Has the pandemic made you adventurous with food out of necessity?
No, I always liked trying new foods. When I was growing up in Russia, the menu was relatively simple. In winter, there is typically a soup, followed by very traditional starch- protein-vegetable plate. In summer, instead of the soup, that same plate is accompanied by a salad.
Soups typically included borscht, which I hate, so please don’t ask for the recipe, harcho, because we are close to Caucuses Mountains, or lapsha, chicken noodle soup, or pelmeni, a Russian version of a wonton. In summer, sometimes there is green borscht or okroshka, the cold soups.
The entrée plate was usually rice or mashed potatoes – baked potatoes were unheard of in our regional cooking. The only time we had something similar was when we went camping and buried potatoes in coals of a campfire. The meat was usually fish lightly coated in flour and pan fried or chicken, typically baked or sautéed in a pan. I didn’t have fried chicken until I came to US. If it wasn’t chicken, then it was Russian hamburgers, which you can find in recipes section. A Russian version of schnitzel. Sometimes the meat would be abandoned in favor of vareniki, a kind of a oversized ravioli stuffed with cottage cheese or cherries. Sometimes we had pilaf or chebureki, an even larger meat-stuffed ravioli which was fried in a pan. Lots of green onion and herbs with everything. We grew spinach, dill, parsley, garlic, onion, etc.
The salad was a super simple affair: cut up some tomatoes into largish chunks, add cucumbers, bell peppers, and green onion, a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar, and a splash of sunflower oil. In winter fresh vegetables were not available, so we switched to preserves: pickles, pickled tomatoes, pickled eggplant.
A great emphasis was placed on flour goods: blini, vareniki, pelmeni, bread, cake, torts, eclairs, etc. I learned baking before I learned cooking.
So with the menu was very middle of the road in terms of flavor profiles. Coming to US was like facing an explosion of foods. I distinctly remember the first time I tried sushi. I was encouraged to cook for an International Student Day by the college – when you are an international student, you get encouraged to do a lot of things – and the guy at the table across from me was Japanese and made sushi rolls. I was floored. So yummy.
When Gordon and I started living together – in sin, as his family put it, hehe – I realized he liked Japanese cuisine. He spent over a year in Japan as a high school exchange student. I couldn’t cook authentic Japanese food, but I found a book on Chinese cuisine in the library. Seriously, that was the only thing they had from the entire Asian region. So I tried my hand at Chinese cuisine. My first “Chinese” dish was Hunan beef and he really liked it. I still remember exactly what he said when he tried it.
Eventually I found a Japanese cookbook as well and became reasonably proficient with Americanized versions of Chinese and Japanese dishes. When he was in the military, I picked up some Korean-inspired recipes from Korean-born military wives. I already had staple Southern food down. My chicken fingers, which I don’t cook anymore because we need to lose weight, are to die for. Iced water – does wonders. Kid 1 liked Italian. Kid 2 likes steak in all forms. Everyone loves TexMex. Honestly, we’re in Texas. If we couldn’t make decent tacos and queso, we’d get kicked out.
So our menu is very varied. It might be my bastardized version of bulgogi one day, spaghetti the next, followed by roasted chicken mixed into salad, followed by pork tenderloin, then chicken fajitas, then take out of kimchi kimbap for me and a hamburger for Gordon. Who knows.
Favourite weird food/ national delicacy you’ve always wanted to try?
I am not sure. A good question. Umm… I don’t know. Pass!
Things you would never eat?
Oy. Anything with cooked slimy onion. Makes me gag. If we are talking about specific dishes, I would never try balut. Sorry, I just can’t. Just no.
List of foods or restaurants you can’t wait to go to after the pandemic is over?
Any quiet restaurant where Gordon and I can have a nice date. Gruene Door would be good. But honestly, any place where we can just quietly relax.
How do you choose food scenes for your books? Is it always something you’ve had or do you imagine food sometimes (Orro scenes)?
