I'm posting images of sausage counters the world over each weeknight (and occasionally weekend) witching hour (until I run out), so please use the comments section to post links to your Flickr or personal site faves, and perhaps you'll see 'em posted here late some evening.
I'm posting images of sausage counters the world over each weeknight witching hour (until I run out), so please use the comments section to post links to your Flickr or personal site faves, and perhaps you'll see 'em posted here late some evening.
Living in Argentina during high school, I ate dulce de membrillo many times before I had a clue what the sugary, dark orange paste was. I later learned that membrillo is Spanish for 'quince,' and dulce de membrillo (literally, 'quince sweet') is simply a dense quince jelly.
The quince, which resembles an overgrown chartreuse pear, is a fruit native to Asia, now grown all over the world. Unlike pears, however, quince are not eaten raw (I've tried - they're sour and astringent and hard as rocks).
In Spain and Argentina, dulce de membrillo is sold by the slice from massive bricks and generally served with nutty, salty Manchego cheese or on buttered toast. I've also run across it in Israel, served for breakfast with thick, sour yogurt. Here in the US, you can find it at Spanish specialty stores, and some Hispanic markets and regular gourmet shops. It's got an interesting grainy texture and a somewhat floral, apple-like flavor. It's quite sweet - sweeter than most jams and jellies - which is why it's so good paired with cheese or plain yogurt. Try it with slices of Manchego on crackers, or slip some inside a wheel of brie and bake until gooey.
Tiny Uruguay has made off with the world record for the biggest barbecue, grilling 26,400 pounds of beef in a Montevideo sports field. 1,250 cooks in chefs' white hats and aprons went through 6 tons of charcoal, using 1,500 metal barbecue stands. The barbecue was so big the fire department was called to light the grills and make sure the flames stayed under control. At least 20,000 hungry citizens paid the $3 entry fee to help eat the finished product. The April 14 barbecue, held to promote the Uruguayan beef industry, beat the previous record of 17,600 pounds, set in Mexico in 2006.
If Uruguayan beef is anything like Argentinean, then I'm sorry I couldn't have been there.
That would have to depend on the food! I've always found it interesting when people assign animal names and characteristics to the things that they eat, so a recent blog post by Canela & Camino (in Peru!) about something as amazingly wacky crocodile bread really made me smile. According to the post, crocodile bread gets its name from its shape and texture, which absolutely makes me want to try it. Any baked good with the texture of a reptile sounds at least worth attempting.
I've made tiger cake, named aptly for its lovely chocolate and vanilla stripes, and other gimmies that come to mind (candy and brands excluded) include pigs in a blanket, hush puppies, elephant ears and bear claws. Not a healthy bunch of dishes -- crocodile bread is definitely more appealing to me.
Anyone have an animal-inspired dish to share? Obviously, cooked versions of the animal don't count.
I've loved experimenting with drinking chocolates this winter. Swirling shaved chocolate into a saucepan of milk produces a far better result than anything I achieve with hot cocoa mix. I usually use dark chocolate, and sometimes add sugar until the mixture reaches my desired sweetness. That is, until recently -- the mother of my close friend is Colombian, and she brought us a bar of Colombian chocolate designed for melting into hot beverages. I can't get enough of it.
The bar is already sweetened perfectly, so you just add it to hot milk and allow it to melt. Once melted, you beat the mixture with a molinillo -- a chocolate whisker with designs native to Colombia, Mexico and other Latin American countries. The result is a deliciously foamy drink with a great chocolate kick. The product I used is called Sweet Chocolate, and the brand is Sol. I found the cheapest bar ($3.99) at Latin Pantry. But I'm sure there are others out there from Colombia as well as from other countries, so please share your favorites!
If you don't have a molinillo, you can use a normal whisk to achieve ideal foaminess. Feel free to add cinnamon as they do in Colombia, or syrups and extracts of your choice.
The idea of worms is not something I'd normally want to bring up on a food blog, but in the case of mega-ginormous food conglomerate Kraft, worms are driving the development of a new food line.
