If there was ever a drink that seems guaranteed to improve the mood, its chai. Specifically masala chai, with masala being a general Hindu term for spice mix, and chai the term for tea. If you ask for chai tea, you’re just being redundant. (This sort of expression is called pleonasm, where one of...
You know how you discover something, and then you suddenly its as if by magic you see it or references to it pop up everywhere? Or maybe you become hyper sensitive to it once you heard about it, well that’s pandan leaves for me right now. I had heard of pandan leaves before but...
Sepideh sent me a cryptic email: "Do you know about sweet lemons?" was all she wrote. I replied that I thought, based on a quick glance at a sweet lemon in the neighborhood market, that it was like a Meyer's lemon. "Not so fast, my friend", was her response.
Growing up, I loved mint, still do, but back then I had very fixed ideas of what mint was and where it belonged: in my gum, in my toothpaste, and most assuredly in my ice cream and my mom’s Creme de Menthe cake. Then I went to college and all my preconceived notions were...
Aside from salt, peppercorns are some of the oldest spice in the world, used both as a flavoring and as medicine. Black pepper was a widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire. Apicius’ De re coquinaria, a 3rd-century cookbook includes pepper in a majority of its recipes. Edward Gibbon wrote, in The History...
I’ve confessed that I have a habit of buying spices first and asking questions later. Sometimes the purchases were duds, although I believe the argument could be made for “user error,” one or two chance encounters caused strong feelings of repulsion, but every so often they led to those wonderful “Eureka” moments. Such was...
I recently had a revelation – We’ve been robbed! Robbed of some incredibly tasty opportunities, I know I am not alone in that for most of my life I ate one kind of dessert banana. Oh yeah, I’d sampled other bananas when I traveled, and was blown away by how sweet and tasty it...
Nice Butcher – “Miss, what sort of chorizo do you want – Spanish, Mexican or Portuguese?” Me – to self ”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...
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,...
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’ve had this problem with frequently, so I decided to investigate the differences. I suspect part of...
