Food & Nutrition

All About the Magnificent Margarita I have enjoyed a cold, refreshing margarita from time to time. I prefer them in the summer sitting at an open bar with a view of the ocean, but I wouldn't refuse one while dining at a Mexican restaurant.  I would like to tell you a bit about margaritas, frozen margaritas, and some variations. And what about those brain freezes? What's that all about? What Is A Margarita? A margarita is a famous cocktail made with tequila, lime juice, and orange liqueur. The drink is typically served in a salt-rimmed glass and is often garnished with a lime wedge. The traditional method of making a margarita is by shaking the ingredients with ice and then straining the mixture into a glass. The origins of the Margarita are not entirely clear; some s...

“I tell people all the time that yakamein is one of New Orleans’ best-kept secrets,” says Linda Green, a New Orleans chef who is known across the city as Ms. Linda, the Yakamein Lady. Green began selling yakamein, a powerfully savory, meaty Chinese and African American noodle soup with conflicting origin stories, at second line parades after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Also called “Old Sober,” the salty broth is beloved as a high-sodium hangover cure. Green keeps her recipe for yakamein a secret, but the main components are always the same: broth or “juice” (classically beef, infused with soy sauce and spices), wheat noodles (usually spaghetti), a hard-boiled egg, and some kind of protein (everything from chicken and oysters to alligator and duck...

All About Tomatoes Tomatoes are important to me. I grew up in New Jersey and my dad grew beefsteak tomatoes every summer, so we enjoyed a lot of sliced tomatoes with mayonnaise, salt and pepper.  For the 20-plus years we lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia we grew our own tomatoes. Our kids were raised on Caprese salads made with some beefsteaks, but we also introduced them to heirloom tomatoes. Now that we've moved to Utah we've tried to grow tomatoes but haven't figured out how to get them to grow during the short growing season out here. A work in progress. What Are Tomatoes? Tomatoes are a widely cultivated and consumed fruit (botanically a berry) originating from South America. They are a key ingredient in many cuisines around the world and can be eaten raw, cooke...

At nine years old, a summer family trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida introduced me to many wonders of the world, like the Apollo 11 Moon landing and the rovers on Mars, but none was more impactful than astronaut ice cream. It was a shiny, rectangular block of sugar stationed at the gift shop, a prize for traveling to Pluto and back, marked by a classic Neapolitan triad of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry—only dry and powdery instead of cold and creamy. Harder than cotton candy but comparable in lightness, the astronaut ice cream kept me entertained as we left the space center. It had a familiar taste but a texture I’d never encountered before: brittle, almost petrified instead of icy, and easily snapped into little cubes. A soft-but-...

Refried Beans - A Classic Mexican Side Dish Refried beans are a traditional Mexican dish made from cooked, mashed pinto beans. The beans are first cooked until tender, then mashed with a masher or food processor, and then fried in a pan with some fat, usually lard or vegetable oil, and sometimes with onions and garlic. The result is a creamy, flavorful bean spread that can be used as a side dish or as a filling for various Mexican dishes such as burritos, tacos, tostadas, and enchiladas. Some variations of refried beans are also flavored with spices, such as cumin, chili powder, or oregano. Refried beans are a staple in Mexican cuisine, and they are also a great source of protein, fiber, and complex carbohydrates. Made with dried beans or with canned beans, there are als...

All About Arborio Rice We cook a lot of risotto in our house, so we always have arborio rice in the pantry for a quick and easy meal. Our girls love eating risotto; they both enjoy making it themselves. Risotto is so versatile. You can make a delicious meal in 30 minutes or less with ingredients in your refrigerator, but it all starts with arborio rice. Arborio rice is short-grain rice commonly used in Italian cuisine, particularly in risotto preparation. It is named after the town of Arborio in the Piedmont region of Italy, where it was first grown. The rice is known for its high starch content, which gives it a creamy texture and makes it ideal for risotto. Arborio rice is a versatile ingredient used in various dishes beyond risotto. One of the most popular dishes is "Ri...

While confined to the Tower of London some 400 long years ago, the English adventurer and Shakespeare contemporary Sir Walter Raleigh wrote: “Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.”  It feels a bit like asking for a tooth-kicking to look back at the “artisanal food explosion” era of the early 21st century and attempt to ascribe to it a marked accounting of winners and losers. But when, at last, historians do attempt to reckon with its implications, they may well find a milieu that hews closely to long-documented ideas about generational identity and the arc of trends. In our Marxian quest (W. David, not Karl) for social status and in-group hierarchical tier setting, we ...

All About Olive Oil Olive oil is one of the essential ingredients in my kitchen. I have a variety of versions, including pure, virgin, and extra-virgin, on hand for different cooking purposes and I would like to tell you about each. When I was in Tuscany, Italy, with my family on vacation, I asked people I met about olive oil and I was surprised when I learned most Tuscans had never heard about pure olive oil. They only know extra virgin because there are olive trees everywhere.  If you have a plot of land, you'll likely have olive trees on your property. At harvest time, someone comes by, picks your olives, brings them to one of the few local presses, and produces your olive oil for the year.  Classifications of Olive Oil The acidity level, the method of product...

How Important Is the Maillard Reaction in Cooking? The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs when heat is applied to food, causing the food to brown and develop new flavors and aromas. The Maillard reaction is named after Louis-Camille Maillard, a French scientist who first described it in the early 20th century. The Maillard reaction occurs when proteins in the food react with sugars to form new compounds called "Maillard products." These Maillard products give food a characteristic brown color and contribute to its flavor and aroma. The Maillard reaction is what gives bread its golden crust, seared meats their savory flavor, and fried foods their crispy texture. Maillard Reaction Process The Maillard reaction is a complex process that involves many differe...

“To dine” and “to eat” are hardly synonymous verbs. Consumption—ingesting calories, remedying hunger—is pragmatic in nature. Dining, however, sates a different, more poetic genre of appetite. It’s about flavor, pacing, conversation. “When I think about a dinner party, I think about storytelling, theater, and drama,” says DeVonn Francis, the chef and artist behind New York–based food and event production company Yardy World. “How do all these different elements of a meal come together as a set piece? How is the layout going to make you want to engage with it? Eat it? Discuss it afterward?” Francis and his team are what you might call dinner party impresarios. Their Afro-Caribbean menus—featuring dishes like spicy snapper escovitch with carrots an...