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	<title>Oyster Food and Culture &#187; food</title>
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	<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com</link>
	<description>a place to exchange ideas and learn about culture through food</description>
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		<title>Chorizo &#8211; You Strain My Brain</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/05/09/chorizo-you-strain-my-brain/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/05/09/chorizo-you-strain-my-brain/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 03:55:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Caribbean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phillipines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Portugal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brazil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chorizo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chourico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sausage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=8464</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nice Butcher &#8211; &#8220;Miss, what sort of chorizo do you want &#8211; Spanish, Mexican or Portuguese?&#8221; Me &#8211; to self  &#8221;Oh gosh, I have to choose? Geeze, I thought ordering the sausage would be the easy part of this dish.  What are the differences?  How do I find out what I need without sounding silly?  Why didn&#8217;t I decide on a recipe with kielbasa&#8220; I eventually determined there was no way to avoid showing my lack of knowledge, and confessed my ignorance, but I vowed to research up on the subject so that the next time I was asked, I could respond with confidence and select the appropriate chorizo.  The topic proved a bit more complicated than I anticipated, and the results of the chorizo selection, while not life or death, will certainly affect the outcome of your dish. When most people think of chorizo, they think of Spain, and they&#8217;d be right, but they mustn&#8217;t forget Portugal, Mexico and Latin America &#8211; oh and India, well Goa actually (because as you know the Portuguese ruled there for four hundred years and were not about to do without their beloved sausage).  If all that was not complicated enough, there&#8217;s another [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/05/09/chorizo-you-strain-my-brain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>35</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Smokin&#8217; Hot!</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/04/08/smokin-hot/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/04/08/smokin-hot/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:36:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Open Flame]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Turkey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[barbecue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[barbeque]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BBQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoked meat]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=7932</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smoking foods adds tastes and aroma to foods that to quote Emerile, &#8220;takes it up a notch&#8221;.  I&#8217;ll confess &#8211; I love just about anything smoked, and as I live in an apartment, smoking foods is sometimes the closest I can get to my version of a barbecue.  Discovering foods to smoke, and even what to use to smoke seems to be only limited by the cook&#8217;s imagination. How, you might ask, does someone who lives in an apartment smoke her food?  I  have a stove top smoker that I cannot live without.  The trick is also to have a well ventilated kitchen, disconnect the smoke alarm, and heavy objects close by to weigh down the lid giving it a nice seal.   The other advantage &#8211; it does not matter what the weather is like outside &#8211; inside, its the right time to smoke! As soon as our ancestors started cooking they were smoking their food, lets face it, there was not much they could do to avoid it.  Frankly once you appreciate the taste it adds, and the way it improves the texture, why would you want to? [side note:  Richard Wrangham, a professor of biological anthropology at [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/04/08/smokin-hot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>26</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What do April Fool&#8217;s Day and Spaghetti have in common?</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/03/27/what-does-april-fools-day-and-spaghetti-have-in-common/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/03/27/what-does-april-fools-day-and-spaghetti-have-in-common/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Britain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[France]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[celebrations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pasta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[April Fool's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nowruz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spaghetti]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=6875</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[See for yourself&#8230; April Fools&#8217; Day, or All Fool&#8217;s Day is celebrated in many countries on April 1 with practical jokes played family members, colleagues, and neighbors.  The origin of April Fools&#8217; Day is obscure. One likely theory is that the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, as opposed to adopting the Gregorian calendar which replaced it.  In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season -an &#8220;April Fool&#8221; might be someone who planted prematurely. Other Well-known pranks [source: wikipedia] Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side.  Customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the &#8220;old&#8221;, right-handed burger. Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to &#8220;reduce the country&#8217;s debt&#8221; and renamed it the &#8220;Taco Liberty Bell.