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...
I had to share this list of award winning cookbooks from around the world. I’d never seen such a broad collection of resources. All of them were entered into the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards this past year, and they represent their country in the “Best of the World” category. If you’ve gotten your hands...
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...
Growing up, a favorite treat for me was the beef jerky my parents made. I loved that delicious, salty snack, but after I moved away I questioned my memory of those meaty treats. My subsequent encounters, left me cold, they were not so much dried as desiccated, tough as nails, so stringy that I...
Did I tell you the down side to attending that wonderful cooking class I attended that was put on by the Asian Culinary Institute? The adobo has now become a staple in our house (I’m not complaining about this part), and now my husband walks around muttering how he has missed out on years...
Filipino food has long intrigued me, not just because its delicious but there’s also the mystery of why its not more popular. Why, given a fairly substantial population of Filipinos in the US, and abroad for that matter (Filipinos are some well traveled folk) are Filipino restaurant numbers not up there with their Chinese...
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...
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...
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...
When I was in Singapore, I had a few encounters that reminded me why I love to travel, finding instances that were not typical for me in the US. One was finding a ban on chewing gum, coupled with the fact that the sidewalks were blessedly free of those ugly black, sticky spots that...
