Tan Is a Color Too

That’s why the milk cream that saturates today’s Chai Masala Tres Leches Cake is caramel-colored, not white as it is in more conventional varieties.  Black tea mixes with spices, including cinnamon, cardamom and allspice, and the combination in turn infuses sweetened evaporated milk and coconut milk with an ethereal hint of orange, and gives it…

It’s No Trick!

Today’s stew wants to be bad for you.  It really does.  Generous quantities of bacon fat builds the base, and is used to saute the garlic and shallots.  Then comes the wine and the dark-meat chicken.  It’s not over yet, because two garnishes top it all with a choice of flavored oil or crispy chicken…

Take Another Look

At a glance, today’s entry looks to be an omelet, doesn’t it?  No eggs were involved this week, though.  Instead, we have a rice-flour crepe, lightly thin and pan-seared to crispy perfection, barely able to contain all the goodness within its grasp.  This is Bánh Xèo (in English, pronounced “bun sale”), a street food made…

Just Across the Bay

The best crabs around these parts (the US mid-Atlantic region) reside in the Chesapeake estuary, and Baltimore celebrates them better than do most other places.  Among the bounty of shellfish preparations the city offers, none matches Crab Cakes.  Particularly not when the leading ingredient is crab.  Astoundingly huge nuggets of sweet, flaky crab. It’s a…

Syrup’s Rising Soon

Vitality stirs within maple trees, the sap (syrup) beginning to surge, awakening the trees from their hibernations. That’s good news for the trees, as it begins a progress that takes them to this point: (Photo taken early last summer of a maple tree, in the parents’ yard, the author started at age twelve, from seed. …

Please…Try This at Home

After all, Charles Pham, chef at The Slanted Door in San Francisco, does.  Among the many wonders he helps create in the restaurant kitchen, Mr. Pham chooses to make Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken for himself, his family and his friends when he’s at home.  If it’s good enough to top an award-winning chef’s own menu,…

Unpacking the Bundle

Just one raft of three lemongrass sections is sufficient to flavor a whole potful of soup, earning Khmer Lemony Fish Soup its name.  The fish glides through a simple broth accompanied only by rice and flavored with only a few herbs, in addition to the aforementioned lemongrass.  The lemongrass provides an herbal, citrusy melody that…