We try to match the food to the mood of the scene. It involves a lot of Googling. So much googling. And now I am hungry, but I have to work.
Laura says
I tried your Edge burgers recently. They were delicious, but they fell apart even after being refrigerated. I got the oil nice and hot, not sure what I did wrong. I’m planning on trying again because they were definitely tasty.
Moderator R says
Hi Laura,
The egg is the binding in that recipe. Maybe you had an egg that was a bit on the smaller side? It needs to be mixed in quite a lot as well.
Good luck for your next batch ????!
Sherri says
I’ll take a hard pass on balut and any kind of insect (just no).
reeder says
Do you favor savory or sweet?
I read “flour goods” as “flour gods” at first. I do love carbs. Gluten does odds things to my mom’s health, though, so we’re pretty light on gluten treats in this house and probably all healthier for the lack.
I’m a food sniffer so things like stinky tofu or hakarl (fermented shark saving another to google unwelcome surprise) are generally not appealing to me. The other is texture. Squeaky squishy foods like some eggplants or overdone asparagus are not for me. Squeaky is fine with some snap. I can generally eat natto (fermented beans) if presented with it which oddly falls into the smell and unusual texture but isn’t squeaky. Some natto has a stronger aroma than others.
Variel says
Texture is a big thing for me too. Anything overly mushy, think mashed potatoes, bananas etc I can’t eat. The flavour has nothing to do with it, I’ll happily eat potato in any other form or banana in a smoothie or dried banana chips.
My mother is a good baker but not much of a cook otherwise. I’ve since discovered steak is delicious if prepared right and you don’t overcook it and that spaghetti isn’t just cheese cubes, pasta and tomato sauce. Doesn’t stop the nostalgia for the latter though.
Favourite cuisines are Japanese, Thai and Chinese, nothing too spicy though.Also enjoy well made pastas and pizzas. My own cooking skills are rather lacking so left to my own devices I make simple salads, stir fries and various dishes that use bread, or the regional equivalent, to hold it together.
Marnie says
I remember when Kate Daniels fixed Low Country Boil for Julie and Red. I’ve always wondered if this is a dish you prepare.
Michelle says
I had to google Balut! I feel sick… definitely with you on this one. Hard, hard pass from me!
Alice says
OK, i’m going to date myself here, I grew up in Pennsylvania, i used to watch the Partridge Family, and they’d “go to the taco shop” i had no idea at all what a taco was. My parents used to go out for Chinese food as a treat about once a year. I did not eat either mexican or chinese food until i was stationed in Texas with the Air Force. I love them both now, but we did not have many/any restaurants in Pennsylvania for chinese or mexican that weren’t a great distance away. We also didn’t have fast food restaurants like there are now. Of course i was very surprised when my husband informed me that minute rice wasn’t rice and you don’t make mashed potatoes that start with flakes…. who knew?? I’ve made mashed potatoes with actual potatoes since and i love my rice cooker
melanie says
lol those eggs were on fear factor a few times never seen so much gagging
Sachiko says
Japanese food is literally my love language. And, oh, KIMCHI. I love it.
This is such a fun post, Ilona.
Jukebox013@gmail.com says
A super-easy Japanese dish I always have stock for is Osaka-style okonomiyaki, which I tried because I was obsessed with Ranma 1/2 and wanted to find out what Ukyo was cook-fighting with. Pretty simple, but oh-so delicious. They should have all the ingredients at the supermarket.
It’s so good, even made my roomie, who never strayed from American-Italian-Tex-Mex-diet, liked it!
Mary Peed says
So… Russian baking. When I was in Russia I couldn’t get enough of the black bread. I loved the complexity of flavor and the texture and really just everything about it. I’ve been trying (off and on) for nearly 30 years to replicate it… I’ve asked Russian friends, none of whom bake it seems…
Do you have a recipe for Russian Black Bread? I’d seriously appreciate it. (I dream about it sometimes, with sweet butter.)
njb says
Had to look up balut, must agree – ugh, just no.
