At the tail end of each year the food media ask leading "industry professionals" to try and predict the food trends for the following year and then rank them accordingly. For the past 10 - 15 years the "hot" items have generally included variations on whole beast dining, fire and smoke, wild food, native ingredients, comfort … Continue reading Everything Old is New Again!
When I think of Xmas, one food i always comes to mind , home made fruit mince pies featuring savoury short pastry and a snow like dusting of powdered sugar.
Imagine the classics cuisines of Europe without dried beans of the Phaseolus vulgaris family. We would be deprived Cassoulet and Capparrones, Pasta e fagioli and Ribollita in fact all the dishes that feature Cannellini, Borlotti, Flageolet, Navy, Pinto and Black turtle beans just for starters....
The Portuguese influenced food and eating on almost every continent. Responsible for not only introducing tomatoes, chilies and potatoes to India, Sri Lanka and the Moluccas, but also transplanting cassava from the Americas to Africa and South East Asia. In return they took fragrant eastern spices like cinnamon and cloves to their Brazilian colony in the new world along with exotic foods like rice and bananas. In the process they introduced the concept of "Tempura" to Japan, Vinho de Ahlo or “Vindaloo” to Goa, and delicious soft Portuguese bread rolls or “Pao” throughout Asia
The cold weather of recent days has had me thinking about soup. Always a great warming stand by, offering some of the most diverse dishes available, limited really only by ones imagination. Of course traditionally in addition to providing warming nourishment, these "wet" foods would have provided much of ones daily liquid intake, and I clearly … Continue reading Suppa Zuppa
Food Luddite 