A look at local food discoveries, whether it’s a particular dish or an ingredient, often with one or more recipes.
“Perhaps all music, even the newest, is not so much something discovered as something that re-emerges from where it lay buried in the memory, inaudible as a melody cut in a disc of flesh. A composer lets me hear a song that has always been shut up silent within me.” – Jean Genet Time, once… Read More Dinner for a Vagabond
“Fashion is in Europe, living is in America, but eating is in China.” – Chinese proverb By request, I recently started teaching a short, four-session cooking series that I’m calling Four Chinese Meals. The idea was simply to come up with four different meals that would both teach and showcase various techniques of Chinese cooking,… Read More Two of Four Chinese Meals
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – Seneca, 1st century Roman philosopher Let me start by saying that I had a huge amount of fun in the kitchen this weekend, and it started me thinking…. Things are about to change a it here at Casa SaltShaker. Oh, no worries, we’re not going… Read More The Start of a New Chapter
“The first Jewish family I met asked me if I spoke Yiddish,” Bortnick remembers, now laughing. “When I said that I had never heard Yiddish in my life, they said, ” What kind of Jew are you?” She had to learn what a dreidel was and how latkes tasted. As a result, she felt she… Read More Of Dreidels and Menorahs
“The Chinese noted with surprise and disgust the ability of the Mongol warriors to survive on little food and water for long periods; according to one, the entire army could camp without a single puff of smoke since they needed no fires to cook. Compared to the Jurched soldiers, the Mongols were much healthier and… Read More Mongol Fun in the Kitchen
Turkey Jackson: I can’t go on! No food, no water. It’s all my fault. We’re done for! It’s got me. I can’t stand it! No food, nothing! No food, no water! No food! Jeff Peters: What’s the matter with you, anyway? There’s New York. We’ll be picked up in a few minutes. Turkey Jackson: You… Read More Ode to Morocco
“A little bit of this, a little bit of that. A pot, a pan, a broom, a hat…. – from Fiddler on the Roof As I mentioned in my last dinner post, we had a couple of private dinners, and then this weekend our second brunch. Nothing of astounding excitement in terms of dishes, but… Read More Bits and Bites
“Revolution is not a dinner party.” – Sun Yat-Sen, Chinese revolutionary leader Except here at Casa S, of course. Friday night was the day celebrating Sun Yat-Sen’s birth, a national holiday throughout China and Taiwan – probably one of the few public, political figures honored in both. I’d had in mind a vegetarian dinner for… Read More Dinner Coup