A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more
As a follow-up to my post about achiote (annatto seeds), this post shows a way to use them in your kitchen to make a spicy rice and vegetable dish that can be a centerpiece of a vegetarian meal. Achiote has an interesting flavor that’s hard to define — it’s a great change of pace from […]
Winter squash are legendary for their versatility and hardiness. Ideal for soups, roasting, stews (Japanese or French to give two examples), and even some baked goods, they also are relatively resistant to damage and have long shelf lives — no padded carriers or stress when bringing home a few from the market. The sweetness and […]
Zucchini is the bane of many gardeners — it grows fast, seemingly doubling every time you turn around, quickly turning from flavorful to bland pulp — and so it has a slightly bad reputation. I have memories of huge home-grown zucchini and the struggles to use them. These days, though, my source of zucchini is […]
I recently finished reading Gustavo Arellano’s Taco USA, an interesting combo platter of history, personal stories, and food culture. In his detailed overview of the history and evolution of Mexican food in the U.S.A., Arellano recounts many fascinating stories, like how the first English-language taco recipe got into print, the invention of the frozen margarita machine, […]
Summer produce won’t be around much longer, so I’ve been eating summer specialties as much as possible. Last Sunday, my focus was zucchini, tomatillos and sweet corn, which I combined in a “pseudo stew.” I’m calling it a “pseudo stew” because it was too liquid to eat on a plate, not thin enough to be […]
One of my favorite dishes from the summer was the “Achiote Rice Supper with Pork Carnitas” from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, a dish of rice, pork and vegetables that features the flavor of annatto seed powder. After bringing a vegan version of the dish to a party and trying to explain it to the other […]
In recent days, a generous friend served as a “forager” for the blog, obtaining some leaves from a Mexicola avocado tree, one of the varieties that has a distinct fragrance, as my previous post on avocado leaves explained. Since I had first seen the leaves used to flavor black beans — and had just purchased […]
(Updated 4/26/15, added full reference to Economic Botany article) I’ve been a big fan of Rick Bayless’s television program Mexico One Plate at a Time for years — it has intensely influenced my view of Mexican cuisine and my ability to cook it. Before Bayless, I associated Mexican food with the plates of dense food […]
For a little while I have been wondering about some food history questions related to the experiencing new cuisines. When people from New York or New England came to California for the gold rush, did they eat Mexican food? If so, did they write home about it and tell their relatives about their excitement in […]
If there weren’t already enough reasons to avoid eating grasshoppers and other insects, a story on the San Francisco Chronicle presents another: lead poisoning. California residents from the Mexican state of Oaxaca have been found to have high levels of lead in their blood, and one of the likely exposure pathways is consumption of grasshoppers […]