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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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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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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If you’ve read my previous post on Ireland, you know one of my complaints about Rick Steves is that he omitted the City of Cork from his Ireland travel guide. I thought that was an incredible oversight, although he was quick to offer Kinsale and Cobh as alternatives, and I agree that both are...
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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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When I lived in London, pubs were my “go to” spots, primarily because I barely knew a soul. I found I could go to most any pub, grab a pint and a meal without feeling the least bit awkward. In the pub, I never felt obligated to enter as part of a group –...
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A topic smoldering in the back of my mind for some months as I’ve seen variations on this theme for months because of numerous holidays. When is bread more than bread? Or perhaps a bit more generally, when do baked goods serve a higher purpose? I’ve unearth a few instances, and I am sure...
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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...
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I’ve been around enough to know that sometimes when you are having a conversation with someone regarding a topic you are both familar with from your own culture and experience, while you may be agreeing, what you are actually agreeing to, is miles apart from what the other fellow thinks.
I’ll never forget, I was...
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Like much of life, fortified wines were born from necessity. In this case, to preserve European wines on long trade voyages in the 16th and 17th centuries. Brandy was added either before or during the fermentation process to stabilize the wines, and improve their shelf life. As might be imagined, traditional wines did not store well in the...
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