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Whenever someone from the edges of the country comes to visit me in the Midwest, I don't let them leave until they've tried deep-fried cheese curds.

If you're not familiar, "cheese curds" are a byproduct of the cheddar cheese-making process, and "deep frying" is a method by which anything is made into a better version of itself.

You can find deep-fried cheese curds all over the states surrounding Wisconsin. But today we're eating the exceptional beer-battered ones from Farmhouse in Chicago.

Peter: Some say that the sweet potato is nature's perfect food, because it's packed with vitamins. Well, $&*&% you, Nature, this is mine.

Eva: Whoever invented these should win an Oscar. I don't care if it doesn't fit. The Academy should make an exception.

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Robert is transfixed. NPR hide caption

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Robert is transfixed.

NPR

Miles: No one let the cheese curds know that I brought a salad for lunch — I don't want to look like a nerd in front of them.

Jeanette: I appreciate any food item that oils my cuticles as I eat. It's my ideal spa experience.

Ian: I like how non-fried cheese can now be considered a Healthy Alternative.

Miles: In the Midwestern version of the Bible, the serpent tempts Eve with cheese curds. It's called Wiscon-Original-Sin.

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Sistine Chapel close-up. NPR hide caption

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Sistine Chapel close-up.

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Peter: No just God would punish her for giving in.

Eva: Little Miss Muffet can no longer sit on her tuffet. What is a tuffet?

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Miles attacks. NPR hide caption

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Miles attacks.

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Peter: I don't know, but if you batter and deep-fry it, I'll fight you for it.

Ian: These are so delicious that when you think about them shortening your life, you only worry about it because it means less time to eat cheese curds.

Peter: I had deep-fried cheese curds on an early date with my ex-wife. I realize now what I really fell in love with.

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Cheese, improved. NPR hide caption

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Cheese, improved.

NPR

Eva: The last cheese curd is the No. 1 cause of murder among dear friends.

[The verdict: a perfect food.]

Sandwich Monday is a satirical feature from the humorists at Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!

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Six writers have withdrawn from the PEN American Center's annual gala on May 5 in protest against the free-speech organization's decision to give the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo its annual Freedom of Expression Courage Award.

The writers who have withdrawn from the event are Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi, The New York Times reports.

In its decision to honor Charlie Hebdo, PEN America cited the satirical publication's "dauntlessness in the face of one of the most noxious assaults on expression in recent memory." An attack on Jan. 7 by Islamist militants on the magazine and its staff killed 12 people, including some of its top cartoonists and editors. In a statement, PEN added:

"The day after the attack, the surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo magazine vowed to continue publication, releasing their next edition on time with a print run expanded from 40,000 to over eight million under the mantra 'All is Forgiven,' donating all proceeds to the families of the victims. The Charlie Hebdo attacks dealt a blow to the bedrock principle that no act of expression, no matter how provocative or offensive, can justify violence."

Charlie Hebdo had long pilloried political and religious figures, but it was its depiction of Islam's Prophet Muhammad that had drawn much scrutiny – as well as death threats from militant groups. Many Muslims consider any depiction of their prophet — even positive ones — to be offensive. Critics of the magazine say Charlie Hebdo was being deliberately provocative.

Kushner, in an email to The Times, said she was withdrawing from the May 5 PEN gala because she was uncomfortable with Charlie Hebdo's "cultural intolerance" and promotion of "a kind of forced secular view." Those views, The Times added, were echoed by the other writers who pulled out of the event.

Carey told The Times that PEN, in its decision, was going beyond its role of protecting freedom of expression.

"A hideous crime was committed, but was it a freedom-of-speech issue for PEN America to be self-righteous about?" he said in an email to the newspaper.

Novelist Salman Rushdie, a past president of PEN who spent years in hiding because of a fatwa over his novel The Satanic Verses, criticized the writers for pulling out, saying while Carey and Ondaatje were old friends of his, they are "horribly wrong."

PEN, in a statement on Sunday, said: "We do not believe that any of us must endorse the content of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons in order to affirm the importance of the medium of satire, or to applaud the staff's bravery in holding fast to those values in the face of life and death threats."

It added:

"We recognize that these issues are complex, and that there are good faith differences of opinion within our community. At PEN, we never shy away from controversy nor demand uniformity of opinion across our ranks. We will be sorry not to see those who have opted out of the gala, but we respect them for their convictions."

The award for Charlie Hebdo will be accepted by the publication's film critic and essayist Jean-Baptiste Thoret, who had arrived to work late on the day of the attack.

PEN America

Charlie Hebdo

Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is in the U.S. all this week for a tightly-packed visit that will focus largely on the strong ties between the U.S. and its closest Asian ally.

There was a time not so long ago that the prime minister's office in Toyko appeared to have a revolving door. Japan went through four prime ministers during President Obama's first three years in office alone.

Abe was first elected as prime minister in 2006, but that tenure lasted just one year, in large part because of health problems. When he swept to power again in late 2012, he was determined to rebuild Japan's battered economy and elevate the country's role on the world stage. This visit should help with the latter goal as Abe will have a summit with Obama and a state dinner at the White House with 300 guests.

Image is important to the Abe administration, and it'll be on display during this U.S. visit, says Shihoko Goto, an Asia specialist with the Woodrow Wilson Center.

"He's very charismatic ... he has a very charming wife and so she will be a great asset to him at the public events. ... The White House is really going out full force to roll out the red carpet for him," she says.

One of the first things the two allies will do is sign updated defense cooperation guidelines. The revised guidelines call for a more active role for Japan's military. That's important given concerns over North Korea's nuclear capability, and China's rising military prowess.