Wait...what?!?!
Yes, worms, but don't worry about finding the creepy crawly things in your next blue box of macaroni and cheese. Kraft is developing a new food that is supposed to taste good, and also kill intestinal worms, which is a major problem in in rural Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The food is still in the early stages of development, so there's no word on what the food will be, but one of the ingredients in it will be a de-worming pesticide. It sounds horrible to put something called a "pesticide" in food, but let's just think of it as a chemical that will help millions of children get rid of those nasty intestinal worms.
Finally, a product that combines my two favorite beverages: beer and yerba mate tea. This new beer, Dado Beir Ilex, is made by a Brazilian brewery called Dado Beir. They've managed to successfully integrate the two flavors in this new brew.
Yerba Mate is an herb that originates in South America and has been brewed into beverages since long before the Europeans arrived. It's a drink that has also gained popularity in the U.S. recently for its health benefits. Hopefully soon we'll be able to get those benefits when reaching for a cold one. Dado Beir Ilex has been released in Brazil, and should be exported to other South American countries later this year. No word yet on its potential export to America.
For those of us interested in a yerba mate beer sooner rather than later, there is one for sale in the U.S. It's called Mateveza and is brewed by Butte Creek Brewing Company. You can order it online through their website if it's not sold in a store near you. I can't wait to try this herbal beer.
As a self-professed beer geek, I've always appreciated the link between chocolate and beer. I've been known to munch on a bit of good dark chocolate whilst enjoying a cold flute of Lindemans Framboise, and there's nothing quite like a bottle of Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. Until yesterday I had no idea the connection between two of life's greatest gustatory pleasures goes back to 1100 B.C. (N.B., that's Before Christ not Before Chocolate, though given what I learned it could very well stand for Before Chocolate.)
National Geographic News reports that researchers believe chocolate was accidentally discovered 3,000 years ago by Central American Indians brewing beer from the pulp of cacao seedpods. Around 1100 B.C. ancient brewers used the cacao pods to make their beer. The pod pulp was used to make the beer and the seeds were then discarded. Some 300 years later people began to use the fermented seeds to make a hot beverage, a distant relative to today's hot cocoa. Chocolate itself continues to be made from fermented cacao pods.
Give an ancient Central American the sludge left over from brewing and what do you get: chocolate. Give a Brit a similar goo and you wind up with Marmite. Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair, after all the Central Americans were making beer since 1100 B.C.
Despite my status as the child of natural food loving hippies, I don't think I ate quinoa until about four years ago. I had a friend who was working on eliminating wheat and rice from her diet and so was looking for alternatives. Someone suggested she check out quinoa and so she started experimenting with it, creating some seriously delicious dishes in the process. I particularly remember some stuffed acorn squash that were ridiculously delicious.
Across the country, at about the same time, my sister started eating it regularly. One of her favorite ways to use it was as a base for quick meals, like her signature Bean-wa, Green-wa, Quinoa. That would be a can of beans (garbanzos mostly), some cooked greens (spinach, kale, chard, collards, whatever she had around), some sauce (typically Trader Joe's masala simmer sauce, but anything meant for pasta works well) and a couple of cups of cooked quinoa. Stir together, heat and eat.
It's been known for quite some time that blueberries are high in antioxidants. Recently I learned that another blue food is also high in these healthful compounds: blue corn tortillas. Not only that, the pale blue-gray discs also have more protein and less starch than their white-corn cousins. All of this comes as very good news for me, considering I usually eat things like pork fried in lard betwixt my tortillas. Now all I need to do is convince some local taquerias to start offering blue tortillas.
Mexican and Venezuelan researchers recently published their findings on blue corn tortillas in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Since blue corn is so high in antioxidants, the scientists believe consuming it may help to fight colon cancer and other diseases. The high levels of antioxidants in blue corn result from pigments called anthocyanins. What I'd like to know is whether these guys did any research on the inky purple Peruvian beverage chicha morada made from, you guessed it, blue corn.
