Follow me on social media for daily notable Philadelphia Asian grocery and restaurant food finds:
-
Recent Posts
- Delicious grains: sorghum in Central Asia
- Isaan-style papaya salads
- Replicating a Uyghur tonur baking experience in an American oven
- This year’s new Asian markets and closed markets that will be missed
- Breakfast tsuivan submerged in hot milk tea
- The East Falls Farmers’ Market
- Delicious grains: millets of China, Mongolia, and Central Asia
- Central Asia-focused market in NE Philadelphia
- Fragrant and crispy peppers, for snacking on
- Dough covered meals of the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Mongols
- Gundruk: an essential food staple and flavor in Nepali cooking
Categories
- – Featured Food Discoveries (105)
- – Featured Markets (30)
- – Guides (9)
- – Recipes (52)
- – Unique food traditions (8)
- Cambodian food (10)
- Central Asia/Uyghur food (22)
- Chinese food (38)
- Indian food (5)
- Japanese food (2)
- Korean food (4)
- Malay/Indonesian food (8)
- Mongolian food (7)
- Myanmar/Burmese food (6)
- Nepali food (5)
- Non-Asian (2)
- Thai/Lao food (44)
- Turkish food (4)
- Vietnamese food (2)
Archives
- November 2025 (1)
- June 2025 (1)
- March 2023 (1)
- January 2021 (1)
- October 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (1)
- October 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (1)
- February 2019 (1)
- November 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (1)
- June 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (1)
- September 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (2)
- July 2017 (2)
- June 2017 (1)
- May 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (1)
- January 2017 (1)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (1)
- September 2016 (1)
- August 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (2)
- February 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (1)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (6)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- April 2015 (3)
- March 2015 (4)
- February 2015 (6)
- January 2015 (3)
- December 2014 (6)
- November 2014 (4)
- October 2014 (6)
- September 2014 (5)
- August 2014 (7)
- July 2014 (19)
Meta
-
Join 606 other subscribers
Blogroll
Author Archives: David Dettmann
Delicious grains: sorghum in Central Asia
Sorghum is a hearty (and delicious!) cereal crop that originated in northeastern Africa some 5-6000 years ago. Already in ancient times it was propagated across Persia and India, and by the time of the Mongol Empire it had become an … Continue reading
Isaan-style papaya salads
Last night La and I presented to a lovely group of people at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Culinary Literacy Center. For those of you who don’t know, the FLP has a teaching kitchen up on the 4th floor of … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, - Recipes, Thai/Lao food
Tagged - Recipes, ตำบักหุ่ง, ส้มตำ, ຕຳໝາກຫຸ່ງ, 青木瓜, food, салат из папайи, papaya, recipe, som tam, Thailand, travel, 沙拉
1 Comment
Replicating a Uyghur tonur baking experience in an American oven
As you may know, over the past many years I have been experimenting with baking techniques that replicate the traditional Uyghur tonur oven. Those experiments tended to include the use of a broiler, and/or a super hot and dense cooking … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Unique food traditions, Central Asia/Uyghur food
Tagged baking, bread, diy, hack, naan, tandoor, Uyghur, Xinjiang, yum
4 Comments
This year’s new Asian markets and closed markets that will be missed
From the end of 2019 through to 2020 several Asian markets closed in Philly, but we also gained just as many new markets. Here is a roundup: Continue reading
Breakfast tsuivan submerged in hot milk tea
“Smells like Mongolian spirit, man!” This is my favorite line from Nargie’s Mongolian Cuisine‘s tsuivan episode (see link below). I now realize this was most likely a reference to Nirvana’s hit single as Nargie is clearly a big fan, but … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, Mongolian food
Tagged 炒饼, milkytea, Mongolian, noodle
Leave a comment
The East Falls Farmers’ Market
Since the lock down, the East Falls Farmers’ Market (4100 Ridge Ave) has become my primary source for fresh produce, fruit, meats, yogurt, cheese, wine, beer, etc. My wife and I still cook primarily Thai and East Asia inspired foods on a daily basis, but we have largely adapted to what is available at the market. Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets
Tagged cooking, east falls, farmers market, lock down, pandemic, quarantine
2 Comments
Delicious grains: millets of China, Mongolia, and Central Asia
The millets of China, Mongolia, and Central Asia are hearty crops that can be sustained in very arid climates. For tens of thousands of years they have served as important staple crops for many of those region’s food cultures (especially … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, Central Asia/Uyghur food, Chinese food, Mongolian food
Tagged ᠰᠢᠷᠠ ᠪᠤᠳᠠᠭᠠ, 粟米, 谷米, 黄米, 黍, foxtail, millet, хоног будаа, шар будааа, 小米, سۆك, سۆك ئېشى
4 Comments
Central Asia-focused market in NE Philadelphia
I was thrilled to learn about a new market that opened up in NE Philly this past year–a market that caters to Central Asian tastes! It is called Vatan Market and it is located at 11726A Bustleton Ave, just across … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets
Tagged Central Asia, guraob, obgura, tajik, Uzbek, آبغوره
Leave a comment
Fragrant and crispy peppers, for snacking on
In recent years an interesting snack seems to be trending all around China: fried “fragrant and crispy” peppers (香脆椒, aka 香辣酥), sometimes translated into English as “fried chile crisp”, or “magic chili”. I don’t recall seeing these in the 90s … Continue reading
Posted in Chinese food, Thai/Lao food
Tagged พริกเบรคแตก, chile, chili, Chinese food, drinking food, 香脆辣椒, 香脆椒, 香辣酥, fried, Sichuan, snack, Szechuan, trendy
6 Comments
Dough covered meals of the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Mongols
Greetings after a long hiatus! Even though I haven’t been reporting here as much as I’d have liked, since my last post I have been continuing on my journey through culinary traditions on the frontiers of Turkic, Mongolian, and Tibetan … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, Central Asia/Uyghur food, Chinese food, Mongolian food
Tagged 焖饼, Монгол, битүү шөл, жаппа, жимбий, jappa, kazakh, lasagne, қазақ, Uyghur, ياپمىسى, ياپما, yapma, yapmisi, جاپپا
6 Comments
Asian Markets of Philadelphia 