All posts filed under: Food Musings

Cool Foods for a Hot Season

Published by Kathy Hunt

Thanks to a recent and premature East Coast heatwave, I’ve already started thinking of ways to beat the summer heat. While I could always spend the day in a frigid Starbucks or hovering over our struggling window air conditioner, I do have a few other, less radical tricks for staying cool this summer. As you might expect, they involve food and plenty of it. You may have heard how in Morocco, India and other steamy or arid lands folks cool off with hot and spicy foods. Steaming hot teas are especially popular for they hydrate and make the consumers sweat. Keep on drinking and hydrating. Keep on sweating and cooling off. Truthfully, I’m not a fan of the ‘hot drinks and food in summer’ practice. Give me a icy glass of water, a little cold soup and I’m chillin’. That brings me to the first food trick, chilled soups. Sometimes referred to as “liquid salads,” cold vegetable soups do wonders for heat sufferers around the globe. In Spain and Portugal the overheated reach for red …

London Eats

Published by Kathy Hunt

No matter what detractors of British cuisine may say, I ate well in London. So well, in fact, that I’m now working off three extra pounds. Considering that in many countries I’ve lost weight, that’s pretty high praise for English cooking. Where I ate obviously influenced how well I ate. Armed with Time Out London, London Zagat, and tips from friends and local foodies, I sought out places that would please my finicky palate. For breakfast I went to cafes such as Gail’s Bread, Ottolenghi and The Tabernacle. Located in Notting Hill and close to the flat where I had stayed, these three served up consistently good food in warm, cheery atmospheres. Since lunch was always right around the corner, I never succumbed to the full English breakfast of poached eggs, bacon, sausage, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms, beans, toast and tea. Yet, I did love many less filling, local specialties. Currant-studded Chelsea buns, jam-slathered scones and scrambled eggs on toast with sauteed mushrooms ranked high on the list of favorites. Often I grabbed lunch on-the-go. …

Small Dispatch from a Small Island

Published by Kathy Hunt

This week I’ve been working in England, a country much maligned for yet also quite obsessed with its cuisine. Mention that you write about food and suddenly everyone wants to have a discussion with you. Opinions vary on what constitutes good English food. For some it’s the infusion of other cultures and cuisines that has elevated British cooking. After all, the Indian-inspired chicken tikka masala has become the national dish of England. For others it’s a nostalgia for the past, for Sunday roasts and British sweets. For many it’s the local, seasonal movement. Daily farmers’ markets thrive in London. Cheese, bread and butcher shops showcasing English-produced goods abound in the city. Stores stocked with local honeys, preserves and condiments blossom. The country is even producing its own white wines. While I can’t attest to the quality of wine, I can vouch for the deliciousness of other homegrown goods. Ask what sparked this passion for good food and you’ll get a range of responses. The end of WII rationing, which really didn’t end until the 1950’s, …

Flashy Dragon Fruit

Published by Kathy Hunt

I try to live by the adage, “when in Rome . . ..” As a result, I’ve eaten a fair number of exotic and heavenly foods. I’ve also consumed more than a few odd or unpalatable things. Icelandic hakarl, or putrid shark, ranks high among these as does Vietnamese dragon fruit. Possessing hot pink skin, green spines and black-specked, white flesh, dragon fruit remains one of the flashiest edibles out there. It’s also one of the blandest that I’ve tried. Hence, seeing it touted in this week’s New York Times as the next hot food, I couldn’t help but wonder why. Granted, it’s stunning looking but . . .. A member of the cactus family, dragon fruit thrives in tropical climates. Although native to Central America, it’s cultivated throughout South America, parts of the West Indies, Southeast Asia and Florida. In Spanish it’s called pitaya. It’s also known as the strawberry pear. I can see the pear comparison. Similar to an unripe or winter pear, the whitish flesh is a tad gritty but juicy. Unlike …

Mad for Shad!

Published by Kathy Hunt

Last Saturday I made what’s quickly becoming an annual pilgrimage to Shad Fest in Lambertville, New Jersey. Although hundreds go to check out the art, crafts and antiques on display, I’m there for the shad that swims upriver to spawn each spring. Shad has been called the world’s boniest edible fish. Native American lore attributes this boniness to an unhappy porcupine who yearned to look different than he did. The porcupine asked the Great Spirit Manitou to alter his appearance. In response Manitou turned it inside out and tossed it into a river. At that moment the shad was born. While its numerous, small bones make it impossible to eat whole, a filleted shad is outstanding. Possessing a rich, oily, succulent meat, shad has a remarkable flavor that needs few extra ingredients or fancy techniques to shine. Just slide the fillets under your broiler or plunk them in a pan and cook until lightly browned. You can also bake or grill this fish. I’d advise having a skilled fishmonger or fisherman fillet it for you. …

