May 25, 2010
Everyone loves a good food porn photo, right? But what about food illustrations? No one ever seems to pay attention to that!
As a freelance illustrator (of sorts), I regularly troll the Web for new ideas for drawings and what not, and I’ve discovered that there are a lot of great food illustrations out there. Here are some of my favorites that I’ve found:
Omnivore's Delight
“Omnivore’s Delight” by illustrator/typographer Chris Ward.
Watercolor illustration for Marks and Spencer's
Emily Robertson’s watercolor drawing of pasta ingredients. She’s part of a UK-based illustrator’s collective, Plats.
Ice Cream Truck
Brooklyn-based illustrator Kevin Cyr’s artwork is too cool for school.
April 25, 2010
Photo courtesy from Dessert Comes First. Thanks, guys!
I stumbled across this great Filipino food blog, Busog! Sarap!, from Sydney, Australia and was surprised to find a recipe for polvoron. I always thought that the crumbly, cellophane-wrapped milk candy was only something that you had to buy at the local Filipino restaurant or bakery — but apparently, you can make this stuff at home, any time you want.
Polvoron, which originated from Spain, is made from powdered milk, sugar, roasted flour and nuts. It’s a celebratory food; in Mexico, they’re served at weddings, and in the Philippines, at Christmas. I know what you’re thinking: How could that possibly taste good? It’s a bit of an acquired taste, but the texture is addicting (think sugar cookies rolled in way too much powdered sugar).
My favorite kind of polvoron has pinipig in it, young rice grains that have been beaten into flakes. But the ladies over at Busog! Sarap! have kicked it up a notch by flavoring the plain recipe with Oreo cookies, pistachios and chocolate, so those might be my new favorites.
There are really no special ingredients you need to make your own batch of polvoron except for a mold to shape the candy into perfect ovals, but you can just roll them into balls. Or, you can order the mold from ArtFire.com.
The trickiest part to this is roasting the flour, but if you have a heavy-bottomed pot, you’ll be OK. Check out Busog! Sarap! for a step-by-step recipe with photos.
April 23, 2010
Tinga, shredded chicken in a spicy tomato sauce. Photo courtesy of Papiroz.net.
If you’ve been reading this blog, I’m sure you’ve become very familiar with Daniel Solis, my mother’s boyfriend. He is from Mexico and is the most wonderful home cook — and I thought, with Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, it would be the perfect time to showcase a couple of his recipes.
The first one I’ll share is Pollo a la Talla, fried chicken that has been marinated in a spicy chili paste and served over white rice:
POLLO A LA TALLA RECIPE:
3 or 4 ancho chilis
4 chicken breasts without skin
olive oil
1/2 c water
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
1/4 tsp peppercorn
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
salt to taste
Slice chilies in half and remove seeds. Rinse and dry with a towel. Saute lightly in extra virgin olive oil for a minute or so.
In a blender, add the chilies, water, garlic, onion, peppercorn, balsamic vinegar and salt to taste. Blend until smooth. Push the ingredients through a sieve and stir to make a paste.
Mix the paste with the chicken breasts and marinate for an hour. Pour some oil in a large saute pan until it’s hot, then place the chicken breasts in the pan. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, and then turn it over to cook the other side. Add more marinade if it gets too dry.
Serve over white rice.
This dish can also be used to cook fish or beef.
More after the jump
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April 15, 2010
My first real bento box. Going clockwise from the left: pickled cucumbers and plums; miso soup; a ball of tofu and mushrooms in a sweet soy-dashi sauce with some kind of crispy fried something on top; steamed squash, bamboo shoots, soy beans and green beans; grilled mackarel and tuna; pickled mushrooms; soy sauce-marinated tofu; seaweed and panko-fried shrimp tempura; egg; and rice with black sesame seeds.
I recently came back from a family trip to Tokyo and you probably know what I wanted to focus on: the food, of course!
During the week I spent there, I tried to make as many observations about the cuisine as possible. Here’s what I discovered. The flavors in real Japanese food are a lot more subtle than we’re used to — and they certainly don’t use as much soy sauce as we think. The Japanese really think about what they’re putting on their plate, how it looks and what each ingredient contributes to the dish overall. For that reason, there’s not a lot of BS going on. Food is straightforward, simple and artfully prepared.
But at the same time, Japan’s food scene is a little odd. The cuisine itself has not moved much beyond the dishes that we all know and love — tonkatsu, tempura, udon, etc. — but there seems to be a strange fascination with European pastries, cafe culture and crepes.
Now, I’m no photographer, but I tried to take pretty pictures of the best dishes. My favorite? The grilled fish at the Tsukiji market.
More photos after the jump.
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March 30, 2010
Photo courtesy of PortfolioChest.com
So, I’m off to Tokyo for a few days and I can’t wait to tell you all about my culinary adventures once I get back. I’m looking forward to the Tsukiji fish market (where tuna goes for $500 a lb), the endless bowls of dashi-tinged ramen and cute little candies shaped like My Neighbor Totoro.
With that being said, here’s a photo of a Hello Kitty-themed bento box. Bon voyage, my Grand Internationelles!
March 23, 2010
Melon fever!
With the weather warming up, there’s nothing more refreshing than a nice big glass of an icy something-something to cool you off at the end of the day. In my case, I would specifically like that icy something-something to be melon juice, a Filipino beverage that I grew up with.
Melon juice is nothing more than melon, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla mixed together in a giant pitcher, poured over ice — but there’s a tiny trick to it: you’ve got to use a melon scraper. Without it, it wouldn’t be the same. The joy of melon juice lies in the way you eat it: slurp up the short pieces of melon with every sip of juice, and pick out the long strands of melon with your fingers.
Recipe:
1/2 cantaloupe, scraped into long strands
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla
1 c sugar, adding more to taste
water
ice cubes
Put the cantaloupe, lemon, vanilla and sugar into a gallon-size pitcher. Fill it with water. Stir, adding more sugar to taste. It should be sweet but not over-the-top. Put it in the fridge and let it sit for about 2 hours. Serve over ice and eat with a fork.
