Mending Woks. Uses of Woks in the Nineteenth Century
Donald Wagner, the expert on Chinese metallurgy, sent me a page he has put together on the historical and contemporary accounts and photos of the Chinese tinkers who mended woks. Just a bit of molten...
View ArticleRound up on griddle-baked thin pastry
Thank you everyone who has responded here, and on Facebook or Twitter, or via personal emails. Once again, I am amazed at the way these tools speed up intellectual interaction. Soon the days that I...
View ArticleThin rice starch batter pastry from the 6th century AD
Just look at this. Wow. Have to re-think lots of things. ca. 540 AD. Recipe (not direct translation). Take refined rice glutinous rice starch, add enough water to make a batter, heat a large pot of...
View ArticleMore on thin pastry trail. Pootarekulu from Andhra, India. Updated.
Ready for more on the thin pastry sheet trail that we’ve been discussing on this blog in the last couple of weeks. Ammini Ramachandran sent a fascinating video of an Indian thin pastry from Andhra,...
View ArticleCulinary heritage: Embera cuisine (Panamá)
Here’s a really long overdue post, promised to Chef Lastino Apochito a year ago when I was visiting Panama City for the quite fascinating first Panamá Gastronómica. He approached me after a session on...
View ArticleThe Japanese as a Wheat-Eating Nation
Sorry, folks. I hit the publish on this before I meant to. In any case an interesting story in Slate. I’d actually put the beginnings of the Japanese move to wheat at the beginning of the twentieth...
View ArticleFood: Farming is Only the Beginning
If there’s one point I find myself making over and over and over again about food, it’s that farming is only the beginning. So do take a look at this great piece in the New Yorker by Nicky Twilley....
View ArticleTiny Bubbles 2: The Indian Tradition
A few months ago I posted about what seemed to me a big difference between modern Western cuisines and cuisines in other parts of the world, namely the widespread use of air in Western foods. I listed...
View ArticleCreating and Re-Creating Rice, Maize, and Chicken
We don’t just gather our food. We gather the raw materials and then we turn them into food. The skill and determination that have gone into making food inspire awe. One way we make food is by...
View ArticleSo How Do I Decide What Is or Isn’t a Cuisine?
It’s all very well for me (or anyone else) to wave my hands and say “Local Food is a Cuisine” or “It’s not clear whether the United States had or…
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