Marketwatch

Any post that is inspired by a seasonal ingredient—zucchini just plucked from the yard, say, or a handful of turnips discovered in a CSA box—is grouped under this topic.

A trip to an Italian grocery store

16 November 2011

Ah, Italy.  A place where markets with baskets of perfect tomatoes spill out of every piazza and the sun always shines. La vita è bella. Except when it isn’t. Torrential rain led to mudslides in Liguria and northern Tuscany, with devastating consequences. In Friuli, hail storms ruined the grape harvest in the Collio. And when [...]

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Brain Food: Grilled Sardines

19 July 2011

When I was in preschool, I ate fish for breakfast. It’s not as strange as it sounds. At the time, my family lived in Davao, the main city on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The fish in question were small, no bigger than an index finger. They were fried crisp, and you could eat [...]

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How to Use Preserved Lemons

6 February 2011

It’s easy enough to talk about the wonderful word of preserved lemons. But after waiting on a vat of salted lemon wedges for a month or longer, now what? How do you get from salty pith to citrus nirvana (or at least to something better than salty pith)? There are many paths one can take. [...]

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Meyer Lemon Curd

11 January 2011

A simple pudding of lemon juice, egg, sugar, and butter, lemon curd one of the best spreads you can put on buttery things you eat when sipping Earl Grey.  With a healthy bunch of Meyer lemons on the counter, I knew it was time to revisit it. First, I pulled out a recipe from an [...]

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It’s Raining Lemons

28 December 2010

January and February are usually California’s dampest months. But this year, rain came early, flooding streets in San Diego and threatening mudslides in Marin before the first of the year. And yet, the local Meyer lemon crop seems to be doing fine. My mom’s small potted tree, which typically bears fewer than a dozen lime-sized [...]

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On the Farm: A trip to Heritage Prairie

19 November 2010

Chicago has been awash in Michelin Star buzz. The awards have been described as good, bad, and plain unexpected. Just the same, they have given Chicago’s food culture a lot to crow about. Now, the reality check. All we need to do to be reminded about how much more we have to learn about food [...]

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Spiced Up Delicata Squash Soup

14 October 2010

Making soup is a simple, direct way to become better at seasoning as you cook. Simmer a pot full of vegetables and it’s hard not to stir in a pinch of salt or dash of hot sauce, leaving the recipe behind to follow your instincts. Too bland, grab the salt. Too flat, add a splash [...]

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Pumpkin Erissery: When Winter Squash Meets Southwest India

5 October 2010

Bare feet and professional kitchens are two things that should never mix. Which is all well and good, except when visiting a yoga retreat center in Kerala, India. There, you just go with it. I traveled through Kerala, a lush, coastal region in Southwest India, in 2004. Led by Ruta Kahate, an ambitious, accomplished cook [...]

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Foraged Fruit

21 September 2010

As long as a fruit tree is hovering over a fence on a public  sidewalk, you’re allowed to pick the fruit, so I’ve been told. Which makes sense: it’s better to have someone pick it than have it get all oozy on the road. Ask any UCDavis grad about the olive trees along Russell Boulevard. [...]

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Eat a Prune, Start a Movement

14 September 2010

It started when I was about knee-high, perched around the table at my grandparents’ house in Menlo Park. My grandfather told me to eat a prune. They’re good for you, he said. I looked at the strange, wrinkled orb and thought: whoa, that’s asking too much. My response was a lot less sophisticated. I probably [...]

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