Santa Teresa Orange Rhum Liqueur is 40% abv. / 80 proof and is made in Venezuela. Santa Teresa makes some of the finest rum in the world. Their Santa Teresa 1796, a fifteen year aged rum, is one of the best rums I have ever tasted. I first tried it a few years ago when I was spending some time in Los Rouqes. A group of islands off the coast of Venezuela that is known as one of the best scuds diving spots in the world. The sea there is an intense turquoise color that has to be experienced to be believed and after a day there spent out on the water I would have a sundowner of Santa Teresa 1896 on the rocks to unwind.
So it was with great pleasure to see a bottle of their orange liqueur on one of my favorite liquor stores shelves. Santa Teresa rum AND Oranges in a liqueur? I couldn't wait to try it. A little research showed that the liqueur is made with two year old rum that then has orange peel added to the casks and macerated for an additional length of time to infuse the flavors.
The color is a deep amber with almost a burnt orange tinge. The aroma starts off with the unmistakable smell of Santa Teresa rum. A rich, bold, sweet and smooth rum scent, overlain with complex orange notes. Then hints of sweet, ripe fruit and spices; with a salty tang that reminds me of a fresh ocean breeze. An absolutely wonderful aroma.
The taste I rich and smooth as well. A big hit of that delicious aged rum mixed with orange zest rolls across your tongue. You can taste hints of the oaken casks it was aged in as well as vanilla notes and complex spices abound. There are some nice pepper tones and a touch of bitter orange pith in the long finish that leave a pleasant, delicate, warm burn at the back of your throat that slowly fades away until you have just a memory of the taste lingering on the tip of your tongue.
Tonight, another season of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations begins on the Travel Channel, and our sister site Gadling managed to track down the busy host in between shoots for an interview.
If you have ever seen the show, you'll know that their primary goal is to seek out authentic experiences in regards to the food and flavor of a particular culture, often traveling off the beaten track in order to find it. They aren't interested in what the local Tourist Board has to say, they'd rather take the word of a street vendor who actually feeds vast amounts of the population on a day-to-day basis. Yes, this sometimes leads to sore stomachs (among other things), but at least you know you are finding out the real deal about a particular locale.
Bourdain reveals how the show chooses their destinations, what they look for in a local guide (or "fixer" as he calls them), as well as divulges some of the locations they will be visiting this coming season. If that alone weren't quite enough for you, he also talks about his love of traveling, and what he really thinks about places like Vietnam and Uzbekistan.
You can read the entire interview via the "read" link below.
Last year we told you about Peppadews from South Africa. Well, last week at the Fancy Food Show in NYC I discovered a brand new pickled pepper product from Peru called HOTTYPEPP sweet & hot peppers. They are sweetly hot pickled peppers that are very tangy and tasty. I liked the other brands of pickled peppers out there, but they don't hold a candle to the HOTTYPEPPs, which have a much more complex taste and more heat.
I can easily say they are the best spicy pickled peppers I have had. I was given a jar of chopped pieces to take home to sample, but they also come in whole pickled peppers. The pieces are great in making appetizers by mixing them with cream cheese and putting on crackers, you can spread it on a sandwich, it goes great as a condiment with cold, sliced, smoked chicken; and there are many other ways to use it. The whole pepper can be stuffed, used in salads, or garnishes for cocktails like a martini. They should be available soon at your local supermarkets.
Many years ago my fellow blogger Jonathan and I drove to the Bronx to sample the renowned Peruvian delicacy, cuy, or guinea pig as we call it here in the States. Soon after we were seated the waiter brought over the frozen critter, which was butterfliedand sealed in a package bearing the red-and-white Peruvian flag. Shortly thereafter he brought out the finished product. The poor little rodent had been deep-fried and surrounded with some diced potatoes. I say "poor" not out of sympathy for the critter, but rather because I feel that it deserved to be prepared in a tastier fashion.
