As I touched on in a previous post, salt is commonly obtained in one of two ways, from the sea or mined, and those methods go back millennia. Rock salt occurs in vast beds of sedimentary minerals, the last reminder of dried up lakes and seas. In the United States and Canada extensive underground...
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I love salt. As I child I considered pretzels mini salt licks and would suck on them until all the salt coating the outside disappeared, and only then would I consider eating those pretzels, or not. But, I have to say when the salt mania struck the culinary world with a vengeance, I stood...
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I had no plans to write about my experience at the Fancy Food Show that recently took place in San Francisco; I intended to incorporate what I discovered in future posts, but after receiving many requests to identify what I tried, I reconsidered. After all, is not food something of an ambassador of a...
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The history of soy sauce is a bit like the sauce itself, kind of murky. What is consistent is that the precursor to soy sauce is something called jiang. Jiang was a method of preservation popular with the prehistoric people of Asia involving preserving meat and fish with salt. This process produced a bi-product,...
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A recent post on Hungarian paprika hinted at the possibilities of paprika’s use expands beyond the political confines of Hungary. The bright red colour of ground paprika leaves a lasting impression for anyone visiting the spice markets from Morocco to Turkey to Iraq to Northern India. In these regions, the spice is prized as much for...
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I’d been cooking with fish sauce for a while and knew well its potency and pungency, but until I broke a bottle and liberally doused myself and had to suffer through folks quickly backpeddling to give me “breathing space” did I really get it – this stuff is strong – really, really, strong! No wonder the Vietnamese...
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Fish sauce are ubiquitous even though we may not always be aware of where they pop up – take Worcestershire sauce for example, or the Italian Colatura di Alici. In Asia, these sauces are considered core components in cooking and the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam all have their own versions of this wonderful condiment....
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“Lahat ho yata ng pagkain dito may patis, ma’am.” - ”I think all the dishes here have fish sauce, ma’am.” This response probably best sums up how ubiquitous patis is to Filipino cooking. Patis is the Filipino version of fish sauce, and long a staple in the kitchen. Filipinos have a long love affair with fish related condiments, and given...
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The more I learn about the Amalfi Coast, the more impressed I am. We owe a debt of gratitude for such culinary wonders as limoncello, and of course this incredible anchovie fish sauce, colatura di Alici. The sauce is simple to make: select fresh anchovies clean and pack in a wooden barrel add weight...
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