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Shach al ha-Torah (to Ex. 16:17) states that the figure of one omer per person was actually averaged out per family. In other words, he says, adults might end up with more than an omer apiece (since o …

Another one popularly used is onion. Per this answer to a previous question, there are also people who use bananas.

According to Isaac Moses' understanding of the question, the following might be a reason not to separate challah when the dough is below the minimum size: The halachah is that even after baking, loav …

Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 204:1) says Shehakol. Mishnah Berurah (ibid. :9) explains that even though it grows from the ground (and thus by rights ought to be Ha'adamah), it is downgraded because "pe …

It's from the Gemara, Chullin 105b (bottom): ואמר אביי: מריש הוה אמינא האי דשדי מיא מפומא דחצבא - משום ציבתא; אמר לי מר, משום דאיכא מים הרעים "Abaye says: I used to think that the reaso …

The footnotes there in Shulchan Aruch Harav refer, among others, to a letter by the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l (Igros Kodesh, vol. 2, pp. 143-145), in which he discusses this issue. He concludes that this …

Sforno (to Ex. 16:27) states that the people who attempted to gather man on Shabbos would thereby have performed the forbidden labor of oker (uprooting something from the place where it grows), a subd …

Indeed, as Menachem commented, it's not necessary to assume that they were made into a dough. No kometz (handful) was taken from such menachos (see Rambam, Hil. Pesulei Hamukdashin 18:8), so it may no …

The Mishnah (Eruvin 26b) states that water and salt can't be used as the food for eruv chatzeiros or eruv techumin (thus Rashi; according to Tosafos only the latter). … If, instead, we define "food item" and "nutritive" simply in terms of whether they satiate a person, then don't mushrooms do that too? …

Rambam (Hil. Edus 11:4) writes (translation from here): ...base people are disqualified as witnesses by Rabbinic decree. This refers to people who walk through the marketplace eating in the presen …

It may depend on what exactly is the circumstance forcing you to eat this food, and also on whether it is objectively bad-tasting (like bitter medicine) or simply that you personally don't like it. … He adds that if the food is bad[-tasting] and the eater gets no enjoyment from it, then indeed he need not say a berachah. …

Also, some of them are also useful to us in capacities other than food: consider horses, camels, etc. …

R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi gives a Kabbalistic reason for the custom (cited here, note 11). In brief, it's based on the idea that lambs (and, I guess, meat in general) represents middos (emotions), whi …

I know that R' Avraham Blumenkrantz zt"l wrote very sharply (in his annual Pesach guide) against what he called the "commercialization" of checking for bugs, the standards for which, he argued, are in …

There might be a few possible reasons: It might indeed be "plain old giving food and health advice" - maintaining proper health is important in being able to serve Hashem without disruption, after all … The list in Kesubos of the good qualities of dates, then, supplements this, and helps us understand better how they are indeed an ideal cheap and nourishing food. …