Esther says
Lived in Norway for a year as a kid. My takeaway? When in doubt, eat the dish with fish/seafood in it and leave LOTS of room for the deserts! Two Norweigan exports that generally are found in even the smallest towns are smoked salmon and pickled herring. If you haven’t tasted both of those foods yet… track them down!
Logan M Teague says
Oh yeah, balut (just learned the name, but knew about the dish) is the great example of bizarre foreign food. I have heard some weird stories (try reading Gary Paulsen’s book Guts), but I think the weirdest was a guy from our church was traveling in the Asian Region [edited – Ilona] (can’t recall which country), walked into a store, and saw a tub full of live scorpions. Another guy walked in, gave the owner a coin, reached in the tub, pulled out a scorpion, and ate it like a shrimp-one bite, throw away the tail after. I can’t imagine that, still not sure it’s true.
Sunny says
When I saw kimchi kimbap I got a little tear in my eye. Comfort food all the way.
Selma says
There’s a Scandinavian fish dish to avoid – lutefisk. It starts with a dry salted codfish, a bucket, and lye. It is dreadful. Put it on the list with the balut.
Anne says
and smalahove (sheepshead) as well both are traditional Norwegian dishes.
prospero says
Tell Kid 2 to pan fry her steak in butter. She might like it. Keeps it most.
Arijo says
I grew up in a very rural place, right by the sea but where seafood was disdained by everyone, because no one knew how to cook it properly – think dry salted cod and the like. But my dad liked shrimps and mussels and scallops, and kept cooking it. At school, we were the weirdoes with Coquilles St-Jacques cooked in crabs’ heads, whose lunches “smelled” according to the other kids eating baloney sandwiches. I learned quickly that to be disdainful was a waste of opportunity, and that there was a lot of fun in trying everything. And to keep on trying. If I’d stopped at one or two taste, today I wouldn’t eat cantaloup, papaya of jackfruit (Mmmm, jackfruit. It’s such an addictive taste).
We’re a pretty cosmopolitan household cooking wise. My husband is Cambodian, and we love Italian, Korean, Japanese, Greek and Mexican food… I make a tzaziki sauce I have to stop myself from eating by the spoon, it’s so good. I also love Arabic and Indian food too, but I’m less knowledgable about it (I say “Arabic”, and “Indian”, bcs I don’t even know about regional differences), I haven’t managed yet to reproduce the good stuff we’ve had in restaurants (except for naan bread; that I’ve got down pat). The kids adore making sushis & spring rolls, rolling gnocchis & pizza dough and all and any dumpling, be it gyozas, pierogies or nom pao.
My mother in law makes the bestest duck soup ever, with a paste made of galanga, lemongrass, tamarind and a sort of cured fish she gets from Cambodia she uses to flavor the duck before she makes the broth. On the side, she crisps the skin, making duck chips while collecting the duck grease (which we next use to flavor our styr-fry). I’ve made the soup with her and written the recipe and everything, but I can’t make it a good as hers. She also makes rolls of stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves (soooo yummy! Especillay chopped up then grilled in the pan ’til the rice gets crusty) and pickled daikon I want to say, except apparently it’s not pickled, it’s laid to dry in the sun. However it’s made, it’s delish and we put it in our omelettes and sushis and our homemade ramen (…I’ve got to learn how to do this daikon thing too…)
Aaaaaaaah, so many good recipes to make, so little time. I’ve got too many hobbies! (>_<) When I've a free day, I'm always thorn between reading, cooking or quilting… I'm in a quilting phase right now, so cooking sometimes get the short cut. My husband was working last week end so I used the opportunity to make something he hates : Kraft Diner with chopped hot-dog sausages, a childhood classic… the kids couldn't get enough, I'm corrupting them, haha! (I think you can only like Kraft Diner if you ate it as a kid. Trying it for the first time as an adult seems to be a no-go from what I've seen.)
