Category: cooking

What Makes an Excellent “Sushi Chef” (Itamae)?

Sushi is pop­u­lar, but crappy sushi abounds because many of us (a) don’t know what makes good sushi and (b) don’t care as long as it’s cheap. There’s a time and place for fast food, even if it’s of the sushi vari­ety, but when one is look­ing for the real deal and look­ing for excellence, […]

Thursday August 12th, 2010 in Tastes & Experiences | No Comments »

An Ode to Mould

Mould isn’t always a bad thing. Yes, it’s the dis­gust­ing fuzzy stuff that grows on our food when we keep it for too long. Yes, it’s the dis­gust­ing slimy stuff that grows in dark, damp places in the house. Yes, it’s the stuff that causes aller­gic reac­tions in peo­ple in old build­ings. Yes, it’s part […]

Friday July 30th, 2010 in Ingredients | Comments Off

Wild Coho Salmon vs Farmed Atlantic Salmon: Which is Better for Sushi?

Prepar­ing one’s own sushi and sashimi is a plea­sure. It’s a good deal price-wise com­pared to eat­ing out, and the act of prep­ping the fish, slic­ing it, and pre­sent­ing it nicely on the serv­ing plat­ter is a very calm­ing, relax­ing expe­ri­ence. The enjoy­ment of the food at the end is, of course, a huge plus […]

Friday July 30th, 2010 in Ingredients, Tastes & Experiences | Comments Off

Make Your Own Stock, Get Raves From Friends + Family

I’ve got­ten com­pli­ments from my friends and fam­ily for the food that I’ve made, but I received the most enthu­si­as­tic raves for my cook­ing these past two nights. The secret is no secret at all: I made some seri­ously kick-ass veg­etable stock from scratch and used it in my dishes. Good food really does come […]

Thursday July 29th, 2010 in Ingredients, Tastes & Experiences | 4 Comments »

Chicken Should Taste Like Chicken

Enjoy­ing food is about fla­vor, tex­ture, aroma, and visual appeal. And yeah, okay, nutri­tional value too. If any of those ele­ments isn’t up to snuff, the food isn’t good. Unfor­tu­nately, the food indus­try today is about pro­duc­ing vol­ume, not about pro­duc­ing food that’s actu­ally good. It’s about quan­tity, not qual­ity. Feed­lot beef has no beefiness […]

Thursday July 8th, 2010 in Ingredients | Comments Off

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