Food, Glorious Food

Food, cooking, eating

In Which India Comes to Us

First, it dropped through the mail slot in the form of India, a new CD from Putumayo. Admittedly, when I cued it up I found it a little too easy listening for my taste. But I let it play, and like so many things that evoke India, I was totally roped in. I drove across …


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Soup Swap? Souptacular!

National Soup Swap Day 2009

Founder Knox Gardner points at the National Soup Swap map.

The original soup swap legend starts as follows: “In the dark times of the woolly sweater, nothing warms the soul as much as a bowl of home made soup…” Or, you know, something like that. Though it’s not so much the soul that’s warmed as the heart and the belly.

Soup Swap this year was the largest I’ve ever attended. A whopping 22 soups appeared in the middle of Dave and Carrie’s perfect new kitchen. The swapping was fierce and competitive as well known chefs in our midst delivered bribes of chocolate, tapioca, and impossible to resist home made bread.


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Fish Wednesday: Too Many Cookies Edition

I swear to Neptune, the god of the sea and all that lives in it, some of the smartest money I spent this year was on my little Road Trip Grill. When the rains started, we didn’t stow it in the garage – rather, we stowed the bench we used for piling up the grocery …


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Book Review: The Big Neccessity

It’s not like I set out to read a book about poop. I’m on the reviewer’s list for Holt – I LOVE being on their list! – and they send me stuff to read. Jason, the guy at Holt who lets me know when new, travel related things are coming out suggested that I might …


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Fish Wednesday: Prawn Pad Thai Take III Edition

Fish sauce is unpleasant stuff, smelly and weird, but without it, you can’t really get the right flavor to your home made Thai or Vietnamese food. We bought one bottle of the stuff which we threw out immediately upon opening it – it was beyond weird and smelly, it was downright nasty and there was …


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Accidental Guests at Ping Chow’s Birthday Party

Ping Chow set a bottle of red wine on our table. He smiled broadly and nodded at us. “Happy Birthday!” we all said, reaching across the table to shake his 94 year old hand. Our friend N. kissed him on the cheek and Mr. Chow brightened up. “You see why my mother told him ‘No …


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