Tag: food

  • WARAYAKI-YA わらやき屋

    Warayaki is a spectacular way of preparing food: Take a bunch of rice straw (wara) and burn it (yaki). The chef puts a bunch of rice straw on the fireplace, lights it up, and puts the food into the flames. It’s a very short, intense exposure to heat and smoke and light. The food will…

  • Myeong-yi Namul (명이나물)

    Myeong-yi Namul (aka myeongi namul, 명이나물) is the Korean name for for pickled leaves of Korean mountain garlic. Now it’s not really garlic as far as I can tell, it’s called like this because it tastes a bit like garlic and grows mostly in the mountains. My (so far unconfirmed research) shows that this plant…

  • SHINE MUSCAT GRAPE

    Shine muscat grape are a special cultivar of grapes that was developed in Japan in 1988, but is still a rather exclusive type of grape that most people have never tasted. And the only reason why I write about it here today is because I’ve just tasted it for the first time—and it’s a remarkably…

  • BAKING BREAD IN SAND AND ASHES: TAGUELLA OF THE TUAREG

    The Tuareg have a special way of baking bread, which is called taguella. It’s a simple flat bread baked in the embers of a fire, basically the hot sand and ashes of a little bonfire. It’s typically made of wheat, millet, or semolina I love this way of making bread. It’s very efficient if you…

  • MANCHEGO CHEESE

    Manchego cheese is a Spanish sheep cheese, named after the kind of sheep (Manchega sheep) that’s producing the milk this cheese is made of. It has a pretty intense taste (as you would expect from cheese made from sheep milk), but not overpowering, is rich and creamy in taste. The texture depends on the age.…