As Perfect as a Gingered Pear Tart

Published by Kathy Hunt

Some food moments stay with you forever. For me, it’s that first bite of a pear. Thinking that he’d introduce his only child to a delightful, new food, my father had plucked a pear from his lone fruit tree and handed it over to four-year-old me. Willing to please and try anything, I chomped into the golden skin and pulled off a huge piece. It all went downhill from there. As the story goes, I grimaced, pronounced the pear “gritty” and spit out the offending, unripened piece. That’s the assessment that I made over three decades ago and the one that I’d cling to for almost as long. Care for a pear? No thank you! Today, though, I’m quite fond of this bell-shaped fruit. When allowed to ripen off the tree, it can be a divine treat. With over 1,000 varieties and seasons that spread throughout the year I can find a soft, honeyed pear almost anywhere. Similar to its cousin, the apple, the pear originated in the border between Europe and Asia known as …

Falafel Frenzy

Published by Kathy Hunt

Okay, maybe there isn’t an all-out, nationwide frenzy for falafel. Yet, on the same night this week that I made falafel sandwiches for dinner, I learned that Subway now sells foot-long falafel subs. Although I walk past a Subway shop several times a day – coincidentally, en route to the actual subway — I hadn’t been aware of its new offering. What I do know and have experienced are countless croquettes of spiced, ground chickpeas known as falafel. A specialty of the Middle East, falafel reputedly originated in ancient Egypt. Today it’s one of the country’s national dishes and served as an appetizer as well as a snack. Among Egypt’s Coptic Christians, it’s acts as a substitute for meat during Lent. Tucked inside a soft, fresh pita and dressed with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and/or tahini or a yogurt dressing, falafel makes a delightful sandwich. In Egypt falafel are made with white broad beans or fava beans. In Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel they come from chickpeas or a mixture of chickpeas and fava beans, …

Shrimp!

Published by Kathy Hunt

They’re Americans’ favorite shellfish and, after canned tuna, their preferred seafood. Yet, until the 20th century, shrimp were not readily available to diners. Unless you lived in the South, where shrimp were sold live, you missed out on these flavorful, little crustaceans. By the early 1900’s, though, advances in fishing trawler refrigeration allowed the mass marketing of and subsequent nationwide craze for shrimp. Over 300 species exist worldwide but I tend to find six or seven in our markets. Gulf White, Pink and Brown, Ecuadoran or Mexican White, Chinese White, Black Tiger and Rock are the types that I see. As the names suggest, Gulf shrimp hail from the Gulf Coast, Chinese and Black Tiger come from Asia, etc. Of these Black Tiger is the largest, growing up to one-foot in length. It’s also one of the more expensive. As a general rule, the larger the shrimp, the higher the cost. Buy shrimp and you buy according to number per pound or count. The smaller the number in the count, the larger the shrimp will …

Tap into Maple Syrup

Published by Kathy Hunt

If you live in the Northeast, the arrival of spring means many things. Warmer temperatures. Less snow. More rain. The end of maple tapping season. Starting in mid-February and lasting for roughly six weeks, maple trees across this region get tapped for their sap. Once warmer weather hits, tapping season ends and my quest for the tastiest maple syrup begins. Every time I pour rich, Grade A syrup over my French toast, waffles or pancakes, I should thank the Native Americans for this lovely sweetener. As they did with so many other useful foodstuffs, Native Americans taught the early settlers how to tap maple trees and create maple syrup and sugar. The process is fairly simple. Put in spout in a sugar or black maple tree. Attach a bucket to the spout. Collect the tree’s sap in this bucket and then boil it down so that the most of the water evaporates and the sap becomes thick and dark. Want maple sugar? Just keep boiling the sap until it becomes granulated like sugar. Until the …

Bowled over by Bisteeya

Published by Kathy Hunt

Lunch this week at the Moroccan restaurant Cafe Mogador reminded me of just how much I love this lively North African cuisine. Heady spices merge with fluffy grains, piquant fruits, and tender pulses, poultry and fish to create some of the most distinctive, delectable foods that I’ve ever eaten. Of the wonderful Moroccan offerings, the most unique has to be bisteeya. Considered by many to be Morocco’s most complex and elegant dish, this flaky, poultry-filled pastry remains beyond compare. Bisteeya has its roots in the Middle East. As early as the 7th century, Arab invaders introduced the concept of encasing spiced meats and nuts in dough. They also encouraged the use of paper-thin leaves of pastry, which Moroccans perfected and now refer to as warka. Warka is one of several ingredients that make bisteeya so memorable. To make warka, you press a ball of well-kneaded dough onto a hot, flat pan. As soon as the edges begin to dry, peel off the leaf and place it on a clean, flat surface. Cover it with a …