Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival claims to be one of the premier culinary events. I feel further research on my part is required before I support this claim, but, thanks to Foodbuzz, I attended this event on Sunday, and holy cow! In a recent post, I touched on the current culinary obsession of...
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Tags: celebrity chefs, chefs, food, Pebble Beach, Pebble Beach Food and Wine, wine
Posted in California, oysters | 25 Comments »
If I took one of those psychological word pairing tests and the first word was seaweed, hands down my response as a match would be sushi. I suspect I am not alone that since my first introduction to eating seaweed involved this wonderful finger food, it would be a life long association. However I’ve...
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Tags: England, food, Ireland, Japan, lavar, seaweed, United States
Posted in Japan, United Kingdom | 34 Comments »
Kinsale was one of my favorite destinations while in Ireland. How could it not be? It’s very picturesque and known as the Gourmet Capital of Ireland. I will not comment on that claim, as I have not the depth of knowledge of Ireland’s food scene, but my limited exposure tells me, if its not...
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Tags: Fishy Fishy Restaurant, food, Ireland, Kinsale, seafood, travel
Posted in Ireland, family, history, libations, travel, wine | 32 Comments »
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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Tags: bread, culture, food, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, Thailand, United States
Posted in Italy, Mexico, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States, celebrations, country, culture, religion, traditions | 26 Comments »
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 Vietnamese...
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Tags: England, fish, fish sauce, food, Italy, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam
Posted in China, Italy, Japan, Phillipines, Thailand, condiments, food, history, region, traditions | 24 Comments »
People who know me, know that sustainability is a subject close to my heart. Starting this blog and getting to know bloggers around the world made me curious to see if we were all approaching sustainability the same way, or if there are some new practices that we might share. I an not sure...
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Tags: food, food security, San Francisco, sustainability
Posted in San Francisco, United States, sustainability | 19 Comments »
Fish sauce are ubiquitous even though we may not always be aware of where they pop up – take Worcestershire sauce for example, or the Italian Colatura di Alici. In Asia, these sauces are considered core components in cooking and the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam all have their own versions of this wonderful condiment....
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Tags: DC, fish, fish sauce, food, sauce, soccer, Thailand, Washington
Posted in Thailand, Washington, DC, condiments, country, culture | 20 Comments »
When I first discovered San Francisco’s Japantown, I was in awe. I thought it was such a fascinating place, and it reminded me of those snow globes – 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...
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Tags: food, history, Japan, jazz, omiyage, San Francisco neighborhoods, San Franciso
Posted in Germany, Japan, San Francisco, San Francisco neighborhoods, United States, culture, food | 19 Comments »
In a recent bout of Mexican cooking (I go through periods, I just wrapped up a long stretch of Italian). I encountered, or more specifically, paid attention for the first time to the ingredient – avocado leaves (hojas de aguacate). In most cases, they list this ingredient as “optional”, but I had to wonder...
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Tags: avocado leaves, cuisine, culture, food, Mexico, spices
Posted in Mexico, Special Ingredients, culture, food, spices | 24 Comments »
photo from sfgate.com In preparing a recent post on raw fish, I developed a craving for cerviche, and really who could blame me? Living in San Francisco, there was one restaurant on my radar that I knew could offer me an authentic, or at least close proximally, of the Peruvian cerviche I desired: that restaurant...
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Tags: cerviche, corn, culture, ethnic food, fish, food, France, Italy, Japan, Peru, Spain, spices
Posted in China, Italy, Japan, Peru, San Francisco, country, culture, featured, food, history, spices | 26 Comments »