Since World War 2, Japan has had a pacifist constitution, which has constrained its military. Abe has been seeking to ease restrictions on the armed forces, says Goto.

"The neighborhood is becoming increasingly dangerous. And also the fact that the United States is overstretched and that Japan really does need to step up to the plate to ensure not only its own stability and security, but also the region's stability and security as well," she says.

The role of Japan's military could cast a shadow during Abe's visit. Korean groups and others are calling on him to apologize for Japan's aggression during World War 2 when he addresses Congress.

It is the first time ever a Japanese prime minister will address a joint meeting of Congress, and there will be two key audiences: U.S. lawmakers and the Asian community.

Gerald Curtis, a political professor at Columbia University says Abe will have to tread carefully in his speech — address the war, then move on.

"It's an opportunity to celebrate the success of Japanese post-war democracy and diplomacy, and the U.S.-Japan alliance. But he has to deal with this history issue so that it doesn't completely ... drive attention away from really what's most important, which is where we go from now on," he says.

One of the things the U.S. is looking for is to reinforce its commitment to Asia, which includes solidifying economic ties. Central to that is an enormous Asia-Pacific trade deal, called the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Japan and the U.S. have been locked in the final, toughest stages of negotiations over things like imports of rice and American cars. Alison Evans, an Asian specialist at IHS Country Risk, believes that the differences could be worked out by the time the two leaders meet.

"These negotiations have gone on for a couple of years ... however with Abe's visit to Washington, DC ... there's been a lot of momentum that have brought negotiations on the Japanese and U.S. side together," she says.

Evans says that could give both Obama and Abe a chance to say there's been progress when the two leaders meet this week.

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Danny Kou, the executive chef at La Mar, an upscale Peruvian restaurant in San Francisco, says it's a good time to be him.

Kou moved from Lima to the United States when he was 21. It was 2001, and back then, Peruvian cuisine was still unfamiliar in North America.

But in the last few years, there 's been an explosion of Peruvian restaurants in major cities all over the U.S. Last year, the American Restaurant Association named the cuisine a top food trend.

"I'll tell you, nowadays, every week or two, people come to me. They want to give me money to start another Peruvian restaurant," Kou says, with a chuckle. "I keep having to tell them, 'No, thank you, I am very happy where I am.' "

Kou says there's a simple explanation for why Peruvian cuisine has become so trendy: "It's just very, very good."

True, but it's also more complicated than that. Over the past decade, the Peruvian government has been making a very deliberate effort to popularize its cuisine worldwide. It's a strategy that a growing number of middle-income countries are adopting as they look to flex their muscles on the international stage.

"Think – if you're Peru, Mexico or Korea, you are not going to be major nuclear proliferators," says Johanna Mendelson-Forman, a policy expert on international conflict. "But maybe you can hope to become the world's No. 1 culinary destination."

The Salt

Mistura Food Fest Gives Peruvian Cuisine A Chance To Shine

Peru's dive into culinary diplomacy includes partnerships with the country's top culinary minds, such as international superstar chef Gaston Acurio, and food producers to promote Peruvian products like quinoa and pisco – a type of South American brandy.

In 2006, the country's Export and Tourism Promotion Board launched a campaign called "Peru Mucho Gusto" — a play on words that can mean "Peru, nice to meet you" and "Peru, full of flavor." The campaign has funded cookbooks, staged high-profile food festivals at home and abroad, and recognized exemplary Peruvian restaurants around the world.

And in 2011, the Organization of American States officially designated Peruvian food as part of the "cultural heritage of the Americas. Now the government is lobbying to win similar recognition from UNESCO as well.

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The government of Peru is partnering with culinary stars — like celebrity chef Gaston Acurio, shown here in his restaurant Astrid & Gaston in Lima in 2014 — to promote Peruvian cuisine around the world. Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

The government of Peru is partnering with culinary stars — like celebrity chef Gaston Acurio, shown here in his restaurant Astrid & Gaston in Lima in 2014 — to promote Peruvian cuisine around the world.

Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

Other countries are trying different approaches to gaining gastro-prestige. You might remember that last year, Thailand built a robot to help critique and quality-control Thai food overseas.

South Korea has sometimes gotten a little too eager with its food messaging – which has included campaigns suggesting that eating Korean food increases sperm count and a series of bizarre advertisements.

Mexico and Taiwan have recently made efforts to raise their gastronomic profiles as well – promoting their cuisines at international food fairs, and launching campaigns to educate the world about their culinary traditions. Mexican cuisine won UNESCO recognition in 2010.

The strategy — which academics like to call "culinary nation branding" — was a topic of discussion this week during a conference on gastrodiplomacy at American University.

And it seems the approach really does work. According to the Peruvian embassy, 40 percent of all tourism to Peru in 2013 was motivated primarily by food. Gastronomic tourism generated about $700 million that year, the embassy says.

"The promotion of our cuisine is one way to promote our country," says Adriana Velarde, the head of public diplomacy at the Peruvian embassy in Washington, D.C.

It is also a way to change the conversation about a nation with a troubled past.

"Before, when people talked about Peru, they talked about terrorism," Velarde says – referencing the Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso. For nearly 20 years, the Maoist group led a campaign of bombings, assassinations and beheadings across the country — including a dramatic hostage standoff at the Japanese embassy in Lima that was televised around the world.

But as the Shining Path's influence waned by the early 2000s, Peru turned to its cuisine to tempt tourists to visit, and to redefine how the rest of the world sees it.

"We want our country to have a place in the international spotlight," Velarde says. "And one thing that sets us apart is our delicious food."

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