Bev says
Hate, hate, hate a thousand times hate chickpeas. I am now 70 and was brought up a vegetarian love my steak. Used to swallow chickpeas one at time until I couldn’t stand even doing that and went hungry. Love onions raw or fried. Love garlic. I can understand your aversion to onions even though I love them.
LucyQ says
I grew up in an immigrant Chinese family, both my parents were raised during the war and went hungry a lot as kids. So they raised us to eat everything that was put in front of us, no whining, no making faces, just be grateful there is food on the table. It made us more adventurous as eaters but also sometimes turned mealtimes into a chore (“must finish all these leftovers before they go bad!) instead of a pleasure.
Some funny consequences: until I left home, I never saw tea in a bag, nor had I seen mashed potatoes made from anything but flakes (my mom was an amazing cook but American food kind of stymied her) or eaten any cheese except Kraft Singles.
When I took my family to China about 8 years ago (Caucasian husband and two small kids), we had a rule: every day we learn a new Chinese word, try a new food, and write in our journals. I did well at the words and journals, but I had a hard time finding a new food, because I had eaten just about everything. Until we got to the hotpot restaurant where my dad ordered…congealed duck blood. I swear, it came in cubes just like Jello. Only blood. Duck blood. Yeah, I tried it but really, never again.
Maria OToole says
And now we know where Kate really gets her dislike of borscht!
Ellen D. says
Ordinarily I’ll try anything once. I come from a family of hunters always game handy in the freezer. Squirrel, rabbit, venison, alligator, snaping turtle, rattlesnake. Dating my husband introduced me to escargot, sea cucumber, shark. But I will definitely pass on the balut.
Sivi says
So the one thing I do miss about traveling some where new is trying a dish made in a country/region in that place. One thing that I’ve learnt over the years is that ingredients made locally can taste very different to the versions made in different countries. So learning that rather then saying I don’t like a while style of food, I’ve learnt to say I’ve not found a dish yet that I like in x/y/z style.
I never realised that the same food could be so different, not realising that sometimes due to different climates requiring different ingredients combinations to keep it stable.
Like chocolate in the USA (which I’m sorry isn’t for me) and chocolate in the UK which I love- but most Europeans might not class as proper chocolate as we use a different coco butter to coco fat ratio (I think).
Or because we don’t get the ingredients as easily so there might be substitutes.
Then there are the adaptions-
westernised or easternised version – f a dish, which is thought of as authentic and then shocks people when they visit the country of origin/inspiration and find out that its completely different.
I love baba ganoush too, I would like to try it in a place where its the part of the everyday food to see if it tastes different and figure out why.
So looking forward to being able to travel (even to different areas of the UK) and try local dishes and learning how to cook them properly.
During lockdown I’ve been experimenting with trying to nail a srilankan leak curry my mum used to make (I have no idea of leaks are even a grown in Sri Lanka, or if my mum substitutesd then in for another veg when she moved here).
I just about got it, but have kept experimenting with the ingredients to much to replicate the same flavour each time.
Then I found out that Glamorgan Sausages was a proper thing- and not just a frozen section food that Tescos used to have in their vegi section (and then discontinued boo). So I tried to make it with the leaks and cheese and ingredients I had at home. But as I didn’t want to fry it I ended up making an odd leak and cheese pie!
So if I want those authentic local flavours I need to be taught (in person is best for me) rather then relying on you tube or recipes as I go off book too much to get it authentic myself ????
Mary-Anne Goss says
Will not touch coffee in any shape or form, love my onions, and also love the other one that most people seem to hate, Vegemite. Have a fairly cast iron stomach, going to pass on that balun however.
Mary says
We recently had the best Korean food while in San Antonio. It was in the restaurant section of Korean Market, on 6210 Fairdale Drive. I had soondubu chiggae and my husband had the hot pot bibimbap. Seriously, it was as good as anything we had while living in Korea. We were the only migooks there, always a good sign.
My four adult kiddos went and had a mini-kid-reunion, where they covered the table in dishes. All were excellent, or so I am told:)
Anyway, since you enjoy Korean and are looking for a date place where you aren’t likely to be recognized, it might be in an option if you are in SA. Bonus as the Korean tea selection was decent. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any teas from Jeju, which are my favorite, but I also didn’t get to spend the time I wanted to spend in that aisle.
Sam says
O my god, you know what balut is! As a half-Filipino, that makes me so happy!
But I’ll let you into a secret. Balut is something us “born elsewhere” Filipinos like to make our Western family eat because culture/hertigage/respect me but we daren’t touch it ourselves ????????
Sam says
*heritage Ugh, blooming non-auto-correct
Nathalie says
Hi! Can someone help me, please? I’m looking for a book that Ilona recommended. The trama was about a woman, who was a killer and disguises heeself as a submissive type of girl to kill the ex husband of his best friend, who was killed recently. So, basically, she is looking for revenge in a very unorthodox way. I can’t, for my life, remember the name of rhat book. Help is needed here, please ????
Moderator R says
Hey Nathalie,
Here it is, Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone https://ilona-andrews.com/2018/jane-doe-by-victoria-helen-stone/ . Fascinating book, happy reading ????!
Nathalie says
Thanks!!!!????????????????????
Kristal says
I am good on the onions, but get the same reaction to any kind of boiled breakfast grains. I can eat rice but that is it, no porridge, grits, tapioca. If I try to choke it down it comes right back up. Can’t even watch my husband eat it *shudders*. Everything else is fair game though! We cook Chinese, Mexican, East Indian, Japanese, Greek, Italian, Southern US, German, Canadian, British… Foods I won’t try – haggis, blood pudding, yeah I have to add the boiled chicken fetuses to that list as well! My mom over cooked everything, so most of my cooking I learned after leaving home (I did learn not to be too much of a picky eater though). I love to bake as well. Covid has lead me to stop buying crappy bakery goods from the grocery store and going back to homemade, including making my own apple pie filling!
Teresa says
I tried Peruvian food last year. My new granddaughter is from Peru. It was wonderful. I could have ate and ate. Her family made a wide variety of food. Her father made a drink for before dinner. We had a wine from Peru with our meal. Excellent.
M. says
+1 on Peruvian cuisine. 8 years ago we took a motorcycle trip through South America and cuisine was great in the Andes.
We also had a few interesting dishes along the way : Cuy in Peru (Google it), Armadillo in Norther Amazon, Marinated tripe in Argentina.
I also learned to eat lamb and/or mutton in Bolivia where there wasn’t much of any other kind of meat.
I think all in all it made us more conscientious food consumers.
(The way agri-business has disconnected the Western society from food is truly toxic for our health and the environment. ) We’re trying to buy more locally now, growing our own vegetables in the summer (at 53.5461° N no less) and trying to adhere to nose-to-tail eating as much as we can (I would still not eat kidneys, though)
MariaZ says
What shocks me living so close to Washington DC is that lack of diverse food neighborhoods. A good German, or Polish deli would be highly appreciated. But you have to drive to Baltimore or Philadelphia to get authentic cultural food like that.
I was also amazed when I first moved here and with many of my co-workers from other parts of the country they were absolutely not adventurous in their food choices. Sushi, Mexican, Chinese, a big NO. A sub sandwich or hamburger, YES.
Faye says
I’m originally from Germany living in Ireland now since a couple of years. I don’t eat anything that has been growing/ living in water since I was a child. That’s just a simple “trauma” story. My mother used to work in Fish Store with live fish in a Basin when I was about 3 years old. It was in the eastern part of Berlin back than. So when I was been picked up from Kindergarten my Grandmother brought me to the Shop to my Mother and I had to wait until she finished her work day. I used the Time to play with some of the Fish in the front of the shop. yep, they were pretty much alive and I loved playing with them. I guess I just loved when they sucked at my little Fingers. As my Mother was ready to leave , of course I asked her if we can take one of them home as a pet. I’ll never forget her answer: “Yes, my dear. It will be our dinner today!”. Since that moment I severely detest everything that had been living in water. Every Fish and Sea fruit and whatever there might be.
But I honestly do love meat, the most vegetables and German Potato Dumplings. I could eat these Potato Dumplings just with tons of Gravy every day. Or steamed yeast dumplings with berry fruit sauce.
Anyway, I also won’t every try frogs, snails, dogs, bahlut and yes – no human for me too. Instead I tried pancakes with bacon as described in the Hidden Legacy Series. And of course, there can’t ever be a day in my Live that goes without cheese. If it is Esrom (Scandinavian cheese I think), Limburger (bavarian), Harzer (German), french camembert (my favorite is the one covered in breadcrumbs and baken) or cheddar.
I guess, now I need to go and get some food. Or cheese. Cheese is something that fits always.
Mary says
Funny story, I have a friend who bought balut eggs, left em on top of her fridge and forgot about them, then one day they hatched into chicks!
And that’s how she became a self-isolation-period bird mom LOL.
YT says
The first time I saw balut was in college when the boyfriend of one of my roommates was eating it. ???? it was weird and gelatinous looking too.????????
I had chicks and chickens for pets growing up, so it was especially horrifying.
About the queso, google nacho cheese recipe serious eats.
It’s super easy and adaptable. It’s just grated cheese, a tablespoon of flour, and evaporated milk.
We use it for nachos and macaroni and cheese.
Nifty says
I tend not to be adventurous with food. But a number of years ago, I was enfolded into a social circle that included a few Lebanese people. Both the man and the woman are good cooks, but the man is especially good. The first dinner party I attended, I had manners on and took a little of this, a little of that. Nowadays, I shovel it down and they have to roll me out the door (with my bag of leftovers!). My very favorite is kibbeh (a sort of spiced meat & pinenut mixture that’s enfolded into a “crust” made of bulgur wheat, shaped into a small football, and then fried) with hummus and tabbouleh (a salad consisting of very finely minced parsley, mint, green onion, tomato, with olive oil, lemon juice, and a little S&P). I think I could eat that every day of my life. (I prefer the fried kibbeh, but I’ve eaten the raw kibbeh version as well.)
Dorothy says
My son had International Heritage Day in fourth grade. Since most American kids’ families are from somewhere at some point, everyone had an origin story to share. Parents were invited to a buffet luncheon. We all brought food from the motherlands. I took brie, grapes, and baguette slices for my son, because his dad (I thought) was part French, but I later learned he is part French-Canadian. (Whoops.) The most delicious food I tried at the buffet was pelmani. There is a Russian community in Baltimore and they know where to buy frozen pelmani. I’m so happy you mentioned it in your post, I had forgotten the name and now I can try to find the grocery store to buy it.
Teresa says
I have a friend who cooks wonderful Iranian food. I love to eat anything she makes. She has introduced me to so many wonderful dishes.
Richard Cartwright says
Ilona, my late wife went to Moscow in 1978 as part of a college choir group. For American college students the food was generally horrendous, but the ice cream and chocolate was great. The thing that was probably the biggest culture shock was they were served liver and onions. For breakfast. Is that a Russian thing or what?
mz says
We’re Italian so we grew up with the food. However, when I say “Italian”, I mean northern Italian. I’m feeling better that everyone is starting to learn that “Italian” is not just one type of food: spaghetti with ,meat balls or pizza.
And living in Toronto, we are lucky that we have tons and tons of different food restaurants (which I am looking forward to once everyone had their vaccine and stuff starts opening up).
We started eating more different foods in University and it just exploded from there.
But I think that anyone like us, growing up non-English/ non-American has the best background for all kinds of food. We started out different and then just kept it up.
