ramblings of a Seattle travel, food and photography hound
Corn nuts in the U.S. are a popular snack. Trader Joe’s sells Giant Peruvian Inca Corn, which are noticeably bigger than regular store-bought kinds. Before the trip to Peru, I read about the giant white corn known as choclo and wondered if this is what Peruvians use to make these nibbles. That’s what I expected to... Continue Reading →
I've been seeing pollo a la brasa on many menus during my travels in Peru. The problem was that these restaurants did not have rotisseries. The chicken would be adaptations for the oven and would most certainly not have the wood-roasted flavor that has become one of the dish's hallmarks. Its preparation is most famous in Lima, but... Continue Reading →
Mangos are available year-round. I've gone through my share of them. The result is usually disappointment. Most of them are fibrous. I hate fibrous mangos. I'll never buy another Tommy Atkins for that reason. The only ones that aren't are the Philippine mango (carabao) and ataulfo (from Mexico), but they're rather small. The mango I wait for... Continue Reading →
After the superb paella at Tarsan i Jane recently, I was bowled over by another world-class rice dish, this one originating from Hyderabad in India. The city is known for its special kind of biryani. Dum biryani involves a painstaking process of layering basmati rice and meat (usually goat or chicken) that has been marinated in a complex blend of... Continue Reading →
When I lived in Los Angeles more years ago than I care to count, I had paella for the first time at a Spanish restaurant in West Hollywood called La Masia (now long gone). I had it there maybe three times. My great fondness for it could very well have been embellished by the passage of time. It was... Continue Reading →
Now is not the chanterelle season here in the Pacific Northwest, so it was a bit of a surprise to see the wild mushrooms at Costco last week. One pound for $8.99 was too hard to pass up. Even if eating light and local is what's called for in the warm days of summer, chanterelles and smoked bacon... Continue Reading →
From the outside, you would never guess what the inside is like. Curtains are perpetually drawn over windows on the storefront that's half sheathed in plywood, half in brick, milk chocolate in color. There is likewise no indication that a restaurant occupies the space, let alone a Thai one. A small sign written in Thai and two elephant statues on the... Continue Reading →
I think it's fair to say that the ramen craze in the Seattle area started not in Seattle, but on the Eastside, on the other side of Lake Washington. Sure, there were several restaurants that served ramen before Kukai (now Kizuki) opened its doors in Bellevue, preceding the arrival of Jinya and Santouka within months of each other,... Continue Reading →
My mother used to make this dish using only chicken. The sauce is an intriguing combination of miso and umeboshi (pickled Japanese plum). Because it's a steamed dish, it uses no vegetable oil for cooking, only a splash of toasted sesame oil at the end. I've changed the recipe years ago to include tofu and vegetables. The main character of the... Continue Reading →
It was a year ago almost to the day that my wife declared the fish and chips served by Nosh as the best ever she's had in the States. When I sampled the fish, I couldn't have agreed more. The thing is, Nosh is a food truck and the venue was the Crossroads Food Truck Snackdown. Since... Continue Reading →
zoomeboshi 