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Flowers that Have Changed the World of Food # 3: Cloves
“And somewhere near India is the island containing the Valley of the Cloves. No merchants or sailors have ever been to the valley or have seen the kind of tree that produces cloves: its fruit, they...
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Name That Silk Road Ingredient #1: Pistachios
I saw these in the market the other day and I couldn’t resist a few handfuls. This is an unusual presentation for them, so I’m wondering if you know which Silk Road Ingredient they are. Hint: They...
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Lamb in a Pomegranate-Cardamom Sauce
With the autumn holidays rapidly approaching many of us are starting to give thought to what to prepare. A delicious main-course for omnivores is my Lamb in a Pomegranate-Cardamom Sauce pictured below....
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Happy Diwali: The Festival of Lights
Traditional Diwali Lamps Yesterday was the first day of – Diwali – The Festival of Lights for Hindus, Jains and Sikhs around the world. This means that for the past few weeks, women have been working...
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New Flavors for the World’s Oldest Recipes
Saudi Aramco World Cover 11/12-12 I am pleased to share with you my new article on ancient Mesopotamian cuisine entitled, “New Flavors for the World’s Oldest Recipes” in the November-December issue of...
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Traveling the Roads of Arabia
Ha’il Stelae, ca.3500 BCE For the past forty years, archaeologists on the Saudi peninsula have been piecing together a pre-Islamic past featuring great city-states that had cultural and commercial...
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Saffron Road World Cuisine
Saffron Road Simmer Sauce As you know I love to cook authentic Asian food, using fresh ingredients and good recipes to produce full-flavored, spicy, and sometimes hot dishes. That said, you may also...
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A Feast for the First Christmas
At this time of year when cuisine blogs are awash with recipes for cookies and roast beast for the Christmas feast, I thought it would be a nice idea to create a notional menu for what the first...
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Keeping Christmas Real
Tajik Madonna and Child Every now and then around this time of year I post one of my photographs of a woman and her child to remind myself of the holy family’s humanity. (Click here for one of the...
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An Apple a Day . . .
I did something unusual and wonderful last Friday: I went to an apple tasting! This was the first time I had ever “tasted” apples with an eye to comparing the flavors of different varieties, and it was...
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A Curry of Fish and Oranges
The Holidays have several brought crates of fruit into the house: apples from our friends at Moonfire Orchard, a large box of Korean Pears and a large box of mixed oranges and tangerines from an Auntie...
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Bhutanese Red Rice Pilaf
Lotus Foods Red Rice One of the wonderful things to make with the Fish and Mandarin Orange Curry in the last post is a delicious, authentic pilaf of Bhutanese Red Rice. Red Rice is crunchy, nutty and...
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Ancient Roman Pork with Apples
Our trip to Moonfire Orchard left us with a wonderful selection of heirloom apples that I have been experimenting with. One of the recipes that I’ve been developing that is a real keeper is one for...
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What Am I Making? #1: 1000 Year Eggs
The correct answer is indeed 1000 Year eggs! (Contest closed: January 26, 2013) Ingredients for Dish The ingredients listed from left to right are: Duck eggs, rice chaff (for coating the eggs), black...
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Making 1000 Year Eggs
So, as promised, I spent several hours yesterday making 1000 Year Eggs. That is, I coated a dozen and a half duck eggs with caustic mud, rolled and pressed them in rice chaff, and set them aside to...
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Yak Snack Attack
Wild Tibetan Yak I love yaks. I have many times admired their hulking, hairy majesty on the plains and hills of Western China, Tibet, and Nepal. Yaks are survivors – free-range animals manage to...
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No Cuisine is an Island #1: An Indian Shellfish Curry
Shrimp of Scallops in a Spicy Tomato Sauce The booksigning at the Smithsonian went well. Actually it went very well – we sold and signed all but two of the books purchased for the event. I also really...
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Indian Curry Through Foreign Eyes #1: Hannah Glasse
I have long been fascinated by concepts of “I and other”, or the many ways we separate what is familiar (self) from what is not familiar (non-self). By defining what is not self, we are in fact...
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Poem to Curry - William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 -1863) Three pounds of veal my darling girl prepares, And chops it nicely into little squares; Five onions next prures the little minx (The biggest are...
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Indian Curry Through Foreign Eyes #2: Mary Randolph
Mary Randolph Next up on our exploration of curries is Mary Randolph’s Curry from her book, The Virginia Housewife, first published in the United Sates in 1824. Although she was well born, Mary and her...
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