Tag Archives: cuisine

PROMPT: Best Restaurant

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Which is the best restaurant in your city?
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I haven’t tried them all. Supposedly, there could be as many as 6,600 restaurants in the greater metropolitan area (but there are at least 2,700.) I eat out once or twice a week when at home, so… Plus, I have no idea what constitutes “best,” and I don’t trust single experiences as evidence. I once thought I’d had the best fried chicken in the world from a vendor cart in Bangkok. The chicken was probably okay, but I think the fact that I’d walked ten miles and hadn’t eaten in as many hours pushed said chicken into its exalted spot. And I very much don’t trust hype. Long story short, I guess we’ll never know.

PROMPT: Best

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What’s the best local dish you’ve ever eaten while traveling?
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I’m not big on tabulating the “best” this or that. It feels like it hamstrings experience and puts one in a comparison mode in which one is always living half in the past. If it looks good, eat it, and then move on to the next experience — giving that experience your presence.

BOOK: “A Cook’s Tour” by Anthony Bourdain

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A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme CuisinesA Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Bloomsbury

Anthony Bourdain’s work is a joy to read if you love gonzo writing, and food — lots of food. It’s like reading Hunter S. Thompson, if Thompson were obsessed with the meals that he ate. A Cook’s Tour is Bourdain’s second work of nonfiction, after Kitchen Confidential, the book which turned him from Executive Chef at a high-brow New York restaurant to a Personality — writer, TV star, and celebrity. Where his previous book explored life in the kitchen, this one ventured out into the world, to Portugal, Scotland, Japan, Mexico, Cambodia, San Francisco, and Vietnam — to name a few.

I must admit, if Bourdain had been the kind of foodie that was obsessed with foam reductions and $300 per head tasting menus, his writing would hold limited intrigue for me. But because this was a guy who seemed as happy with a streetside bowl of pho or a simple hunk of grilled meat on a stick as he was with fine dining, I find his work relatable. It also avoids the cognitive dissonance of reading someone who wrote like Hunter Thompson, but who only talked about escargot and wine pairings. It lent Bourdain authenticity.

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who travels, loves food, or lives at the confluence of the two.

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PROMPT: Snack

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What snack would you eat right now?
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Fried crickets.

PERU LIMERICK

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There was a Guinea Pig from Peru
   who didn’t know just quite what to do.
     He’d heard there were places
     -- oh, so magical places –
 where his kind lived as pets not as food.

PROMPT: Cooking Fail

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Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

A blunder once in a while does not rise to tragedy. I burn toast on a regular basis. Think about that. It’s the most rudimentary culinary activity imaginable, and I fuck it up at least weekly.

To be fair, I think my toaster might be a North Korean imposter, part of a plot to undermine the Western Capitalist world one ruined breakfast at a time.

PROMPT: Foods

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What are your favorite types of foods?
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Those that are authentic to wherever I am at the moment. [Nothing fancy, but with nutritional value.]

PROMPT: Expensive Meal

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What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
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I can’t remember, but it’s never been worth it. Seems like the more one pays for a meal, the hungrier one leaves it. Enjoy your “foam reductions” if you like, but it’s not for me. I’ll take street food any day — cheap, filling, flavorful street food. It’s got character and doesn’t try too hard.

My palate may be unrefined, but — also — I’m no sucker.

PROMPT: Comfort Food

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What’s your go-to comfort food?
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It depends on where I am. I recently discovered that my Busan comfort food is “Hotteok with seeds.” In Central Asia, it’s tandoor bread — by whatever name it’s called in the local tongue. In Tblisi, it’s khinkali. In Peru, a lomo saltado is a beautiful thing. Chicago is the only place I’ll eat a hotdog, but I do love one there.

As a traveler, I find it’s important to not get attached to any one thing. If you crave a bagel, you’re great if you’re in New York or Tel Aviv, but if you insist on one in Hyderabad, it will be a sad experience. But, by the same token, if you order Chicken Biryani in Des Moines, expect to be underwhelmed (or — if not — to pay an exorbitant amount, either way it’s depressing.)

Probably the single most widespread comfort food would be whatever the local dumpling is, be it called mo-mo, khinkali, pierogi, dim sum, etc. All quite unique, but with an underlying familiarity.

So, in the immortal words of (the apparently quite slutty) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “If you can’t be with the one you love… love the one you’re with.”

BOOK: “Masala Lab” by Krish Ashok

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Masala Lab : The Science of Indian CookingMasala Lab : The Science of Indian Cooking by Krish Ashok
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Penguin

Many books have come out in recent years that explore the intersection of science and cooking, but this is one of the few that I’ve seen take on the sub-theme of science’s role in a particular cuisine — in this case Indian. Indian food, while broad and diverse itself, does present a unique palette of considerations. Few cuisines can make claims to the same level of complexity as Indian with all its spices and such. Also, Indian food tends to use heat to a different extent / in different ways than other cuisines, which is partly why, while Indian food is as tasty as food gets, aesthetically it tends toward a visually unappealing gloopy-gloppyness.

Ashok examines what applied heat does to food and why, how flavors are balanced and enhanced and why, what acids do and why they are essential, what value added is gained by pressure cookers and other specialty equipment, and how an experimental approach can be taken in lieu of a recipe book? The book takes a few controversial stances, such as in favor of sodium bicarbonate and MSG, but to a large extent is a straightforward discussion of how science informs culinary technique and ingredients.

The author maintains a light and readable tone throughout the book. I’d recommend this book for readers interested in the intersect of science and food, doubly so if one has a particular interest in Indian food.

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