&#8221; Smell-o-vision: In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/03/27/what-does-april-fools-day-and-spaghetti-have-in-common/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>26</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Hmong Cooking and Fellowship</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/02/21/hmong-cooking-and-fellowship/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/02/21/hmong-cooking-and-fellowship/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:16:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Minnesota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[traditions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hmong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Laos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wisconsin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=6945</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 at heart, but growing up, this girl was keenly aware that there was a great big world that needed to be checked out, and was counting the days until she began that exploration.  Paris, I&#8217;d have understood, Los Angeles &#8211; ditto, heck even Sacramento sounded exotic to me as I&#8217;d never been there.  All I knew was it was in California and I imagined all Californians had wonderful tans, and lived on the beach.   I now know better, having experienced the fickle San Francisco climate.  Here I was excited to explore what lay beyond Minnesota&#8217;s borders, and simultaneously these people were just as anxious to get into Minnesota. Growing up, I participated in 4-H &#8211; an activity seen as countrified to some people of the urban persuasion, but I disagree.  My participation allowed me to explore many of my interests: photography, art, gardening, and cooking, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/02/21/hmong-cooking-and-fellowship/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Sugar, You Have Aliases I&#8217;ve Yet to Uncover</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/01/11/sugar-you-have-aliases-ive-yet-to-uncover/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/01/11/sugar-you-have-aliases-ive-yet-to-uncover/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:53:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Britain]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sweden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[black sugar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cassonade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[demerara]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[France]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sugar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turbinado]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=6174</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I love to travel and frequently collect cookbooks from my destinations.  However, sometimes I get into trouble when a recipe calls for ingredients and I have no idea of the American equivalent.  Sugar is one ingredient that I&#8217;ve had this problem with frequently, so I decided to investigate the differences. I suspect part of the problem is that in America most sugar names are fairly self-explanatory: dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, and powdered sugar.  Not so with a lot of the sugars specified in recipes- take jaggery for example, what do I use that for, or rapadura &#8211; what the heck is that?  Well you get the idea.  I was befuddled, so I set about identifying as many sugars as I could.   I realize other types and forms of sugar exist such as liquid sugars, but chose to concentrate on the crystal form for this post. Sugar comes from a variety of sources, the most common being sugar cane, but beet sugar and date sugar are a few alternatives.  Along with the variety of sources, there are many different types of granulated sugar.  Some are only used by the food industry and professional bakers and not available in [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2010/01/11/sugar-you-have-aliases-ive-yet-to-uncover/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>32</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Giving Thanks with Mooncakes</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/10/03/giving-thanks-with-mooncakes/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/10/03/giving-thanks-with-mooncakes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:28:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[celebrations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[celebration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mooncakes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=5546</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Imagine you are Zhu Yuanzhang living in the 14th century, and are of the Han tribe of China.  You are tired of  living under an oppressive Mongolian overload of the Yuan Dynasty, and desperate to overthrow this ruler.  You hatch upon a brilliant plot to unite your people to rise against the conquerers.  You receive permission to honor the leader through exchanging gifts with family and friends.  These &#8220;gifts&#8221; were round mooncakes, or message cakes, distributed only to the Han people.  When your fellow citizens cut into the Moon cake, they found your message &#8220;Revolt on the fifteenth of the eighth moon&#8221; &#8211; and they did. But wait, there is another theory to that vital transfer of information for this story: The secret message was imprinted in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle or mosaic. To read the encrypted message, each of the four mooncakes packaged together must be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, were then be pieced together in a manner that the secret messages could be read. The pieces of mooncake are then eaten to destroy the message.  Very clever!  These days, that writing we see on top is less revolutionary; [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>31</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Britain&#8217;s National Dish is &#8230;.</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/08/04/britains-national-dish-is/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/08/04/britains-national-dish-is/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:21:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Britain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[country]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recipe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[region]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bangladesh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[curry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterfoodandculture.com/?p=4982</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In British cuisine, the word curry started out as a generic term to describe what the British Army encountered a mixture of spices or spiced sauces, sauteed vegetables and meats, basically applied to about any savory Indian dishes.  Along the way &#8220;curry&#8221; became a specific term for dishes created for the British in India.  