Our Favorite Food Stories From The Week

This week, we looked back: two million years back to the days of modern man's early ancestors, to ancient Egypt and to the more recent history of British colonial rule of India. We also considered the great minds of our time—from Freud to Steve Jobs—as well as the minds of chickens. There was a lot to contemplate this week. Put your thinking cap on this weekend with these eight great stories.

Modern Farmer shines a light on "the inner lives of chickens," and if your first response is a little chuckle, you're not alone. With a closer look, however, you'll see just how interesting these birds really are. They communicate; they dream. Chickens have feelings, too, guys.

The Salt goes way, way back—about two million years—to the days when our ancestors discovered the art of cutting meat into smaller pieces. It might not sound revolutionary, but altering the way humans chewed was a crucial step in human evolution, researchers have found.

From a different historical lens, The Salt explores what geniuses the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Charles Darwin ate. Some famous geniuses were picky, some were not, but everyone had strong opinions about food. Jefferson, for one, conducted interviews with people based on how they ate a bowl of soup. If they added pepper, they were automatically rejected.

Continuing the trip into the past, wine blog Vine Pair discovers that the first wine label was invented in ancient Egypt. Apparently, they took vintages very seriously.

In other wine news, Punch investigates the "second-cheapest wine theory," which maintains if you order the second-cheapest wine on the menu, you'll get the best value without looking like you're looking for something cheap (to chug). Find out what 10 of NYC's top sommeliers think.

Saveur remembers the great British cooking show Two Fat Ladies, which aired between 1996 and 1999. It starred two "motorcycle-cruising, sass-talking, pork-loving, globe-trotting romanticists," who, despite "questionable technique," ultimately represented an "unending passion for the good life."

In another story focused across the pond, Quartz dissects the all-encompassing British use of the word "curry" and the greater implications for the enduring power of colonial rule, not strictly limited to the realm of postcolonial cuisine.

Finally, whether you're a New Yorker or not, "The Munchies Guide to NY Pizza" won't only make you hungry, it will make you fall harder for the City That Never Sleeps. The pizza shop, like the subway, is the only truly democratic place left in our great city, Munchies says. While details like the water (maybe . . .), the cheese, the walking-fold move, the hipster slice and the $1 slice all contribute to making NYC pizza so great, "the reason that New York pizza is truly great is that it belongs to all of New York."