cooking, but the Internet isn't buying her defense that she used a racial slur because of her deep Dixie roots.

News that Food Network star Deen admitted to using the N-word has set the Internet on fire, inspiring the Twitter ...

On Monday we told you about allegations that America's potato growers had banded together in a price-fixing Potato Cartel.

The allegations we described come from a civil lawsuit filed by the Associated Wholesale Grocers against the United Potato Growers of America, a group whose members produce the ...

Editor's Note: Many of you noted that the price for a 10-pound bag of potatoes cited in the lawsuit seems ridiculously high. So we look into the matter further — you can read what we found in this follow-up post.

High-tech spying with satellites. Intimidation. Price fixing.

Sound like ...

NPR Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep recently traveled to Damascus for a series of reports on the ongoing war in Syria. He sent this postcard from the road.

Dear Salt:

On my first day in Damascus, I went walking in the ancient bazaar — narrow stone-paved streets surrounding a great ...

We here at The Salt tend to look at themed food holidays with a heavy dose of skepticism. Most of these days sound more like marketing schemes than true reasons for a national day of remembrance.

So we were pleasantly surprised to learn that there is a bona fide ...

Amazon already delivers everything from toothpaste to televisions to your doorstep. Now, it wants to bring your berries and beer, too.

The online retailing behemoth is planning a major expansion of AmazonFresh, the home delivery service of meat, dairy and other fresh and frozen foods that it has been ...

If you thought sugar-coated pockets of shredded wheat could boost your brain power, we're here to break it to you gently: No, they can't. But a check in the mail may soon ease your disappointment.

Breakfast foods purveyor Kellogg has agreed to a $4 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit ...

You knew this one was coming.

Earlier this month, we told you about a U.N. report that makes the case for insects to improve global food security: They're cheap, plentiful and environmentally sustainable. Now, the coming of the 17-year cicadas provides East Coast Americans, for whom bug eating ...

My name is... Maria Godoy

NPR employee since... 2003

Public radio listener since... 1999. I started listening to KQED when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it was a revelation. I thought: NPR — that's the kind of journalism I want to practice.

My job at NPR ...

It's not every day that a 9-year-old girl chastises the CEO of one of the world's biggest fast-food chains.

Yet that's exactly what young Hannah Robertson did Thursday morning at McDonald's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago. When the meeting opened up to questions, Hannah was first up at the mic ...

What is the case against Wisconsin farmer Vernon Hershberger really about? It depends on whom you ask.

To hear the prosecution, it's about licensing, not raw milk: Hershberger, a dairy farmer hailing from the town of Loganville, is on trial this week for operating without three licenses. He's also ...

It takes a lot of chutzpah to reduce one of the most powerful men on Earth to a pile of fruits and vegetables.

Luckily for art lovers, Giuseppe Arcimboldo had nerve to spare.

Arcimboldo created this unorthodox produce portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II back in 1590. By that ...

Amid the media phenomenon that is Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, you may have overlooked his turn as the International Space Station's top chef.

The Canadian astronaut, who landed back on Earth Monday along with two other ISS crew members, wasn't just hamming it up during his five months in space. (Although ...

All this week on The Salt and on Morning Edition, we've been exploring the stories behind your ritual cup of joe. On Friday afternoon, we held an NPR virtual coffeehouse to discuss. You can watch archived video of the first of what we hope will be a series of Google+ ...

Clovers? Hearts? That's small fries, guys. It's time you met The Cat:

That 3-D creation is the work of Japanese latte artist Kazuki Yamamoto. The 26-year-old resident of Osaka creates ephemeral works of art in espresso and foam.

From whimsical monsters crafted from milk froth ...

... to adorable homages ...

Most people would be hard-pressed to call Wal-Mart a source of artistic inspiration. A place to purchase peanut butter, cereal and other mundane necessities? Yes. But a rendezvous spot with transcendence? Hardly.

Yet that's exactly what artist Brendan O'Connell sees in the sprawling big-box stores. For the past decade, ...

Coachella, the massive outdoor music festival that kicks off this weekend in Indio, Calif., has become an "incubator" not just for new bands, but for rising food entrepreneurs, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News earlier this week.

We here at The Salt couldn't help but ...