SpiceLines

Andrea Nguyen is the author of Into the Vietnamese
Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors.

The first thing I notice about Andrea Nguyen, as she strolls through the crowded dining room, is the crinkly good humor in her eyes and her winning smile. Being female, the second thing I notice is her hair. It is thick and black, and the cut is casual chic with a few jagged ends, almost—but not quite--as if she had scissored it herself. Dressed in a tight zip up Juicy Couture-style jacket, she stands out among the woozy academic types ruminating over breakfast this chilly spring morning.

At 39, Nguyen is arguably the most compelling voice in the American Vietnamese food world. Her 2006 cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Food Ways, Modern Flavors was a finalist for the James Beard Award of Excellence and garnered a Chicago Tribune review that compared her to Julia Child. The book, written in a friendly, down to earth style, not only clarifies Vietnam’s somewhat mystifying culinary heritage, but also explains in detail the role of such unfamiliar ingredients as fish sauce---where it came from, how it’s made and why you might add salt to this already salty condiment. In the nicest possible way, it establishes the author as an authority on the food of her homeland.

Continue reading "Andrea Nguyen Talks Vietnamese: Fish Sauce, Lemongrass and the Best Pho in San Francisco" »

Fresh curry leaves, plucked in a Hindu family's garden in Kerala, lend a pleasingly
bitter edge to fish, coconut and vegetable curries. They have nothing to do with
curry powder.

Fresh curry leaves are one of the more mysterious ingredients in Indian cooking.

These green, almond-shaped leaves have nothing to do with curry powder, of course. Nor are they related to the lacy, pale grey curry plant that appears at herb stands in early summer.

But curry and curry leaves do have one thing in common: the word “curry” which derives from the Tamil kari, meaning soup or sauce. And it all makes sense when you discover that the fresh leaves are widely used to season the fish, coconut and vegetable curries of South India.

Continue reading "Curry Leaves: Mystery Ingredient Lends a "Muscular" Taste to Indian Cooking; a Whiff of Scorched Brakes" »

Diary of an obsession: It took four weeks and a dozen failed attempts before I
was able to replicate the sumptuous red snapper curry I tasted in India.

This is what happens when I become obsessed with a recipe:

In the last few weeks, I’ve cooked 9 pounds of red snapper, cracked open 13 coconuts, and bought so many fresh curry leaves that Thomas and James, the owners of our local Indian grocery, thought they’d found the promised land.

I flew through the kilo of dried Kashmiri chilies I hand-carried back from Goa, then spent days calling and emailing around the country looking for more. I fried so much chili paste that the house filled up with eye-watering fumes. Doors slammed, imprecations were muttered. And let’s not talk about clogging the sink with grated coconut, or the many sample containers that clogged the refrigerator.

Continue reading "Recipe: Kerala Red Snapper Curry with Kashmiri Chilies, Ginger and Coconut Milk" »

In Coatepec, Veracruz, Don Ruperto Opoch now
sells Altura coffee to buyers in South Korea. A
post on SpiceLines brought him to their attention.

You’ve heard of the “butterfly effect,” haven’t you? It’s the idea, put forth by Conrad Lorenz, that the whisper soft beating of of a butterfly’s wing may stir up air currents that create a storm thousands of miles away.

Something like the butterfly effect seems to have happened in Veracruz. And it’s very good news.

Two years ago, I wrote about the plight of Don Ruperto Opoch, a genteel third generation organic coffee farmer whose story nearly broke my heart ("Veracruz: Great Coffee If You Can Find It; a Grower’s Lament"). "We are starving," he told me with simple dignity. After a lifetime of hard work and passion for his craft, he was slowly watching his entire world slip away.

Continue reading "Spice News: This Blog Helps Veracruz Coffee Grower Find a Market in South Korea" »

The best juleps are homemade, of course: Here, sipping
quality bourbon, simple syrup, and fresh mint in a silver cup.

April showers, sometimes tropical, have propelled the garden mint skywards. A few days ago there were just a few paltry shoots poking out of the ground. Now a towering phalanx of purple-stemmed English peppermint with the most luscious fragrance has slipped through the boxwood hedge and is engulfing the jalapenos.

Just in time for the Kentucky Derby this Saturday. Will Recapturetheglory nose out bookmakers’ favorites like Big Brown or Colonel John? I have no idea. But I do know one thing: All that mint is just calling for a julep. Or two.

Continue reading "The Perfect Mint Julep: Shave the Ice, But Don't Crush the Mint; Walker Percy's Five Ounces of Bourbon" »

Susana Trilling's Chile Lovers' Tour is among the culinary
vacations featured in the May 2008 Gourmet. Here, a pail
of rare chilhuacle chiles harvested in the fall. Photo credit:
www.seasonsofmyheart.com

Somehow we wound up at a raucous baptism, drinking shots of mescal and dancing to pulsating music.

A few years ago, I took a summer cooking class in Oaxaca with Susana Trilling. One day there was a surprise invitation to a fiesta. After driving aimlessly around a colonia on the outskirts of town, we heard music and let our ears take us to the party. Susana’s friends welcomed us warmly into their backyard and sat us at a round wooden table. We got to kiss the young man whose baptism we were celebrating—a sturdy, two-year-old riding on his grandmother’s hip.

Continue reading "Spice News: Cooking Classes for Spice Lovers; Tracking Rare Chiles and Green Parrots with Susana Trilling" »

Signs of spring: fresh soft shell crab and green garlic from the Farmer's Market.

Yes, spring is here. The herb and vegetable garden is ready for ex-pat transplants: Black Russian tomatoes, French tarragon, Mexican poblano chiles.

And sometimes, a purely local meal comes together in a most unusual fashion.

Continue reading "Spring Market Breakfast: Sizzled Soft Shell Crabs and Green Garlic with Lemon-Soy Dipping Sauce" »