The Best Thing I Ate Last Week By Andrew Zimmern Home to a vibrant Vietnamese community, the Twin Cities are a pho-lover’s paradise. Located on Eat Street, family owned-and-operated Quang Restaurant serves some of the best traditional Vietnamese food in America. And their dining room is always packed with loyal patrons. The barbecued pork broken rice salads are great… Read More →
Central Asian Comfort Food in Chicago You’ve probably heard me say that you can understand the history of a country and its people by looking at its food. No where is this more true than the countries of Central Asia, where the Silk Road impacted all parts of culture. Dive into the meat-centric culinary traditions of… Read More →
Shengjian Bao with a Cult Following Eating your way through the world’s most populous city is one of life’s greatest pleasures. As Shanghai’s landscape becomes more international, many traditional places have disappeared, but thankfully Da Hu Chun has stood the test of time. Open along the river since the 1930s, this restaurant is known for shengjian… Read More →
Surf & Turf at the Cultivate Festival For my demo at this year’s Cultivate Festival in Kansas City, I’m cooking what I call street food surf and turf, a winning combination of crispy garlic short ribs and char-grilled chili shrimp. Invite friends over for some cocktails and a snack…serve this street food surf and turf along with… Read More →
Dashi-Braised Chicken Thighs By Jennifer McGruther From time to time, my family sits down to a dinner of these chicken thighs, slowly braised in dashi, sprinkled with green onions and sesame seeds and served with bowls of steamed rice and vegetables. Chicken thighs benefit from the long, slow process of braising that cooks them to a… Read More →
Tips & Tricks for Tastier Vegetables Working with vegetables seems easy. It’s not. What it is, though, is simple. Keep a few things in mind and dishes like my vegetable barigoule become easier and tastier. • • • Add layers of flavors and texture when cooking vegetables. Peas are delicious. Why not smear a large bowl… Read More →
Shrimp Curry with Cauliflower By Floyd Cardoz When I was growing up in Bombay, this was a very common lunch dish at our house. Once Barkha and I had kids and I began to serve it in our own home, I quickly realized why it’s such a great family meal. Adults appreciate the excellent taste… Read More →
Appetizers for a New Year’s Eve Bash Skip the pricey pre-fixe menus and over-crowded bars, and host your own New Year’s Eve soiree. There’s no better way to ring in the new year than a spread of finger foods and a house full of friends and family. Here are a few of my favorite hor d’oeuvres, from… Read More →
Squash Risotto with Bacon and Leeks By Andrew Zimmern Creamy, comforting and oh-so satisfying, I love this butternut squash risotto. It’s also an easy way to feed a crowd. For a twist, try adding fresh steamed clams and their juices in place of half the stock.
Chinese Lamb Chops By Andrew Zimmern Here I’ve combined two of my favorites—Chinese food and lamb—in one easy recipe. And who doesn’t love lamb racks cut into easy-to-eat mini caveman chops?
Here’s a backstage look at last week’s Cooking Light magazine photo shoot on Lake Minnetonka. The theme was a Fourth of July barbecue potluck with my Twin Cities chef friends. That’s right, we did the shoot nearly a year in advance! Thanks to Erik Anderson, Doug Flicker, Tracy Singleton, Mike DeCamp, Jamie Malone and Steven Brown… Read More →
Chef Accarrino Shares San Francisco Favorites After graduating from the CIA in New York and working for top tier chefs around the country (including Thomas Keller at Per Se and Tom Colicchio at Craft Los Angeles), chef Matthew Accarrino moved to San Francisco in 2009 to take over the SPQR kitchen. At the intimate Fillmore neighborhood restaurant, Accarrino takes traditional,… Read More →
Devour Dubai Dubai is the wealthiest and most populous of the seven United Arab Emirates. In just two short decades, it’s grown into a modern metropolis with man-made islands, shopping centers with indoor ski slopes and the world’s tallest skyscraper. But scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find a vibrant melting pot of immigrants, merging… Read More →
Modern Take on the Classic Oyster Bar This is an amazing raw bar that serves a couple dozen varieties of fresh oysters and shellfish with innovative accoutrements like pickled ginger or kimchi ice. Dishes like the house-cured herring with beet ice amiably remind you that the kitchen is jamming on all cylinders and knows what it’s doing.… Read More →
Where to Eat & Drink in Portland Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley are the chef-owner duo behind Portland’s Eventide Oyster Co., Hugo’s and the brand new, noodle-focused The Honey Paw. A modern take on the classic American oyster bar, I love Eventide for their amazing raw selection, inventive Asian-influenced lobster rolls served in steamed buns… Read More →
