cuisine
From street-food to fine dining, traditional Italian to Asian-Fusion, being well-versed in global cuisine is the first step to culinary mastery.
Summertime Same-Ness
I grew up a military brat, hoping from location to location, sometimes with only 6 months to a year in between moving. There were new schools & sack lunches, unpacking boxes and my mom’s melt in your mouth pot-roast… and then there were summers and my parents BBQ.
By Josey Pickering4 years ago in Feast
Memories of summer
An old-fashioned slide show of childish sensory memory: the baking heat shimmer rippling the air above a Sydney beach; plunging into the smooth glass-green surface of an ocean wave before it can crest; dusty salt crystals coating our peeling skin in patterns of continental drift whenever we dry out for long enough; the ever-present delicious smell of the coconut tanning oil drifting across the sand; the red and yellow lifesaver flags vivid against the upturned blue bowl of sky.
By Ali Howarth4 years ago in Feast
Suebye
One of the richest parts of Western Anatolian cuisine, which is one of the first things that comes to mind when it comes to healthy life today, is the food culture brought with them by the Jews of Izmir when they came from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. As a result of Sultan Bayezid II's hospitable and far-sighted approach, most of them (about 120 thousand people) were accepted into the Ottoman lands. Thus, the Ottomans got to know the Sephardic culture and today a 500-year-old Sephardic culture continues to live in Turkiye.
By izzet Guvenilir4 years ago in Feast
Melancholy, Wistful, and Nostalgic
I have fond summer memories of being outside when I was a kid. My brother and I spent most of our time wandering the quarter-mile stretch between our home and our grandmother’s. We devoured pilfered cherry tomatoes from her garden, sweet, unwashed, and still warm from the sun. We discovered wild garlic and onions and tasted their stalks.
By S.N. Evans4 years ago in Feast
Mom's home cooking
What does summer mean to me? It means family, barbeques, and delicious home cooking from my mom. Now during the holidays, my mom makes some of her most iconic foods. For me, things start in April. My sister and I have our birthdays in the beginning of April. Normally my mom makes us our favorite meal, or she will take us to our favorite restaurant. There is one thing though that she makes me every year for my birthday. That is her famous strawberry shortcake. I always look forward to her making this every year for my birthday. So much so that it has now become a tradition. Her strawberry shortcake isn't the traditional shortcake though. My mom never makes it the way that everyone else thinks this dish should be made. Once you try it though, you will never have it the same way again. The process starts the night before. She cuts the strawberries up and sprinkles sugar on them. Sometimes she uses a bit of Amaretto for the strawberries. After the strawberries are macerated, (softened by soaking in liquid), the cake part is made. Traditionally, shortcake is made for this dessert. Hence, the name of the dish. My mom never liked shortcake with this dish. She would always say that the cake shouldn't be as dense and definitely a lot more flavorful. So instead of shortcake she would use pound cake. I know it is still a dense cake, but the flavor is better for the dessert. She bakes the pound cake in its traditional loaf pan. Usually, she makes two so I can take the leftovers home with me. Now the whipped cream isn't homemade, but it's still one of my favorites. Some people would layer their cakes, not my mom. Her way of serving the dish is to cut a chunk of pound cake off as the base. After which she layers on some strawberries. Some whipped cream applied on the top of the strawberry layer. Next is more strawberries and some of the macerated liquid. Now it's ready to eat. That is the dish that starts the feeling of summer with me. Knowing my mom takes the time to make me this cake every year makes me feel very special. Usually, after the spring starts to end and fold into summer, her next dish is her baked beans. Like her strawberry shortcake, her baked beans a very non-traditional. When my mom starts preparing for Memorial Day, she starts with making her baked beans. Everyone who has every had my mother's baked beans have never wanted them any other way again. Her baked beans come out of the pot thick and sweet. The recipe is a bit of a family secret. Unfortunately, I cannot divulge everything about her beans. I can however tell you that one thing she doesn't use is molasses. The recipe is not one to be tampered with. To omit or use another product in its place looses the consistency of the dish. One time a friend of the family asked to make the beans for the 4th of July holiday. When my father tasted the beans, he was not happy. Firstly, they were burnt. Secondly, not enough bacon. Thirdly, no onions. That is a must in this dish. Trust me when I tell you that you will not get big chunks of onion in the dish. They dissolve into the bean mixture. Lastly, that normal, sweet taste that make my mom's baked beans special was not there. The family friend had used molasses. My father always was my mother's official taste tester. If he says that there is something wrong with it, then there is. The one thing my father wanted every holiday was my mom's baked beans. It is a staple within our family. Something that my grandmother passed down to both her daughters. Any deviation in the recipe, would change the taste of the dish. My mother has many dishes that come from my grandmother who was from northeast Pennsylvania. An area that we all know as Pennsylvania Dutch. Through trial and error, she has made some of these recipes a staple throughout our lives. Summer food isn't always for the summer. It is food that should be a staple at any time of the year.
By MaryBeth Calahorrano4 years ago in Feast
Antipasto Squares
I grew up as an only child in an Irish household. Neither of my parents could actually cook. I literally existed on breakfast food (for all three meals) and TV dinners. However, I also spent every single day of my life from birth with the three siblings across the street and their parents, Jim and Lynn. Their home was almost the exact opposite of mine: always chaotic, always a litttle messy, and homemade food galore, for almost every meal, every day.
By Lynn Henschel4 years ago in Feast
