Hey, wait a sec! Are you really about to dump out the rest of the too-big coffee you ordered this morning, drank a third of, forgot about and let get lukewarm? Come on, pal -- you think this stuff grows on trees?
Well, actually, it kind of does -- except they're more like bushes. And the beans that we enjoy roasted, ground and percolated in the morning are actually seeds, not beans: They're more like a cherry pit than any legume you put in your famous Super Bowl Sunday chili. And much like every other fresh fruit or vegetable we enjoy, the beauty and deliciousness of a coffee is fleeting, seasonal and really labor intensive.
Read more about coffee's journey from seed to cup after the jump.
They're slippery. They're slimy. And they're alive.
This coming week, Fine Living Network will be airing episodes of our favorite Iron Chef Japanin which creatures of the deep are battled every night at 11/10 Central. Watch as these chefs attack and cook living sea creatures in a way that makes you wonder if you're a bad person for watching. This is an excellent week for anyone who hasn't had enough Halloween, or likes Animal Planet and wishes Japanese chefs could be involved.
Not for the squeamish, these squirmy seafoods do get slaughtered right in front of your very eyes. Mother nature would be proud watching the food chain established so aggressively, but your mother might think you need therapy. You be the judge!
I think I've heard of mangosteens before, at least I've heard the name. Apparently, though, the tropical fruit is all the rage in Japan.
According to this post from InventorSpot, mangosteens, or juice drinks made from them, are very popular in Japan right now because they're supposed to be high in antioxidants and ward off cancer in mice (though that hasn't been tested in humans).
Mangosteens are originally from Thailand, but they're difficult to export from the region because they are so preishable. Also, the tree can only be grown in tropical climates. Those factors make even pureés made from Mangosteens pretty expensive anywhere outside of Southeast Asia.
Now that I know a little more about the fruit I'm curious about it. Have any of you had mangosteen? What do you think about it?
I've been in an Indian state of mind all day, having picked up some tasty-looking tandoori naan at the store today, and trying to figure out what I want to make with it. Unfortunately, I haven't made too many Indian dishes from scratch, save butter chicken long ago and some recent tasty pakora. Luckily, there's a cooking show that details all sorts of Indian dishes -- Show Me the Curry.
In this episode, Anuja and Hetal make Aloo Matar, a simple dish of spices, potatoes, and peas. This is a recipe that they consider to be one of the easiest Indian dishes to make -- and it's definitely a great way to get into the wonders of ingredients like turmeric and chaat masala.
Also be sure to check out their guides for stocking your pantry, as well as their tasty-looking raita recipes.
While grocery shopping the other day, I scoured the gourmet dip section. After grumbling about the mass amount of fat and calories in dips like artichoke and asiago or spinach, my eyes rested upon something new: low-fat raita. Unlike the other options, which would weigh you down with hundred of calories per 2 tbsp, this one has 20. Yes, just 20 calories per two tablespoons. I picked it up, all giddy and hoping that it would taste good, and be worthy of my beloved carrot sticks.
Oh, yes. Raita is basically a spicy tzatziki. (Slashfood last mentioned it in 2006.) It's yogurt mixed with vegetables, herbs, and spices -- usually, it's yogurt (curd) mixed with cucumber or onions, and seasoned with cilantro, cumin, mint, cayenne pepper, and more. The one I purchased (Fresh 2 Go) was cilantro raita -- made with the usual ingredients, plus sour cream.
The dip or sauce is often used to cut spicy Indian dishes, but it is excellent and spicy on its own. It's got the freshness of tzatziki with the bite of cilantro, which makes it a great and healthy addition to veggies, and offers much more flavor than its Greek counterpart. With summer just around the corner, this is an excellent and healthy addition to the chips and dip table. I'm still finishing off my container, so I haven't made any myself, but the recipes look simple enough (you can find some here and here). Anyone else out there love raita?
You thought today was going to filled with yummy, delicate posts about sweet treats and flowers, didn't you?
Think again.
Trifter.com has oh-so helpfully provided us with eight of the "most disgusting delicacies" - although we prefer to think of them not as disgusting, per se, but as ...daring. Different. Deconstructed.
Some of the more colorful examples? In Morocco, you can indulge in oil made from goat excrement. The goats climb the trees in search of food, and the resulting oil is though to have medicinal purposes. Or you could hop over to Italy and try some Casu Frazigu. Sound exotic? It's made when a fly lays its eggs on cheese, and maggots hatch and crawl throughout the cheese. So, essentially, it's rotten maggot cheese.
But that's just kids' stuff compared to what awaits you in Southeast Asia: balut, a fertilized duck egg, comes complete with a partially formed duck fetus inside - at no extra charge! Just season with salt and pepper, and dig in.
And for dessert, engage your senses with Sumatran coffee beans [ed. note - pictured]. Not adventurous enough for you? Well, they come fresh out of the digestive track of a civet, a small, cat-like creature. The civet eats the beans, and when they are excreted, they are scrubbed clean and brewed.
I have always had a fascination with Asian cooking. When I was younger, I would beg my parents for meals from our local Vietnamese and Thai restaurants and as I got older, any time I had the opportunity to eat out, my preference would be sushi or Pho. Several years ago, I started playing around with learning to cook food that tasted mildly similar to my restaurant favorites (I had particular success with baby bok choy).
If you have a similar culinary obsession to mine, there's a contest going on now that you might want to check it out. It's something of a long shot, but what an amazing trip it will be for the lucky person who wins. Thai Kitchen and Simply Asia are giving away a seven-day trip for two to the winner's choice of one of the following locations: Beijing, China; Shanghai, China; or Bangkok, Thailand. The trip includes air travel, hotel accommodations for six nights, transfers to and from airport and hotel, and even some spending money cash. Sounds like a dream vacation to me.
Even for those who aren't interested in the contest, it's worth checking out the website, as they offer lots of recipes as well as how-to instructional videos with Chef Katie Chin. One of their recipes, for Spicy Pork Noodle Soup, is after the jump.
It's pretty much a given these days that you don't get much in the way of food on airplanes, especially when you fly in the continental United States. I was shocked to discover on my last flight out to Portland that I was actually served a meal (a microwaved mini pizza, an iceberg lettuce salad, a bag of potato chips and a package brownie). However, when you fly internationally, food is still part of the travel experience, and can range from terrible to excellent.
Over at Gastronomy, Cathy and her boyfriend, Vernon (aka the Astronomer), have spent the last few months in Vietnam. They did an amazing job of documenting all the amazing things they ate while they were there, and now have even gone so far as to photograph and report back on the meals they were served on EVA Airlines. Cathy requested a high fiber meal and was served an amazing assortment veggies, fruits and whole wheat breads. It seems that selecting high fiber is the way to go when flying EVA.
Last week I mentioned that Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) is one of my favorite cold weather foods. I love the warm, anise-scented broth next to the cool crunch of the fresh bean sprouts and herbs. However, it's one of those dishes that I think of as restaurant-only. I've never attempted to make it, mostly because I know the broth is fairly labor-intensive.
The level of work that it required didn't scare away Brys from Cookthink (it appears that he rarely shies away from complex cooking projects, a trait that endears his blogging to me) and it looks like he created something tasty and close to authentic (except, where's the star anise? *). For those of you who have never made consommé, his narration and pictures will help you navigate those tricky waters.
Me, I'm just looking forward to the next time I can get down to South Philly for a steaming bowl of Pho.
*Even though I read Brys' post three times, I missed the star anise until a commenter pointed it out to me. My mistake!
Back in February I blogged about Anandita Dutta Tamuly, a 25-year-old Indian woman with an uncanny ability to chow down on massive amounts of the world's hottest pepper. She's been known to gobble 60 bhut Jolokia, or ghost peppers, in two minutes, and even plans a bid to smash the Guinness Record for pepper eating.
But what happens when a mild-mannered journalist goes toe to toe with the spicy behemoth? Not by eating 60, but rather by attempting to consume a single ghost chili in one sitting at the behest of his editor. Said journalist was not me; it was AP writer Tim Sullivan. It all started out innocently enough with a single pepper and the necessary accompaniments of an open beer, a bowl of yogurt and a few slices of bread. For the first few seconds Sullivan felt fine. Sadly his fireproof palate was short-lived.
He describes the "gastronomic mugging" that seared his tongue and sparked a coughing fit. Since Sullivan had to finish the pepper, he soldiered on started chewing quickly and swallowing. As if it needed to pointed out, he notes this is not the way ghost peppers are normally eaten. And with good reason, Sullivan details a sinus clearing, eye-watering, searing heat that none of his coolants seemed to help with except the beer. After 20 minutes he had recovered the ability to speak and lived to tell the tale and called his wife who laughed at him.
What's the hottest thing you've ever eaten? And what are your favorite ways to put out the fire? I'll go first. Once I was in a Peruvian restaurant and ordered my ceviche picante and was not satisfied with the heat level. When I asked for some aji, or hot sauce, and the waiter brought it in the back, I should have known something was wrong.
When he returned the entire plate was covered in little ribbons of hot pepper. In the spirit of he-men, gringos and hot pepper lovers everywhere I knew I had to eat the whole thing. Man was it hot. I felt as if a red-hot poker had been driven into the center of my tongue. My lips burned so much that when I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face and rinse my mouth out they were an angry, inflamed red.
I was looking at the Aug./Sept. 2007 issue of Saveur magazine and reading a great article about Hmong farmers in California by Andrea Nguyen, one of my new favorite writers. (If you want to subscribe or buy and download the issue click here.) The Hmong are a semi-nomadic people who have lived in parts of China and Southeast Asia for centuries. Always on the move, recently a large portion ended up leaving Asia and immigrating to the US, especially California, where a great many are farmers growing their fantastic produce. While traveling in Asia I had the chance to try some Hmong cooking. Their cuisine relies on extremely fresh produce and meats that are cooked simply and full of flavor. One thing that I really enjoyed was the Chile-Scallion relish called Kua Txob Tuav Xyaw Dos (pronounced koo-AH za too-AH sher daw.)
It's a spicy, tangy, herbal, slightly salty, rough paste that is used as a relish and condiment. Always made fresh each day and put on the table the relish is put into soups and stir fries, used to boost up the spice level to your own preference, and served by itself as a garnish for plain or sticky rice.
The best way to get the best consistency to the paste is to do it by hand in a mortar and pestle. Preferably a nice solid one like a Thai mortar and pestle. They are an immense and heavy piece of stone that sits solidly on your counter so that you can let the solid pestle thump satisfactorily down on the ingredients. I realized after reading the recipe that I had the few, simple ingredients growing in my garden. It's easy to make and only takes a few minutes. Time to make the Kua Txob Tuav Xyaw Dos.
Soju, the Korean distilled spirit, has long been the most consumed spirit in the world, especially throughout Asia. Low to mid-level brands from South Korea have been available in the US for years and I have enjoyed quite a few of them when out dining with friends at some of my favorite Korean restaurants in Queens and Manhattan, NY.
Soju is made in the most part from fermented rice, but also with other fermentable products like wheat, barley or sweet potatoes; then distilled an adjusted to 20-45% abv. / 40-90 proof. The North Korean brand would initially go on sale in the Eastern US states and should be available now.
Now North Korea is going to enter the playing field with one of their soju going to be sold in the US, Pyongyang Soju. This is quite rare for products from North Korea to be sanctioned for import to the United States. Many folks feel that products from North Korea shouldn't be allowed into the US or should be boycotted.
Personally, I will try one bottle of Pyongyang Soju if I run across it so I can review it, but after that I won't go out of my way. I much prefer the multitude of premium, Japanese distilled products called shochu to Korean soju. They are just so much better in taste and quality than soju. So much so, that they are now the number one alcoholic beverage consumed in Japan.
If you live in a developing country, that is: In the U.S., land o'plenty, so the golden arches will always remain a convenience as a drive-through window, but in cities that are congested and land is scarce, McDonald's has taken to delivery.
Where would you have to go to get your Big Mac and fries delivered right to your door with a delivery charge of anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar? Ronald McDonald commissions fleets of delivery people in cars or on motorbikes in cities like Manila, Taipei, Cairo, for a total of about 25 cities, with a half dozen more in the works.
Really, I think L.A. is congested enough of a city that McDonald's delivery could work here. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up on a weekend morning craving an Egg McMuffin, but was a little too, uh, "dehydrated" to get in the car and get to a McDonald's before 10:30AM!
I first tried Yumberry juice, the new commercial nickname for the Yang Mei berry, a few years ago at the NY Fancy Food Show where it was being showcased for the first time. I have tried to contact the company in China since then to find out more, but never could connect with them. So I was excited to hear about this tasty juice coming onto the market soon.
Yang Mei, also called waxberries, are the waxy fruit of the wax myrtle. They have been collected for thousands of years in China and used medicinally. It is a healthy fruit, high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals; including vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin and carotene. The yumberry has over 100 varieties including white, pink, red, and purple. Usually the purple variety of yumberry has the best quality and taste.
SunOpta Fruit Group will soon start marketing Yumberry juice concentrate in the United States, and then in Canada one year later. This means you should hopefully start seeing the juice on market shelves in a few months after the juice companies develop their products. The juice samples I tried a few years ago were slightly tart and sweet with a nice, deep, fruity flavor all its own. Expect to see it used in various juices and juice blends similar to how pomegranate and acai have been.
The company says that "Yumberry will be used in diverse applications ranging from fruit juices to bakery applications, wines, cocktails and dairy products." Personally, I can't wait to play around with the juice in cocktails and I think there are a lot of possibilities; although it's going to be strange asking for a bottle of Yumberry juice in the store or a Yumberry Sour cocktail at a bar.
You thought today was going to filled with yummy, delicate posts about sweet treats and flowers, didn't you?
I have always had a fascination with Asian cooking. When I was younger, I would beg my parents for meals from our local Vietnamese and Thai restaurants and as I got older, any time I had the opportunity to eat out, my preference would be sushi or Pho. Several years ago, I started playing around with learning to cook food that tasted mildly similar to my restaurant favorites (I had particular success with baby bok choy). 
Back in February I blogged about 
Soju, the Korean distilled spirit, has long been the most consumed spirit in the world, especially throughout Asia. Low to mid-level brands from South Korea have been available in the US for years and I have enjoyed quite a few of them when out dining with friends at some of my favorite Korean restaurants in Queens and Manhattan, NY. 
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