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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
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Author Archives: David Dettmann
Lamian (pulled noodles) in University City
Life is starting to get easy. A new place opened up next to the Wawa on 36th and Chestnut in University City that does a decent pulled noodle (lamian 拉面–see here for my more detailed entry about this noodle dish). … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, Chinese food
Tagged hand drawn noodles, lamian, 拉面
4 Comments
Turkish hot pepper paste and cracked wheat salad
Today I’ll share a recipe for one of my favorite Turkish dishes. It is a fine cracked wheat (a.k.a bulgur or burghul) salad. In Turkish the salad is called kısır. This is a very nice thing to eat on hot days, … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Turkish food
Tagged biber salçası, bulgur salad, cracked wheat, kısır, pepper paste, Turkish Markets
2 Comments
7th Street’s Friendly Market
A few days ago I gave a rough breakdown on the many markets on 7th Street. I didn’t mean to leave out an important highlight on South 7th: the Friendly Market, a market with truly unusual food products. The sign … Continue reading
Guilin rice noodles, part two
Now that the hard part is done with the preparation of the master stock, or lushui 卤水 (described yesterday), putting together a delicious bowl of Guilin rice noodles, or Guilin mifen 桂林米粉, is relatively straightforward. If you want to make … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Chinese food
Tagged กุ้ยหลิน, เส้นหมี่, Chinese Markets, guilin, mifen, noodles, 桂林米粉
5 Comments
Master stock for Guilin rice noodles
Guilin rice noodles, or guilin mifen 桂林米粉, is a delicious lunch or anytime snack that is popular not only in Guilin, but in large cities all around China. There used to be a place right near my old school in … Continue reading
Posted in - Recipes, Chinese food
Tagged กุ้ยหลิน, เส้นหมี่, Chinese Markets, lushui, noodles, stock, 卤水, 桂林米粉
15 Comments
Tom yum plaa, Thai hot and sour fish soup
Coming home with a nice looking bunch of sawtooth coriander and Thai basil bai horapa ใบโหระพา (not to be confused with holy basil), I decided to cook a pot of tom yum plaa. Tom yum is pretty common on Thai menus in … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Thai/Lao food
Tagged Cambodian Markets, sawtooth coriander, Thai basil
3 Comments
Markets of South Philly’s 7th Street
Among Philadelphia’s many hidden charms are its neighborhoods. Some of those neighborhoods can transport you to other lands, complete with markets, restaurants, religious temples, and even street food–from sources that are commonplace in other countries. Though long gone for France, … Continue reading
Uyghur flatbreads, meat pies, and the tonur oven
I love looking at recipes and cookbooks–especially the kind that explain the unusual elements you are trying to replicate. There are some gems out there for US cookbooks nowadays, with authors that do go through great lengths to explain culture … Continue reading
Posted in - Unique food traditions, Central Asia/Uyghur food
Tagged breads, meat pies, nan, samsa, tandoor, Uyghur, نان, Xinjiang, تونۇر, سامسا
9 Comments
Tofu threads, a nice cold side dish
Back in 2010 I enjoyed a northeastern-style buckwheat noodle restaurant in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia. On the table were several cold plate dishes to eat together with the noodles, among them was a small dish of tofu threads or tofu “silk”. … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Chinese food
Tagged Chinese Markets, cold dish, 豆腐丝, tofu, 凉拌
1 Comment
Holy basil, my long lost love
Finding holy basil in the states is often pretty hit-or-miss. In Wisconsin we could occasionally find this herb in local Vietnamese, Hmong, or Thai markets in the summertime. These days in Philadelphia, I am seeing it around at Cambodian markets … Continue reading
Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Thai/Lao food
Tagged ใบกะเพรา, basil, herbs, Thai
11 Comments
Asian Markets of Philadelphia 