Chinese food is my soul food. Whenever my father was out of town, which was quite a bit when I was growing up, my mom would pick us up a dinner of chicken and broccoli, pork lo mein, and wonton soup. Some days she would even let me “play hookie” from school and go to Chinese buffet with her. Mounds of white rice with savory stir fries, tender dumplings and crisply fried squid. Sauces described, not by flavor but by color, brown and white, with toasted sesame and peanut oil complementing garlic and soy. Now that I live close to her again, we occasionally go to what she calls our “watering hole,” a Chinese buffet with her favorite seaweed...
(Kinda) Healthy Mac ...
posted by Roya Hamadani
Mac and cheese is pretty irreplaceable as far as comfort foods go. Something about the combination of starch and fat hits a pleasure center in the brain like nothing else. There was a three-month depressive period in my life when I made it every week and gained 25 pounds. After that I...
Time for Lunch [Fier...
posted by Roya Hamadani
Lunch time. Two words that can spell doom for diets and pocket books alike. How many of us have sat in our cubicles, willing the minutes to tick by, the hunger growing by the second into a monstrous yearning for the amazing sushi roll, the juicy cheeseburger and fries, the crispy falafel...
Forty Cloves of Garl...
posted by Roya Hamadani
How much do you really love your friends? Sure, you’re willing to cook for them, but do you love them enough to peel dozens of cloves of garlic? John Thorne, my favorite food writer, gives this recipe for chicken with 40 cloves. As a garlic lover, I highly recommend biting the bullet and...
Eat Your Spinach! [F...
posted by Roya Hamadani
I love spinach. And I love it significantly more now that it comes in bags already washed and ready to eat. Because really, who has time to spend washing sand and grit off their food? Spinach needs very little cooking to add delicious flavor to soups and sautés. The less you cook it the...