Which brings me to the subject of this post: the town of Churin's second annual cuy festival took place earlier this week. There were plates of fried, grilled and baked cuy. There was even cuy au vin. Each of these preparations was a mere $7, about a third of what Jonathan and I paid. I think I'd be partial to the roast variety, the fried one we ate wasn't so hot. The event also featured a cuy cookoff and a best-dressed contest where the rodents were decked in traditional Andean garb. In case you're wondering, even I find that last event somewhat disturbing. [via Neatorama]
That would have to depend on the food! I've always found it interesting when people assign animal names and characteristics to the things that they eat, so a recent blog post by Canela & Camino (in Peru!) about something as amazingly wacky crocodile bread really made me smile. According to the post, crocodile bread gets its name from its shape and texture, which absolutely makes me want to try it. Any baked good with the texture of a reptile sounds at least worth attempting.
I've loved experimenting with drinking chocolates this winter. Swirling shaved chocolate into a saucepan of milk produces a far better result than anything I achieve with hot cocoa mix. I usually use dark chocolate, and sometimes add sugar until the mixture reaches my desired sweetness. That is, until recently -- the mother of my close friend is Colombian, and she brought us a bar of Colombian chocolate designed for melting into hot beverages. I can't get enough of it.
The idea of worms is not something I'd normally want to bring up on a food blog, but in the case of mega-ginormous food conglomerate Kraft, worms are driving the development of a new food line.
Finally, a product that combines my two favorite beverages: beer and yerba mate tea. This new beer, Dado Beir Ilex, is made by a Brazilian brewery called Dado Beir. They've managed to successfully integrate the two flavors in this new brew. 
As a self-professed beer geek, I've always appreciated the link between chocolate and beer. I've been known to munch on a bit of good dark chocolate whilst enjoying a cold flute of Lindemans Framboise, and there's nothing quite like a bottle of Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. Until yesterday I had no idea the connection between two of life's greatest gustatory pleasures goes back to 1100 B.C. (N.B., that's Before Christ not Before Chocolate, though given what I learned it could very well stand for Before Chocolate.)
It's been known for quite some time that blueberries are high in antioxidants. Recently I learned that another blue food is also high in these healthful compounds: blue corn tortillas. Not only that, the pale blue-gray discs also have more protein and less starch than their white-corn cousins. All of this comes as very good news for me, considering I usually eat things like pork fried in lard betwixt my tortillas. Now all I need to do is convince some local taquerias to start offering blue tortillas.
Santa Teresa Orange Rhum Liqueur is 40% abv. / 80 proof and is made in Venezuela. Santa Teresa makes some of the finest rum in the world. Their Santa Teresa 1796, a fifteen year aged rum, is one of the best rums I have ever tasted. I first tried it a few years ago when I was spending some time in Los Rouqes. A group of islands off the coast of Venezuela that is known as one of the best scuds diving spots in the world. The sea there is an intense turquoise color that has to be experienced to be believed and after a day there spent out on the water I would have a sundowner of Santa Teresa 1896 on the rocks to unwind.
Tonight, another season of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations begins on the Travel Channel, and our sister site Gadling managed to track down the busy host in between shoots for an interview. 
Last year we told you about Peppadews from South Africa. Well, last week at the Fancy Food Show in NYC I discovered a brand new pickled pepper product from Peru called HOTTYPEPP sweet & hot peppers. They are sweetly hot pickled peppers that are very tangy and tasty. I liked the other brands of pickled peppers out there, but they don't hold a candle to the HOTTYPEPPs, which have a much more complex taste and more heat. 
Many years ago my fellow blogger Jonathan and I drove to the Bronx to sample the renowned Peruvian delicacy, cuy, or guinea pig as we call it here in the States. Soon after we were seated the waiter brought over the frozen critter, which was butterflied and sealed in a package bearing the red-and-white Peruvian flag. Shortly thereafter he brought out the finished product. The poor little rodent had been deep-fried and surrounded with some diced potatoes. I say "poor" not out of sympathy for the critter, but rather because I feel that it deserved to be prepared in a tastier fashion. 
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