Happy Monday, my dears. I would be remiss not to remind you all that signups for the Commie Pinko Writing Contest are still open. We’re about halfway full on fiction, so if you’re thinking about being a fictionaut with us, now’s the time to get in while the getting’s good. There are scads of nonfic [...]
As a non-Chinese, white American cook who cooks a lot of Chinese and Chinese-style food, I have taken a particular interest in what happens to American ingredients when they’re used in a Chinese idiom. There’s been a fair amount written about “American Chinese food,” which as some of you probably know is its own culinary [...]
Let’s get this out of the way: some of you are going to think this is disgusting. That’s fine. You can think whatever you want. Some of us know better. In Sicily, they haven’t always had much to eat. But one thing they’ve always had a pretty steady supply of is sardines. Another is garlic. [...]
I love chickpeas. I would love them even if they weren’t cheap, but as it stands, the fact that they are a good value is just one of their many virtues. A pound bag of high-quality dried chickpeas will set you back about $1.69 at my nearby Wegman’s. Often they’re cheaper if you buy them [...]
Our weekend here was prolonged, beginning with the arrival of our first set of guests on Thursday and continuing on until yesterday late afternoon. The hostessing continues, in actuality, until after dinner Tuesday night, but not quite so intensively. Sometimes it just gets like this around here — we have a lot of people who [...]
The last few days I have had a wonderful houseguest, visiting all the way from Melbourne, Australia. She’s vegetarian, and I had promised her vegan Chinese dumplings, so last night we made vegan wonton. There are a couple different ways you can roll with a vegan dumpling filling and still have it be pretty solidly [...]
I had nachos for the first time in about 6 years tonight. Maybe longer. I can’t remember. Why had it been so long? Well, I can’t eat milk and its derivatives. And nachos without cheese are just hot tortilla chips. Which are nice, don’t get me wrong, but as far as I’m concerned, not sufficiently [...]
In honor of the struggle of everyday Egyptians to win the right to try to build a just and fair government for themselves and their children, I hope you’ll join me in a plate or two of Egypt’s national dish, ful medames. There are probably thousands of ways to make this, as is true with [...]
For all those of you who are cooking a turkey for Christmas, I just thought I’d chime in with a little encouragement and advice. I cooked a turkey yesterday, because it was turkey-cooking time, and it made me remember that there are an awful lot of folks who end up staring down a turkey only [...]
Most people are terribly busy at this time of year. I am something of an exception to this, having decided some years ago that I was done with trying to travel between Hallowe’en and the New Year unless there were an unavoidable emergency. This has been a remarkably successful policy in terms of keeping my [...]