For some forgotten reason, I recently watched the 1966 Western El Dorado. It’s one of the better Westerns I have seen, with more humor and a lot less racism than the typical Western (though there’s a short cringe-worthy stereotyping of a Chinese person near the end). The film has a top-notch cast and crew: the […]
A Curry Powder Recipe from 1818
On one of the rare occasions when the Bloglovin’ web interface works with my complicated browser set-up, I ran across a fascinating piece of data visualization. It was a Data Visualization of Eight Flavors from the Four Pounds Flour blog in which the author used the Google Ngram Viewer to highlight the eight flavors in her […]
When Fenugreek Leads to a False Diagnosis
It’s a busy night in the maternity ward, babies being delivered left and right. While changing the diaper of a newborn, one of the nurses smells maple syrup, an unusual occurrence. And after a few seconds of memory searching, mental alarm bells go off: “It must be Maple Syrup Urine Disease! This is a big […]
Annatto Seeds – An Ancient Dye and Flavoring with a Global Reach
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 […]
Fenugreek’s Flavors
(Updated 10/26/16: new maple leaf image) Now and then, fresh fenugreek leaves appear at the farmers markets that I frequent (usually at the Vang Farms stand at Berkeley’s Saturday market). When this happens, I buy a bunch and then get some potatoes from another stand to make my version of a recipe in Julie Sahni’s […]
Barking Up the Wrong Avocado Tree in Search of Authentic Mexican Flavors
(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 […]
Mini-review: “Nathaniel’s Nutmeg” by Giles Milton
When I went looking for a book to read on the long flight from Singapore to San Francisco (and during the several hour layover in Hong Kong), I wanted to find something about Southeast Asia. I ended up choosing Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: or, the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course […]
Curry Leaves
(Updated 10/2/2016: fixed broken links) The above photo of a Murraya koenigii (curry leaf) tree (taken at the Singapore Botanic Gardens) is certainly not the most exciting or artful of my photos, but it is an interesting plant. The curry leaf tree is not the source of curry powder, and not even the source of […]