I was lucky enough growing up to be exposed to different kinds of ethnic foods. Of course, back then out here in flyover county, ethnic pretty much meant Mexican and Chinese. So I would have to consider dishes like Sweet and Sour to be something of a comfort food. Now Sweet and Sour pork or [...]
I apologize for the title but I just had to use it. I was making some salad dressing tonight and got to looking at the bottle of Dijon mustard and wondered, is there a Paris mustard? Or maybe a Lyon mustard? It turns out the Dijon isn’t so much about the city as a process [...]
OK, you’ve picked up a couple of good knives and you’re all ready to practice some mad knife skilez, right? Not so fast there partner. What are you going to be cutting on? Please, please don’t tell me you’re going to use that glass cutting board Mom got you or a plate.
There’s a lot of [...]
This one’s a Japanese inspired dish featuring the flavor of wasabi. If you’re not familiar with wasabi, it’s the little ball of green paste you see in your take out sushi. The taste resembles horseradish although wasabi isn’t a kind of horseradish.
I prefer to steam the broccoli instead of boiling it but if you don’t [...]
I can remember when I was a kid on the infrequent occasions my mother would get her spices out, I’d love to look through them and smell them. My mother wasn’t big on actually using the spices mind, so that was usually all I’d get to do. I remember seeing the little bottle of allspice [...]
One of the things I’ve noticed as I try to eat a lower carb diet is the change in how I eat. Not just what but actually how I think about assembling a meal. Before, I usually ate something served over a starchy base or I might incorporate the base in the dish itself. Maybe [...]
I was working on an article about antioxidants (which is still in the works) and I noticed some interesting things about phytic acid. And I think those aspects illustrate some of the issues we face trying to figure out what we should be eating based on the latest results from nutritionists.
First of all, where does [...]
Shish Taouk is usually marinated, garlicky grilled chicken. It’s a Middle Eastern dish and, upon doing some reading before writing this, the version I make is actually a bit of a hybrid. It’s got a bit of Shawarma, a Middle Eastern version of the Greek gyro, in it as well. It’s supposed to go in [...]
Or, who is the man behind the keyboard. And probably more importantly, why is he trying to tell me about low-carb, vegan food?
OK, I’m tired of talking about myself in the third person, always seemed a little creepy to me. I’m a 40ish computer geek living out here in fly-over country. I’m single with no [...]
Tempeh, or Tempe as it’s sometimes spelled, is a fermented soybean product formed into cakes. It comes to us from Indonesia where it’s most popular on the island of Java. It’s normally produced via fermentation with Rhizopus spores.
Tempeh, unlike tofu which is not fermented, has a nutty taste and texture all its own. And as [...]