Category — Holidays

photo by Renee Comet

Sittau’s kibbe saniyeh is my Indian husband’s favorite meal: two layers of kibbe stuffed with lamb, onions and pine nuts. But I’ve never thought of it as “meatloaf.” Apparently, the world thinks different, and that’s fine with me. The more kibbe in the world, the better!

Thought these two stories — about Middle Eastern “Meatloaf” and the particularities of Sephardic Rosh Hashanah dishes — made nice bookends.

Korean Kalbi is salty-sweet and spicy

On the Fourth of July America’s melting pot becomes a red hot grill. Check out these terrific recipes from great American traditions: Korean kalbi, Japanese yakitori, my grandfather’s Syrian “lambburgers,” my mother-in-law’s tandoori salmon. Please see my recent story for NPR.org. And happy grilling!

Me, minus my Chinese New Year 2010 "good luck" oyster

Resolutions already shot? Still haven’t mastered the guitar? And…oh my goodness…. you’ve actually gained weight?

Here comes a second chance.

Chinese New Year begins Feb. 3  and you can start all over. Deliciously.

Most of you reading probably know that the Chinese assign auspicious qualities to many different foods. At your New Year feast, be sure to include pot stickers, which are shaped like gold ingots and therefore represent prosperity (ditto for kumquats and oranges, which have a “golden” hue.) Noodles signify long life, oysters represent good luck, and items that remain whole — fish, chicken, duck — usher in wholeness, oneness (fish is the best choice here because the Chinese word for fish is similar to the word for “abundance.” So double whammy.)

And just in case one of your Chinese New Year resolutions is to begin exploring this great cuisine, I’ve polled the experts and assembled a few basic principles for you.

Balance, texture and presentation are the building blocks of Chinese cuisine. Balance means hitting notes of sweet, sour, salty, and yes, umami (the word is Japanese, but the concept is universal.) That means you want to pair sweet hoisin with something salty like soy sauce.

For texture, you want to feature pliant tofu with crisp cabbage. ”Good Chinese food always has smooth and crunchy,” East-West master Ming Tsai told me. [Read more →]