cuisine

From street-food to fine dining, traditional Italian to Asian-Fusion, being well-versed in global cuisine is the first step to culinary mastery.

England's 'nose-twisting' superfood salad
It was a sunny July day and I felt as though I was standing in a 19th-Century film set. The whistle of the steam train sounded as I waited on the perfectly preserved Victorian platform at Alresford station in Hampshire. The pale yellow and green station palette, barley twist lamp posts and original signage was virtually the same scene as 100 years ago, and colourful blooms amplified the serene setting. The historical hissing sound marked the beginning of my journey back in time to when the county's famed watercress began to spread nationwide.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Chhurpi: The world's hardest cheese?
Enveloped in a thick veil of grey mist, Nepal's remote Himalayan village of Parvathy Kund was nearly deserted. One of the few people in sight was an old woman sitting in the doorway of a wooden house, who flashed a welcoming, toothless smile at my friend and I. "Would you like to eat some chhurpi?" my friend asked the woman, having just bought a few kilograms of the local cheese from a factory opposite her home.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Slippurinn: The restaurant reinventing Icelandic cuisine
Much of what chef Gísli Matthías Auðunsson serves at his restaurant, Slippurinn, comes from outside his door. Only instead of a backyard garden with haricots vert and artichokes, there are meandering hills that look like green dragons dusted in fairytale-pink arctic thyme; cliffs perched dramatically over untamed fields of lemony sorrel; beaches dotted with briny oyster leaf and deep craters full of yellow-topped pineapple weed growing in volcanic soil as black as night. These, plus dozens of other wild-harvested ingredients like yarrow, sea beans, spruce and rowanberries, are pureed, dried, pickled and fermented in Auðunsson's kitchen apothecary.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
The UK village that lost its cheese
Stilton, Cheshire, red Leicester. There are more than 700 cheeses produced in the UK, but in parts of the English-speaking world, a certain type is so ubiquitous that it's simply referred to as "cheese".
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Bokit: The fried food that defines an island
In the sun-scorched streets of Pointe-a Pitre, Guadeloupe, buzzy energy bubbled up from the narrow lanes and the scent of spices and frying dough mingled with the sea breeze. The first time I arrived on the archipelago, I was struck by the chaotic mix of old world and new: crayon-coloured 18th-Century buildings next to storefront mannequins dressed in patterned leggings and tanks; a graffiti artist spray painting a crumbling 19th-Century warehouse.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Bsissa: North Africa's ancient convenience food
Along the curving bay of Tunisia's southern Gulf of Hammamet is the pretty village of Lamta, marked by its ornate blue and white doorways, eclectic architecture and shops selling bsissa, a nutritious food that has been loved and eaten by Tunisians and Libyans for millennia.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
The hidden legacy of the Seychelles' island cuisine
In a steep valley high on the eastern slopes of the Seychelles island of Mahé, the spice garden of Le Jardin du Roi tells a story of unimaginable variety. Anchored by a graceful 19th-Century home of white wood, soaring ceilings and big windows designed to catch a cooling mountain breeze, Le Jardin du Roi is a window on so much that is good about traditional Seychelles Creole cooking.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Is America's best restaurant in Puerto Rico?
In the wee hours of a debauched night at La Factoría, the world-renowned bar in the Old San Juan neighbourhood of the Puerto Rican capital, one of its owners, Leslie Cofresi, swung his arm around my neck in a half-hug, half-headlock. "Tomorrow," he said, "I will take you to real Puerto Rico. Be ready."
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Spain's 'white gold' super-drink
Stretching across the drying room in a vast, rippled expanse, the tiger nuts seemed almost like desert dunes. I'd come to Valencia towards the end of their harvesting and found the sight of this immense volume – hundreds upon thousands, perhaps even millions – impressive. Singling one out, however, I was surprised to discover a small, wrinkled form that looked distinctly less inspiring. Where tiger nuts are concerned, it turns out, appearances really are deceiving.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Italy's rare, surprisingly bitter honey
Corbezzolo honey tricks the palate. Instead of the sweetness one would expect, this extremely rare honey, born in the mountains of the Italian island of Sardinia, is surprisingly bitter, with notes of leather, liquorice and smoke. Nomadic beekeepers have been setting up beehives in the region to collect this aromatic treat – derived from the white, bell-shaped flowers of the wild strawberry tree – for more than 2,000 years.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Hong Kong's 'greasy spoon' cafes
With a fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic washing over Hong Kong, all restaurants in the city have been ordered to pull down their shutters by 18:00. Daytime business in the city's cha chaan tengs has mostly remained brisk, however. The quirky, no-nonsense cafes have long served up affordable staples to busy people needing to get in, chow down and get out in a hurry.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Japan's humble birthplace of soy sauce
Carefully climbing the steep stairs, I followed Tsunenori Kano into the loft of the fermentation room of his family's 180-year-old soy sauce brewery, Kadocho. The dark space was eerily silent except for the creaking of my steps on the old wooden boards laid between the vats of soy sauce. The soy sauce was now dormant, it being late winter, but it still filled the air with a savoury aroma. Around me, a thick, fungus-laden crust covered the ceiling, hung from the beams and grew up the walls.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast