Recipes From Afar: Congee Two Ways, Old + New
"American Girl Porridge," courtesy of Kimberly Nichols
My obsession with Asian porridges started years ago, when I found the cheaply made and nutritious bowl of ancient Chinese food called congee listed as one of the most nutritious foods in…
Recipes from Afar: Limoncello, Florence
All photos courtesy of Stephanie Andrews
Limoncello: It’s a tummy tamer, an after-dinner delight. Italy’s liquid courage. Behold the power of lemons and their ability to quickly turn your evening into a whirling dervish if you aren’t careful. This isn’t something you knock back like a pint,…
Pesto is big in our house. Huge. Pesto with pine nuts, pesto with walnuts. Traditional basil pesto, kale pesto, radish leaf pesto. We love it; our kids love it. It’s probably the best way I know to serve fistfuls of raw greens to unsuspecting toddlers.
But then I was introduced to a new kind of pesto: Peruvian pesto. Well, technically it’s called tallarines verdes, or green noodles, a nod…
Recipes From Afar: Gnocchi alla Romana
Gnocchi alla Romana with slow-cooker beef shank
We had planned a relaxing day at the beach. Well, as relaxing as one might get with a 1- and 3-year-old . My husband was home from work that day, so I figured it’d be a good night to…
Recipes from Afar: Kentucky Beer Cheese on Toast
A few months ago in Louisville, Kentucky, we went hunting for beer cheese. Much in the vein of England's Welsh rarebit, this state specialty combines cheese with beer and spices in a dip of sorts and serves it, traditionally, with crackers.…
Recipes from Afar: Stroopwafel, Amsterdam
The Dutch stroopwafel, or syrup waffle, is a cookie unique to the Netherlands; it’s been eaten there for centuries. The history of this delicacy dates back to 1784, when a baker from the town of Gouda baked a waffle using old crumbs and spices, and filled it with syrup. Because…
Recipes From Afar: Som Tam Salad, Thailand
Photos by Glynn Pogue
It was our first night in Chiang Mai. After a 24-hour journey of buses, overnight trains, and general mishap, all my friend Noele and I wanted were long showers and a great meal. Before this trip, we’d had dreams of Thailand’s notorious midnight raves, but even…
Recipes From Afar: Singaporean Fried Rice
Photos by Juliana Loh
Contrary to what you might gather from your neighborhood Chinese eatery, there isn’t really a fixed recipe for fried rice. It evolved from throwing leftovers in the wok to stir-fry—one of the sustainable ways the older generation ensured every scrape of food was eaten, not wasted—and voilà, you get a…
Recipes From Afar: Khmer Bor Bor Porridge, Cambodia
Photos by Glynn Pogue
I woke up to a loud pitter-patter on my tin roof—another cold, gray morning in central Cambodia. The rainy season had stretched on for weeks and left me with a perpetual sniffle and a cough I couldn’t shake. I needed to eat…
It was a rainy morning, as usual, in Galicia. At the weekly mercado de abastos, bustling with shoppers from nearby villages, a huge tent with communal wood tables and an enormous pile of wooden plates waited for customers to arrive, myself included. Outside, in the entrance, a line of cauldrons bubbled while the pulpeiras dipped pieces of octopus in and out—one, two, three times—before releasing them to the boiling depths.…