Posts Tagged ‘Meat and Seafood’

Older Entries »
h1

TND – Kung Hei Fat Choi

January 26, 2012

In the mid 1980’s we lived in Hong Kong for 18 months during which period we somehow managed to have enough time to visit Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Macau and Singapore.  On the apparently rare occasions that we were at home, we used to meet my father at noon every Saturday and go have Dim Sum.  We’d meet my father at his office, and then cross through a public garden which on a Saturday was full of brides in bright red wedding dresses having their wedding pictures taken (possibly Statue Square?), to the Dim Sum restaurant at the top of the neighboring office tower.   Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

TND – Year in Review + New Year’s (food) Resolutions

January 11, 2012

2011 was the year of discovering that it wasn’t that I disliked entire categories of ingredients or cuisines, it was just one iteration of them that I disliked and that iteration happened to be the only one I’d ever eaten. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

h1

TND – Best of 2011?

December 8, 2011

This is the time of year when everyone comes out with their “Best of Lists” and either my reading material has changed in the past year (entirely possible) or cooking/food has become a much bigger deal (also possible) because I’ve seen more “Best of 2011 Cookbook” lists in the past few weeks than I think I saw in the previous decade.

A random, and completely unscientific, sampling of lists (epicurious, Bon Appetit, NPR, the NYT, the Boston Globe, Serious Eats, The Kitchn, David Lebovitz, Kirkus, and The Huffington Post) reveals the following moments of agreement and endorsement.  And, in a rare moment of being insync with the zeitgeist I have not only read two of the three books, I wholeheartedly second their endorsement. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

h1

TND – Not for the Onion Shy

November 22, 2011

I was not a kid who had to suffer through many cafeteria meals during my school years. I was spoiled and my mother packed me a lunch almost every day well into high school. By and large the only times I ever bought lunch were on the rare occasions that the school cafeteria was serving something I really wanted to eat. In the year I spent at Convent of the Sacred Heart this meant the days that they did Indian Fry Bread for lunch – don’t ask me how that was nutritionally viable, but it came hot from the fryer and covered in powdered sugar and everyone wanted one – and any time they served tater tots. In the year and a half I spent at the Old Greenwich Elementary School this meant the occasional pizza on Friday (why I wanted burnt pizza is an issue to explore some other time), and any time they served tacos. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

TND – Early Solution for Thanksgiving Leftovers

November 4, 2011

The boys over at The Bitten Word have helpfully indexed the 250 Thanksgiving recipes that debuted in this month’s cooking magazines. For the record, that is an insane number of new recipes for a holiday in which generally speaking nobody wants anything but what they always have – because, as we all know, everyone else’s Thanksgiving is wrong and ours is the only right one. For example, my cousin’s husband’s family doesn’t do gravy. She called to tell us this the first holiday she spent with them, and I think our collective appalled gasp could be heard across state lines. She ended up marrying him, so clearly his family’s bizarre stance on gravy wasn’t a deal breaker, but I’m pretty sure that she spent some quality time impressing on him the importance of gravy. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

TND – Don’t Make That Face At Me

October 20, 2011

Fair warning, I am about to horrify everyone of Italian descent and anyone born south of the Mason Dixon line (except my mother who doesn’t like grits and therefore doesn’t care).

Polenta and grits are the same thing.

I know, I know, I’ve just committed some kind of heresy, but that doesn’t make me wrong. Don’t believe me? Let’s analyze this. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

h1

TND – In Which I Abuse the Oxford Comma

October 5, 2011

Some books should come with warning labels.  I don’t mean the kind of warnings that land books on the Banned Books list.  I mean warnings like ‘Do not read this book unless you have time to make cinnamon rolls this weekend’.  Or, ‘Map the route to your nearest Moroccan restaurant before starting this book.’

I’m not talking about the obvious books either.  Anyone who didn’t know that “Like Water for Chocolate” was going to leave them hungry was clearly not paying attention to the cover copy.  I’m talking about books like the one I just finished.  Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

h1

TND – What’s Making Me Happy This Week

September 21, 2011

Last week I was critical and complaining about trends in food TV. Friday afternoon devolved in a series of small annoyances which cumulatively were enough to make me wish I kept a bottle of scotch in my desk drawer the way that everyone in the 1950’s seems to have (or so television would suggest). I spent the first half of this week playing phone tag with a restaurant manager so that I could complain about mediocre service we’d had on Sunday afternoon. In the light of all that negativity, I feel the need to redress the balance with a burst of positive thoughts. One of the podcasts I listen to ends every show with a segment called “What’s Making You Happy This Week”, so in that spirit here’s a list of what’s making me happy this week. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

TND – I Can be Taught (really)

June 1, 2011

You know what I loathe?  Recipes that call for a ¼ cup of something that only comes in a 16 oz can, or recipes that call for 1 ¼ lb of something that is usually sold in 1 lb increments.  Sometimes I just omit the ingredient, or substitute it, or make just under what the recipe calls for to make up for the ¼ lb of whatever it is that I’m missing.  A lot of the time I’ll just skip over the recipe and find something else to make.  However, sometimes, like tonight, the ¼ cup of coconut milk is important and the recipe is actually worth opening the can and dealing with the remaining coconut milk.  This is when you discover that your freezer is your friend. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

h1

TND – The Merits of Gloating

March 17, 2011

My parents have become migratory mammals.  In the summer they fly (well, actually they take a car ferry, but semantics) north to the Provence, and in the winter they journey south to the sunny climes of Malta, from whence they like to taunt me with emails about how they’re sitting outside on the quai having coffee in the 70 degree sunshine, and by the way how am I enjoying that snow in Boston. Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Older Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.