Watch for Tigers!

Particularly good advice when wandering Southeast Asia’s jungled mountains. Ask any local, including the Hmong, a people inhabiting Laos’s out-of-the-way forests. A tiger bite makes quite an impact. In fact, that’s the best way the Hmong have of describing their signature sauce, which they serve with grilled, marinated steak. This, in addition to Blistered Green…

Veggies, All of It?

Yep, that’s right.  Today’s entry is completely vegetarian-friendly, from the first cilantro leaf to the last grain of rice.  Yet it’s warming and satisfying, due to hearty pieces of sweet potato and a lusciously rich peanut butter-tomato sauce.  Honestly, you won’t spend the whole time you’re eating fantasizing about other ingredients.  Mainly because you already…

Ditch the Sticks?

Generally speaking, the Japanese are well-mannered, and they’re most enthusiastic about dining’s refined rituals. (Actually, that can be said, with minor qualifications, of many peoples.) Anyway, it’s not too often a Japan-forward company will advise diners to put down their chopsticks and to eat with their fingers. Yet, that’s precisely what Toiro, a company specializing…

Year of the Rabbit

Today, January 22, refreshes the Chinese lunar calendar, inaugurating 4721, the Year of the Rabbit.  Rabbits are considered to be thoughtful, friendly, and fathomless.  A pretty good description of this blog’s readers, right?  Thus, before you is a Taiwanese Lunar New Year feast, prepared in your honor Most of the dishes, including the Pork Wontons…

New Toy

On the doorstep is a box, shipped straight from Japan! Packed inside, carefully, is a donabe, a lidded clay cooking pot beloved all over the island nation for the full-flavored moistness it bestows. Lots of ideas for dishes to try, but most of them seem oriented to winter. You know, steaming pot and all. It’s…

Big Chop, Big Flavor

When making salmon cakes, particularly when using only a few key ingredients, the secret is to dice the fish in a variety of sizes.   A relatively fine chop will bind the cake and will ensure the patty shape survives cooking and flipping, while broader cubes, pictured below, delight the palate with pure salmon richness:…

Malabar Coast

On India’s southwestern coast, the sun bejewels a sea washing tropical shores fragrant with flowering spices.  Can somewhere as lavishly endowed with vibrant vistas, aromas and colors produce anything other than an exuberant cuisine?  Definitely, the state of Kerala does, and one of its favorite creations, Chemmeen Moilee, Curried Shrimp and Coconut Soup, headlines today.…

Gingerbread Man

Or gingerbread woman, depending on who’s pulling the trays from the oven. Not necessarily gingerbread cookies either, strictly speaking, but ginger cookies, at least. Point is, ’tis the season, and ginger is one of those things which make the holidays cozy, jolly and bright. Better yet, imagine what a triple serving of the sweet would…

Tried and New

Whatever else its challenges, the oncoming coldness makes hearty meals beautifully satisfying and even more delicious. These charms glow with additional radiance when novel ingredients take their appreciation to brand-new levels. Food which already was warmly comforting becomes bracing in its newfound delights. Chicken stew is a great example. The Korean version is called Dak…

Jeweled Ingredients

Those familiar with Thai cuisine know cooking is all about building layer upon layer of taste.  This ensures each ingredient is distinct, identifiable and doesn’t get lost.  Still, they make up a chorus of flavors all equally assertive, yet complimenting each other beautifully.  That combination is no more exquisitely balanced than in today’s creation, Guay…