North America may have the world’s crunchiest apples and crispiest pears — not to mention the sole market for tapping maples and selling their syrup — but there are some amazing fruits south of the border that we just don’t have up here. At least, we don’t commonly have access to them. More and more [...]
Continue reading about The Delights & Charms of Exotic Fruit
For a while, kale chips were all the rage, but now it seems like seaweed chips have taken center stage. I love both! Especially if you make them yourself. Not only are they much less expensive that way, you can go with a dunking approach for the seaweed chips. It’s simple and fun, plus you [...]
Continue reading about Sesame, Seaweed & Soy: Making Your Own Tasty Chips
Yes, when I get on a kick, I get on a kick. My current one is tiny plantains. They’re so cute! And so handily single-portion-sized. (Note: I mean “tiny plantains” as a descriptive term — you’ll find them under guises such as “manzano bananas” and “burro bananas” and any other official label attached to short, [...]
Continue reading about Plantains, Kiwis, and Other Tropical Treats
Unless you live near an international border, going to a country you’ve never visited before can cost hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars. Even seeing a new movie that’s just come out can cost around $20. (Which is why I quit going to evening shows a long time ago.) But you can try [...]
Continue reading about Beautiful Flowers Make Delicious Roots
Trees aren’t the only plants that acquire jewel tones in fall — cauliflower does, too. And the thick-skinned winter squashes certainly have their own quirky multi-colored and multi-shaped lumpy and bumpy appeal. In other words, this is prime time to find unusual produce at the farmer’s market! Especially since these cool-weather crops last longer than [...]
Continue reading about Fall: It’s Tastier (and Easier) Than You Think
You say pa-tay-to, I say pa-tah-to…or I say yuca. Or maybe ñame or taro or edo or any of the many other tuber vegetables there are out there. (Although I would assume that Peruvians — who were the world’s original potato growers — would also say patata since they enjoy over 3,000 varieties of them.) [...]
Potato pancakes are good, but plantain pancakes are even better. Especially when you serve them with a matchingly tropical side like banana salsa. (Okay, I’ll admit that my main reason for including bananas in the salsa was that they had to be eaten, but necessity wound up being the mother of a tasty invention.) The [...]
Continue reading about Patty Cake, Plantain Cake (and Baby Bananas, Too!)
American cuisine has some instant-hit classics — corn bread, macaroni and cheese, bison burgers — but compared to other cuisines, we really don’t do much with tubers. Potatoes are pretty much the extent of our tuber dabbling. And who doesn’t like potatoes? Stands to reason other tubers would be tasty, too. If you hang around [...]
Today’s post is going to be a splurge for the food-curious out there. By “splurge,” I mean that the topic is a bit obscure and that you might not find this particular ingredient in your neighborhood store. I found it when I was happily haunting Feinkost Böhm — a.k.a. Food Paradise — this past week [...]
A yam is a yam is a yam? Nope. What Americans know as “yams” are actually just variants of sweet potatoes. About the only thing our yams have in common with true yams is that they both grow underground — the comparison pretty much stops there. True yams have a nutty, buttery flavor and a [...]
