Category Archives: – Featured Food Discoveries

Yanang leaves and Lao bamboo soup

Posted on April 25, 2015 by David Dettmann

Last year I mentioned an impressive blog and cookbook that I came across, Food from Northern Laos: The Boat Landing Cookbook, by Dorothy Culloty. The book itself is by far the most detailed introduction to Lao food that I am … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, - Recipes, Thai/Lao food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Cha plu leaves and a simple Thai chicken and mushroom curry

Posted on April 15, 2015 by David Dettmann

Cha plu leaves are another ingredient we are lucky to have available to us at Southeast Asian markets of North and South Philadelphia. It is a mild flavored leaf that is well-suited for making wraps, as it is generally enjoyed … Continue reading →

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Uyghur meat pies cooked under the broiler

Posted on March 8, 2015 by David Dettmann

This weekend I made an exciting discovery. I found that I can use my gas oven’s broiler to replicate tonur-style Uyghur meat pies (a.k.a. samsa سامسا). Uyghur samsa are delicious. The filling is simply fatty mutton, finely-chopped onions, salt, cumin, … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Central Asia/Uyghur food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Four unique Asian dried chile peppers

Posted on March 5, 2015 by David Dettmann

Chile peppers have only been in Asia for several hundred years now, but they have gone a long, long way to become standard and staple ingredients in many of Asia’s great food cultures. Southeast Asia is of course full of … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, - Recipes, Chinese food, Indian food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Heng Fa Food Market in Chinatown

Posted on March 1, 2015 by David Dettmann

If you haven’t been to Chinatown in a few weeks, Heng Fa market has opened at a new location. This is the market that had purple signs “King Market” that was previously split across 10th St. just north of this … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, Chinese food | 12 Comments

Nepal-style black lentil soup

Posted on February 28, 2015 by David Dettmann

In my previous home town of Madison, Wisconsin, we had a surprising number of Nepali restaurants per capita. That isn’t to say I understand “authentic” Nepali food better than anyone else, but at least there was some exposure to uniquely … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, - Recipes, Nepali food | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Uyghur home-style pulled noodles

Posted on February 15, 2015 by David Dettmann

For those of you who have experienced them, Uyghur pulled noodles–known as läghmän لەغمەن or längmän لەڭمەن in Uyghur and banmian 拌面 or latiaozi 拉条子 in Mandarin Chinese–are surely a special treat. Expats in China talk about this dish as … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Central Asia/Uyghur food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Sticky rice, a food staple and a key ingredient in Lao-Thai cooking

Posted on February 7, 2015 by David Dettmann

“Sticky rice? I love sticky rice… I mean, how else can you eat rice with chopsticks?” I often get this kind of response when I bring up eating “sticky rice”. I quickly see that the person I’m talking to is … Continue reading →

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Spiced and pounded beef salad

Posted on February 1, 2015 by David Dettmann

Recently I was inspired with a “Kachin pounded beef with herbs” recipe that I found in Naomi Duguid’s giant 2012 cookbook Burma: Rivers of Flavor. The dish was kind of unusual in that beef was boiled, then fried, and then … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Myanmar/Burmese food | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

More khrok fun: fermented fish and a spicy Isaan dip

Posted on January 20, 2015 by David Dettmann

My adventures with my granite mortar and pestle (Thai: khrok ครก) continue with a spiced fermented fish dip common in Northeastern Thailand: jaew bong แจ่วบอง Funky-smelling fermented fishes have already made appearances in previous blog posts focused on Cambodian flavors: … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Thai/Lao food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments