Tasty morsels from the table of Thy Tran
Learning the true shape of our food sometimes comes as a surprise. The challenge of carrying ingredients across time and distance plus the reality of everyday cooking has transformed the look, feel and – most importantly – taste of many foods.
That dry, yellow powder known here as turmeric is certainly one of them.
In this age of Google and Wikipedia, it’s easy to forget the joy of getting lost for hours deep in the stacks of a three-dimensional library. To entice you back to these important anchors of our community, here’s a short list of culinary exhibits and events worth adding to your list of food adventures:
It’s that time of the year again when I wish I had a garden. Little pots on a fire escape give me regular sprigs of thyme and shiso and, if I’m feeling ambitious, I might harvest handfuls of Sweet 100s. It’s nothing, however, like watching tiny pea shoots unfurl into astonishing vines or digging up a stash of potatoes from beneath a dried-up stem.
Continue reading “Cultivating one’s garden”
Lest readers things that I only like to eat meat (and by meat, I mean, of course, pork) I’m dedicating today’s post to one of my favorite cusines: South Indian.
After a recent crash course in using a Sumeet mixer-grinder, Ramach and Vidya introduced me to one of their standby eateries. I had planned to make my way back up 880 to Fremont for some good Indian eats, but Vidya assured me that a detour to Sunnyvale would be worth my time. Never to turn down a personal introduction to food, I postponed a few more rounds of pani puri for a plate of endless rice.
Continue reading “South Indian Rice Courses”
Yesterday, I attended the best cookbook event ever. Book signings are now more a professional obligation than a fun diversion, but I’m very glad I stopped in at the Bayanihan Community Center to see Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. This wasn’t your usual book event. Grandparents brought their grandkids, and Tagalog was spoken unabashedly. The tastings were generous—I enjoyed thirds on those adobo ribs—and there was much laughter in the air. Their discussion and demonstration were a powerful reminder of the way sharing recipes, memories, and food keep a community together over time and distance.