Tag Archives: food history

February 26, 2018

County Fairground Soup: Ken Albala shares his recipe

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County Fairground Soup I love when serendipity, season, and whim dictate the contents of a recipe. A cooking demo for a farm-to-table event and whatever happened to be available at the vegetable stands one hot day in July prompted this … Continue reading →

February 21, 2018

Duck Soup Noodles: Ken Albala shares his recipe

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Penang, Malaysia: Duck Soup Noodles This state’s major city, Georgetown, was founded by the British in 1786 as a trading center. Consequently, it attracted influences from not only throughout the Pacific but India and the rest of the world as … Continue reading →

February 14, 2018

Pulled noodles: a how-to with Ken Albala

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The noodle, properly pulled, can take a soup from “good” to “that meal your friends talk about ten years later.” Called “the ultimate noodle” by Ken Albala, and he would know, the pulled noodle inspires artistry even before the cooking … Continue reading →

February 7, 2018

Shirataki, the strangest noodle: Ken Albala shares his recipe

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This is the strangest noodle I have ever made, and doing it from scratch is more like an alchemical experiment than an exercise in cooking. Among everything in this book, this is one recipe where the procedure and measurements really … Continue reading →

January 24, 2018

Homemade rice noodles: a how-to with Ken Albala

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The perfect rice noodle… it is El Dorado and the City of Z, and those questing for it wonder, “Will my journey ever end?” Let Ken Albala be your great and powerful Oz—a real one, not a fake twisting the dials on … Continue reading →

January 22, 2018

Making noodle soup: a how-to with Ken Albala

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If you live in the hemisphere currently undergoing winter, you know that few foods offer the sanctuary of satisfaction to be found in a bowl of great noodle soup. Ken Albala wants to get you out of packets, cans, and … Continue reading →

November 3, 2017

200 Years of Illinois: The half-eaten bison sandwich of Richard M. Nixon

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September 22 is an auspicious date in Illinois history. As this post recounts, boxing history took place on the date. Willie Nelson took time out from his 1985 to team with John Mellencamp and Neil Young on the first Farm Aid … Continue reading →

August 18, 2017

Let’s observe National Soft-Serve Ice Cream Day one day early

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There’s nothing more American than soft-serve ice cream. It provides the dairy and sweetness we crave in an attractive shape atop a sugary cone that encourages mobility. And we dispense the tasty snack via a machine that smashes it with compressed … Continue reading →

July 19, 2017

Happy National Hot Dog Day!

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It’s one of the happiest days of the faux-holiday calendar, a day when you can splurge on a couple of delicious frankfurters loaded up with all your favorite toppings. The hot dog, perhaps our most all-American sausage product, is both … Continue reading →

June 3, 2016

200 Years of Illinois: The most dangerous root

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Horseradish sparks opinions as strong as its taste. Most people, truth to tell, want nothing to do with the root in its fiery, ground-up form. Their relationship to horseradish rests mainly on acting horrified when Uncle Frank dashes some onto his roast … Continue reading →