A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more
One of the many interesting ingredients in the Japanese pantry is konnyaku — a versatile, low calorie food with a highly distinctive texture. It’s rubbery and springier than even finger jello. Also called “devil’s tongue jelly,” konnyaku is more or less flavorless until it is simmered in broth, and so it is almost always part of […]
(Updated with alternative method to preserve fresh basil) Believe it or not, the bunch of Thai basil in the photo below is three or four weeks old (it’s been so long that I don’t remember). And yet it is almost as bright green and lush as it was on the day I bought it. I […]
Updated 8/23/15 Are you sick of seeing kale everywhere? Kale salad after kale salad. Kale green-smoothies. Kale chips. Dehydrated kale dust garnish. Or are you worried that kale’s recent entry on to some McDonald’s menus, will make it totally uncool? Broccoli leaves and cauliflower leaves could be the alternative you are looking for. They are […]
(Updated 11/9/16: new image, fixed broken links) Would you believe that someone has written a serious academic book about the history of ketchup? Andrew F. Smith’s “Pure Ketchup” tells the story of ketchup’s evolution from a wide variety of sauces to the sweet, tangy tomato condiment that we know today. Smith, a professor of culinary […]
With summer approaching, we are entering lemonade season. A glass of lemonade is a welcome drink most times of the year, of course, but there is something about drinking fresh lemonade from a dew-coated glass on a hot day that makes it even better. My standard lemonade is whole lemon lemonade , a recipe I […]
A recent New York Times article by Ian Fisher described how foreign-born chefs are working their way up the restaurant hierarchy in Italy: a man from Jordan is running a chain of pizza restaurants; a chef born in Tunisia makes the best carbonara in Rome, according to a prominent restaurant reviewer. It’s a common story […]
I tried the apple-quince tart again last weekend, using what I learned from the previous attempt. This time I sliced quince and apples thinner and was much more careful about how I placed the fruit on the tart — instead of arranging the apples and then haphazardly dropping the quince on top, I alternated apple, […]
To celebrate apple season, I like to bake the apple galette in Rose Levy Bernabaum’s Pie and Pastry Bible. I first discovered the recipe in the Washington Post when it accompanied a review of the newly published book (1998). Since then, I’ve made it many times with great success. The crust is always crisp and […]
The photo above shows the four post-harvest states of an almond. From left to right, the almond with intact hull; the hull peeled back to reveal the shell; after hulling; and finally hulled and shelled nut. Almonds are related to apricots—the botanical name for the almond is Prunus amygdalus; apricot is Prunus armeniaca. If […]
The second half of the CUESA farm tour last month was Hidden Star Orchards (also known as Smit Ranch and Smith Ranch), a farm known best for apples, cherries, and grapes. Near the end of the tour, they handed out bottles of apple juice or cider—I couldn’t tell because the label had detached from my […]