Today we celebrate eating an extra dessert day just because we can, why not? This awesome unofficial holiday is observed annually on September 4th.
Sometimes it is not bad to indulge with your favorite dessert as long as you don’t overdo it, or just some sweet food that is commonly eaten at the end of each meal to satisfy your sweet tooth. There are different types of dessert according to your cravings including foods like cakes, pastries, cookies, and pies, fruits, ice cream, and many more.
The origin of the word dessert comes from the French “desservir,” a word which here means “to clear the table.” The earliest references to the term dessert being used are in the 1600s and arrived at the same time as the concept of serving a meal in courses, letting each part of the meal be its own experience.
The market for desserts has grown over the last few decades, which was greatly increased by the commercialism of baking desserts and the rise of food productions. Desserts are present in most restaurants as popularity has increased. Many commercial stores have been established as solely desserts stores. Ice cream parlors have been around since before 1800. Many businesses started advertising campaigns focusing solely on desserts. The tactics used to market desserts are very different depending on the audience for example desserts can be advertised with popular movie characters to target children. The rise of companies like Food Network has marketed many shows which feature dessert and their creation. Shows like these have displayed extreme desserts and made a game show atmosphere which made desserts a more competitive field.
Desserts are a standard staple on restaurant menus, with different degrees of variety. Pie and cheesecake were among the most popular dessert courses ordered in U.S. restaurants in 2012. They can contain many spices and extracts to add a variety of flavors. Salt and acids are added to desserts to balance sweet flavors and create a contrast in flavors. Some desserts are coffee-flavored, for example, an iced coffee soufflé or coffee biscuits.
Nowadays, the term dessert can apply to many confections, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatins, ice creams, pastries, pies, puddings, sweet soups, and tarts. Some fruit is also commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness. Dessert foods often contain relatively high amounts of sugar and fats and, as a result, higher-calorie counts per gram than other foods which can affect our health if we eat too much every day.
So, today we can celebrate this day by eating extra dessert, only today because you don’t want to get sick or lose your figure especially when you are watching your diet and food intake. Share on social media a photo of your favorite dessert using #EatExtraDessertDay.
1951 President Truman makes a first transcontinental television broadcast
On September 4, 1951, President Harry S. Truman’s opening speech before a conference in San Francisco is broadcast across the nation, marking the first time a television program was broadcast from coast to coast. The speech focused on Truman’s acceptance of a treaty that officially ended America’s post-World War II occupation of Japan.
The broadcast, via then-state-of-the-art microwave technology, was picked up by 87 stations in 47 cities, according to CBS. In his remarks, Truman lauded the treaty as one that would help “build a world in which the children of all nations can live together in peace.” As communism was threatening to spread throughout Pacific Rim nations such as Korea and Vietnam, the U.S. recognized the need to create an ally in a strong, democratic Japan.
Since the end of World War II in 1945, Japan had been occupied and closely monitored by the American military under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. By 1951, six years later, Truman considered the task of rebuilding Japan completely. Truman praised the Japanese people’s willingness to go along with the plan and expressed his pride in having helped to rebuild Japan as a democracy. Gone was the old militaristic police state; in its place was a country with a new constitution, unions for protecting the rights of laborers and voting rights for women, among many other positive changes.
(excerpted from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-truman-makes-first-transcontinental-television-broadcast)