Note that the humbling of the &#8216;British curry&#8217; as a dish solely made with &#8216;curry powder&#8217; (which, prior to the 1970&#8242;s, meant a yellow powder consisting mostly of ground turmeric and chili powder, used to create dishes such as &#8216;Coronation chicken&#8217;- so named as it was created for Queen Elizabeth&#8217;s II coronation) is a 20th-century phenomenon as was adding (golden raisins) sultanas to every curry dish.  The trend is reversing direction and back towards authentic &#8220;curry&#8221;. Indian food in the UK also includes cuisine served in restaurants that are run predominantly by the Bangladeshi / Pakistani community.  Consider that Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until 1971, and Pakistan split from India in 1947.  So, despite present national boundaries, what we know as Indian cuisine has its roots in the India of yesteryear. The British love affair with curry began at the end of the 16th century [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>25</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Curry &#8211; a world traveler</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/07/29/curry-a-world-traveler/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/07/29/curry-a-world-traveler/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:50:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Britain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Caribbean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[curry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[japa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterculture.wordpress.com/?p=3472</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you think of curry, which country or region comes to mind? India Thailand Caribbean Japan China Britian Any of the above, and indeed many other countries would be correct, and you would still be thinking in the right direction if your mind wandered  to Germany or South Africa and a host of other locations, but where did it all begin? If ever a dish was truly global, curry should be the picture in the dictionary of that dish.  A spiced dish of fish, meat, poultry, or vegetables, it originated in India.  Among the spices used in curries are coriander, cumin, chili, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, fenugreek, ginger, and turmeric.  In hot climates, these spices may act as a preservative. Other ingredients that may be added to the dish, and the curry would still be considered &#8220;authentic&#8221; include garlic, yogurt, and coconut milk.  The ingredients have been tweaked to account for local tastes but evidence of the original can still be found, although you may have to really look.  In fact, there is not single recipe, or list of exclusive ingredients, really, the term curry started out as a generic description of Indian food by the British and has since come [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>27</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A little goes a long way &#8211; fish sauces</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/07/21/a-little-goes-a-long-way-fish-sauces/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/07/21/a-little-goes-a-long-way-fish-sauces/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:28:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phillipines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[condiments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[region]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[traditions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[England]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish sauce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterculture.wordpress.com/?p=3783</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;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 &#8220;breathing space&#8221; did I really get it &#8211; this stuff is strong &#8211; really, really, strong!  No wonder the Vietnamese say breaking a bottle will bring bad luck, and its been duly noted that the Vietnam Airlines bans this sauce from luggage. This odyssey into the different kinds of  fish sauces started when I was in my local Asian market and staring in bewilderment at the options looking blankly back at me &#8211; no help whatsoever.  Fish sauce from Thailand, the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam.  I started to question: how many types existed?, where were they from?, which was best?  Before I knew it, I was more confounded than ever.  I also knew that in addition to the Asian varieties there was Colatura di Alici from Italy, and Worcestershire Sauce from England.  I wanted to understand what made each sauce unique and how they came to be so popular.  If you&#8217;ve been reading this blog, I&#8217;ve already written of the other versions so that in the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Japantowns the world over</title>
		<link>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/06/27/japantowns-the-world-over/</link>
		<comments>http://oysterfoodandculture.com/2009/06/27/japantowns-the-world-over/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:57:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[San Francisco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[San Francisco neighborhoods]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[jazz]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[San Franciso]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oysterculture.wordpress.com/?p=3515</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I first discovered San Francisco&#8217;s Japantown, I was in awe.  I thought it was such a fascinating place, and it reminded me of those snow globes &#8211; a miniature of Japanese culture, and in my adopted city at that, what a happy coincidence.  Part of the appeal for me, was that Japan was my first destination in my foreign travels and so holds sway on my ideas and perceptions; it will alway be a special place to me.  Visits to Japantown are like mini-reunions, and great reminders of all the wonderful experiences, definitely not the same as an actual visit, but a nice second.  I immediately gravitated to the canned beverage dispenser as it had all the wonderful creative drinks that I remembered from that first trip.  I was disappointed to see no Asahi, as I loved the marketing expression they used when I was there &#8220;Live Asahi for Live People&#8221;, because really, who else is going to buy a nice cold brew, and it is nice to have a broad customer base like that. Until I saw this post by Frugal Eats on the Japantown in Dusseldorf, Germany, I had naively thought the sole Japantown in existence was in [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>19</slash:comments>
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