What the Hell Does Authentic Mean, Anyway?

While eating leftover hot and sour soup for breakfast this morning, (it really is good, you should try it) I mused over something I read while researching soup recipes the other day. I was looking at various hot and sour soup recipes, trying to see if any chefs used Sichuan peppercorns, galangal and lemongrass in […]

A Show of Hands

The greatest tool for any cook is her own hands. I have been reading cookbooks for years–ever since I learned to read, in fact. Before that, I used to drag down my mother’s copy of The New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and her Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, and look at the pictures. They were […]

Soup to Raise the Dead

Here is the pot of hot and sour soup just after being thickened with eggs and a thin slurry of cornstarch. I don’t like the soup overly thick and gloppy so I use a minimum of cornstarch in it. Shiksa Ball Soup may have marvelous healing powers, but it does lack the ability to raise […]

It Isn’t Just About the Crunch

Fresh water chestnuts on a plate with gai lan, or Chinese flowering broccoli. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I love shopping in Asian markets, particularly ones with well-stocked produce sections. Not only do they have innumerable types and varieties of greens for sale, but they also have many other delicious vegetables which […]

The Power of Plastik Cheez

I just read an article I found linked on Saute Wednesday written by John T. Edge about how he learned all about Tex Mex food from Robb Walsh, author of The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos. It reminded me of me learning how to cook Tex-Mex food, and an altercation I had […]

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