The cilantro cuisines
I sometimes think of it as the "Cilantro belt" - the band of nations falling between 15 and 30 degrees north of the equator. You know, Mexico, Cuba, Morocco, India, Thailand, and many many more. It's not that all dishes…
2014
Grain vs. grains
During the hot days of summer, cool salads feel just right and news feeds buzz with recipes for salads made with grains and grain products. The LA Times sings the praises of grain salads. Meanwhile, the NY Times is…
Five flavors to rule them all
Baskin-Robbins, the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty shops, is known for its famous "31" logo, which suggests a different flavor of ice cream available for each day of the month. However, the chain may want…
Little known treasures
Some cookbooks become instant classics and profoundly influence generations of cooks. In the 1960s, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking became a bestseller and improved the cooking skills of legions. More…
The shape of things to come?
What happens when a rocket scientist applies his skills to cookware? You get a new saucepan that is up 40% more efficient than a conventional pan. The Flare cookware series, developed by Lakeland in conjunction with Dr.…
Life's delicious messes
Indexed blog Food52 posted that we should "give up on clean hands and clean shirts" because it's cherry season. Contemplating the delicious mess of cherry pitting got us to thinking about other ingredients and foods…
Featured Cookbooks & Recipes
Whether they are from cookbooks, magazines, or blogs, all the recipes we feature in these weekly round-ups have online links so you can add any of them to your Bookshelf. Even if you have a free membership! But the…
Make room in the pantry for ajvar
Sometimes an ingredient or food product that was once only locally or regionally popular sweeps across the culinary world, like pimentón did a few years back. The Telegraph reports that a British chef is aiming to…
Camera cuisine
We've all heard the phrase "we eat first with our eyes." That has never been more true than in the digital age, when if a meal isn't on Instagram, it didn't really happen. Digital photography not only allows us to share…
Are cupcakes dead?
"The cupcake is dead." So says the tweet from Russ Parsons, food writer with the L.A. Times, with a link to an article that announces five foods that "could be the next cupcake." The post was in response to the news…
Reference vs. selection in cookbooks
Today, I opened a book package and found a square-formatted paperback entitled, simply, Shake. Without looking at the title, the flap, the press release, or the back cover, I started thumbing through the pages…
Unripe and ready
Everyone awaits the first tomato of summer with eager anticipation. The same holds true for most fruits and vegetables, but toward the end of the season one often encounters a glut of produce that must be harvested…