Five Great Meals in Milan By Devan Grimsrud Host of the 2015 World’s Fair, Milan is expected to draw a staggering 20 million visitors this summer. The 1 million square meter exhibition area features architecturally stunning pavilions built by participating countries, all exploring the overarching theme of Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. Learn about the… Read More →
Taipei’s Best Xiao Long Bao The Shanghai-style soup dumplings, or xiao long bao, at Din Tai Fung have a cult following like no other. A refugee of China’s civil war, Yang Bing-yi opened the original location on Taipei’s east side in the 70s. A couple decades later, the New York Times named the dumpling house as… Read More →
Minnesota Restaurants Supporting Local Farms I love all four seasons, but there are few greater things in life than the first days of a Minnesota spring. We love celebrating another winter survived, and if you’re anything like me, food plays a huge role. I can’t wait until restaurants unveil their spring menus, teeming with fresh… Read More →
In the Valley By Bob & Sue With “food churches” Meadowood and The French Laundry temporarily closed, we enjoyed comfort food at many of Napa’s popular restaurants: Cindy Pawlcyn’s Mustards Grill (Yountville) and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen (St. Helena) define modern California cuisine in fun environments with wonderful soups, a wide variety of appetizers, and innovative tweaks to the… Read More →
Silky Ma Po Eggplant By Andrew Zimmern This is one of my favorite dishes, made easy for the home cook. If you like a bolder, funkier flavor just add a little more toban djan (chile bean sauce). This superb all-in-one meal is a great way to use a small amount of meat to accent a… Read More →
My Best Seafood Recipes Because I’m on the road two-thirds of the year, I love any excuse to plan a romantic evening at home with my wife. The formula for my ideal date night? It’s simple… gorgeous flowers, a homemade meal and a good food movie. So to give you a little inspiration, I’ve compiled my best,… Read More →
Da Poke Shack If I could only eat one thing while visiting Hawaii, it’d have to be poke. A Hawaiian word meaning cut or slice, poke is a raw seafood salad typically made with fresh Ahi tuna. It’s refreshing, luxurious, and so simple. The best part? You don’t have to shell out the big bucks… Read More →
Chicken with Black Limes By Andrew Zimmern I got hooked on salted dried limes in India and then fell in love when I ate them in Syria. Often referred to as loomi or lumi, these limes are crucial to the authentic cooking of the Middle East and northern India. The flavor of these limes is intense. They’re… Read More →
Where to Eat in Mexico City When I first started traveling, Mexico City’s fine dining scene was peppered with Mexican chefs cooking other countries’ food, like Italian or French cuisine. That’s no longer the case. These days the best Mexican food is once again being cooked for Mexicans, by Mexicans. Here are five restaurants you… Read More →
12 Winter Squash Varieties These days, hard squash are all I am thinking about. Harvested in the fall, these gourds will last throughout the cold winter months, hence the name winter squash. Beyond the popular sugar pumpkins, acorn and butternut squashes you’re probably familiar with, varieties come in a staggering diversity of sizes, shapes and… Read More →
Globally Hot Chicken Music City Food + Wine Festival is one of the best food festivals in the country. It’s small and intimate, there’s great food and demos, and needless to say, amazing music. Here are the recipes from my Globally Hot Chicken demonstration at this year’s Music City Food + Wine Festival: Duck Tsukune… Read More →
Japanese Meatballs By Andrew Zimmern Tsukune are Japanese chicken meatballs that are cooked on a griddle, teppanyaki-style. The moment I tried making them with duck, I was hooked. Since my favorite thing about duck is often the crispy skin, I found a way to use the duck cracklings as a garnish to provide roasted flavor and needed… Read More →
Eat Clean. Live Loud. Melissa Joulwan is a badass. A retired Texas Rollergirl, Mel J has a serious thing for friendly competition, the band Social Disortion and cooking up a storm. In 2008, she launched her blog, Clothes Make the Girl, which kinda started out as a lifestyle/style site and eventually became one of the… Read More →
Sin City Recommendations Las Vegas is wholly intoxicating, a city dedicated to sensory overload that’s all about being the biggest and the best. And while chefs from all over the country are generating a lot of great food in glamorous settings on the Strip, you won’t be sorry if you venture off the main drag… Read More →
Madtown Recommendations By Molly Mogren Wisconsin’s capital city is also its biggest college town. While Badgers are known to party hard, this hippy-dippy town also offers up amazing ethnic restaurants, classic German bars and locally-driven fine dining. Without further ado… The Classics Tornado Steak House An old-school steak house serving up classic cuts (T-bones, ribeyes… Read More →