Anna Stanford says
Well, balut is an acquired taste for non-Filipinos, and even for some natives, so I can understand. My husband tried it twice and still didn’t like it. (I love it, and once joined a balut-eating contest in a local Filipino-American festival. I ate 6 in 3 minutes, but came nowhere near the winner.)
Your menus sound like what I grew up with – my mom cooked just about everything so we had a variety of international foods, though she did not cook much Japanese – that was reserved for eating out. But her borscht was a family favorite.
Priyamwada says
I want to learn how to bake. But I hardly have any references from my childhood for it. Indians don’t bake. So everything else on a burner is easy for me. I do the ‘ a pinch of this’ and ‘throw some of that in’ cooking pretty well, cause I saw my mum do that as a child. But baking seems soooo specific to me. I end up mostly wasting ingredients…
Solntse says
Ahhhh Gruene Door! I lived in New Braunfels and that was a favorite date night spot. I miss Texas. ????
EarlineM says
I love these posts! Growing up, my grandmother had emigrated from Lebanon, so holiday meals were the whole Lebanese feast, stuffed kibbi, grape leaf rolls, stuffed squash, baba ghanosh, some kind of rice with noodles in it, and flat bread. There was also turkey, dressing and french fries for one of my cousins who wouldn’t eat anything but french fries and ketchup.????
When I got married, I asked my new husband if there was anything he didn’t eat. He said “garlic”, so I said “You’ll starve. Anything else?” He said “nope”. But he grew up on a farm in east Texas, and meant beans, peas, tomatoes, boiled or fried squash, fried okra, and any kind of beef, pork or chicken. The first time he went to my Lebanese family holiday, he was in shock! Now he’s actually more adventurous than I am, and has eaten fish eyeballs on a business trip when we lived in Singapore.
Tamera says
That is really interesting about Gordon being an exchange student to Japan. I was one in high school too. We may have actually been there around the same time. I spent a year in Takayama and someday hope to take the family for a vacation there. My oldest daughter was an exchange student too. She went to Czech and loved it. Once she finishes her bachelors degree she is planning to go back to live and work there.
XYZ says
Chicken fingers recipe please please please! ????
Christine says
I hate sweet tea (I’m a heathen like that) but my sweet tea fried chicken is amazing: you marinate the chicken in a buttermilk-sweet tea bath for two days, coat it in flour and pepper, and fry it in a cast iron skillet.
…now I’m hungry too.
Lea says
I have to say that I am seriously ….? I can’t express it. With all the wonderful food descriptions that you have given, especially in the “InnKeeper” series, I assumed that you were a gourmet chef in your not-writing times. Now I don’t know whether to impressed that you took normal (like me) cooking to such glorious, glowing imagery with mere words, or maybe I am disappointed that I can”t imagine you practicing gourmet magic before giving us delicious descriptions of your kitchen successes that make us drool as we read. Not really. We all know that you two are gifted in the word smithing.
Amy Clouser says
Yeah, balut is not an acquired taste! It’s also not good to eat it with your younger Filipino cousins nearby as they will scream saying it’s moving just as you eat it.
Layla says
I had a Ukrainian friend years ago, and I was surprised the amount of cross over with Persian dishes. The posted picture looks looks like Kotlet, a Persian dish. My grandmother lived near the Russian border of Iran so there’s that too.
My kitchen is very international. I made borsht (sorry) last week, I made an Indian curry recently, and I am making Thai fish cakes this week (with shrimp though), and I make Persian food (I am Persian) and Italian (my husband is Italian, and just about any other nationality that catches my attention.
If there is one dish I will not try it is Hákarl which is an Icelandic fermented shark dish.
Katherine Nobles says
My Russian teachers at DLI taught us to make piroshki, stuffed with sausage or with mushrooms, as well as both green and beet borsch. One teacher, who had lived through starving times, talked about making soup with anything green that came up in the spring, but she was particularly fond of fresh dill.