One of my favorite snacks as a kid was spicy tapioca crisps, or chips as preferred in the U.S. These crisps are potato chips’ exotic, far-flung cousins made with tapioca (also called cassava, manioc, yuca) instead of potatoes and shellacked in a sweet, spicy, tangy...
I may only be slightly exaggerating when I say that instant noodles are synonymous with starving college students. I’m sure even you dear reader have recollections of huddling over steaming Styrofoam cups, shoveling curly noodles into mouths and slurping soup between cramming for midterms and/or a...
One morning last week, my husband came back inside the house after loading the car and declared," It feels like fall outside!" My heart sank, then rebounded. My mixed feelings were understandable: I was sad that the end of summer, as well as warm, sunny weather,...
I was a yogurt-making novice until my first year of marriage. That was 13 years ago. My impetus wasn’t being a Mrs. Nor was I inspired to become more of a homebody because we were living in the English countryside. The culprit was actually an insulated flask I...
Time: 10 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling time Makes: 6 servings As odd as the combination of ingredients in this dish may sound, they actually play very well together. And it's a wonderful, not-so-ordinary, way to use up the bushels of fruit that show up in summer. After...
Many cultures around the world use spice blends and mixtures in their cooking. Some popular ones are French herbes de provence, Jamaican jerk spice and Mexican adobo. Asian cooking in particular relies heavily on spice mixtures. Can you imagine a world without Indian curry powder or Chinese...
My first taste of the lychee (also spelled "litchi") fruit came from a can. I can still remember biting into soft, milky white flesh, a sweet floral taste bursting in my mouth. It was definitely love at first bite and it’s stuck with me. When I was...
With July 4th right around the corner, it's time to get serious about grilling. And if you've ever been a victim of tough, dry meat fresh off the flames, you'll want to read this. I'm not going to talk about techniques or equipment--I'll leave that to the...
I have vivid memories of the annual dragon boat festival, also called Duan Wu Jie (端午节) or Double Fifth Festival (because it occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar). Most of the time, we watched the dragon boat races (the...
It’s not often that something that tastes so good is actually good for you too. And you'd never expect it from something as sweet and milky as Yakult! Yakult, a fermented dairy drink from Japan, was a childhood favorite of mine. It’s essentially a probiotic drink containing...
