This may be unfair, but I’ve come to the conclusion that you can tell a lot about a country by their sausage. For lunches, while traveling, my husband and I have developed a habit of securing some local wine, bread, cheese and sausage that we can nibble at our leisure. Since we’ve munched our...
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You know in the movies where the character comes upon a scene that is almost overwhelming for them, everything goes silent, action appears to come to a screeching halt as if its too much for all their senses to operate at the same time as they absorb their surroundings, and then slowly like dominos...
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I’ve never been to Syria, and I can’t say I’ve always wanted to visit. For years, I’ve heard of the political situation, and understood this was not a place for me . However recently, I’ve come to view Syria as a culinary Shangri-La. I’ll give you the three signs that caused me to revaluate...
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Curry has me in its heady grip, and as I was curious to see its permutations as it made its way around the world. I touched on some of the varieties that could be found in India, how the English stamped their influence on curries by adding a few of their own, such as Balti,...
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If there was one word that guarantees an animated discussion for food lovers here in the good ole’ United States, that word is “barbecue (BBQ)”. Everyone has an opinion – charcoal or gas, what kind of briquets, how to start the fire, the kind of wood to use, and we haven’t even gotten to...
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As a child, I had an overwhelming curiosity about the (H)mong*. For the life of me, I could not figure out why, of all the places in the world they chose to resettle, they picked Minnesota. Frankly, I was a bit dumbfounded by this choice. Nothing against Minnesota, I still am a Minnesota girl...
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The Claddagh ring is a universal symbol of love, but how much did you know about it? If you are like me, you recognize its universal design, and stop there. Ah, but there’s an entire backstory that is fascinating. I am lucky to have a mother who teaches me something new when I least...
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This question has been on my mind: ”Why is the pineapple so appealing that people want to use its image all over the home?” Don’t get me wrong, I love pineapple, with a passion, but I also love bacon, and I have no desire to dress my home with porcine images. So I decided...
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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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The custom of eating pork on New Year’s is based on the notion that pigs symbolize progress or prosperity for many cultures – not a connection that may immediately come to mind. The animal pushes forward, rooting in the ground before moving, symbolizing progress. In Italy, the fatty meat also symbolizes the fattening of...
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