Much Obliged, Ma’am

Cowboy culture is distinctive, no matter whether one encounters it on North America’s grasslands, or on South America’s.  In Argentina’s pampas, that culture takes on the character of Italian and French immigrants to the country and produces a great cuisine at play in this week’s entry, Gaucho Pizza.  Paired perfectly, by the way, with a…

All Dressed Up

What if you took chips and salsa, a combination so pedestrian and somewhat inauthentic Taco Bell has a version, and gave it major enhancements, taking care to make everything from scratch, down to pulling your own tortilla chips from the oven?  Then you’d have chilaquiles, a flavorful and satisfying dish much more likely to be…

Unwrap for a Reward

Longtime readers may recall Ropa Vieja, Cuba’s signature dish, requires considerable prep work (i.e., time) to impart its succulence.  This is a common theme in Cuban cuisine, which rewards culinary effort with a trip straight to vibrant tropical shores.  Certainly, getting to the shrimp and the plantains which make up today’s entrees, Camarones Enchilados and…

Give the Blender a Break

In the Ecuadoran soup on which today’s entry is based, the broth and such are put through a blender one last time, just before service, ensuring a smooth consistency.  That’s a shame, as it also pulverizes the bits of color and the traces of texture that make Shrimp and Corn Chowder so interesting, so appealing.…

Speeding to New Orleans

When rail travel’s most vibrant days still were yet to be, passengers aboard Illinois Central’s overnight service from Chicago to New Orleans savored fine dining before a contented drowsiness bid them to their cabins.  The evening got underway with a menu offering a variety of beguiling choices, including today’s entry, Shrimp Creole.  Indeed, the dish…

It All Leads to This

August brings exuberant gardens yielding fresh basil, green beans and tomatoes by the basketful, and people firing up the grill in preparation for a balmy evening outdoors enjoyed with family and neighbors.  Plenty of good times and happy memories as we head into one final month of glorious weather.  This is summer’s moment. Today’s entry…

Innovation’s Reward

Today’s submission is tomato soup.  Big deal, right?  Perhaps this journal could come up with something a little more imaginative than what’s found by the hundreds of cans in any supermarket.  After all, tomato soup is about as basic as it gets. Maybe so, but here’s the interesting twist – these tomatoes are smoked, giving…

A Working Lunch

People living along Spain’s rugged northern coast have gathered shellfish, well, forever, and mussels are one of their most prominent harvests.  Naturally, in common with food lovers everywhere, Galicians have developed hundreds of delicious ways to highlight – and to enjoy – local products.  One of the most tempting of these is today’s submission, Mussels…

Smoke Wisps through the Sunshine

Visit nearly any market in West Africa and you’ll find cooks producing skewers laden with Beef Suya.  Traditionally served with fresh cut vegetables, as pictured above, Suya often is paired with Jollof Rice.  Popular acclaim has elevated the pair to become, more than anything else, Nigeria’s national dishes. With good reason.  A flavorful coating dusts…

Timing Has to Be Perfect

Otherwise, Tomato and Crab Soup wouldn’t deliver the garden’s glorious flavors with quite such style.  Certainly, the soup would be memorable any time of year, but in early August, when high summer vaults garden vegetables past each other in pursuing perfection, the results approach the divine.  Ambrosia. Soup now, though?  While the humidity gives vegetables…