Sunday afternoon I traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet up with my summer research students. They are presenting a poster at the American Chemical Society’s Fall Meeting, covering their fifteen months of undergraduate research efforts at their school, Texas Lutheran University. I get to go along and snicker make snide comments assist in my own [...] Read more »

Fashion Foods Instant Noodle Varieties
Pho Bo is Vietnamese in origin. So when I saw the brightly colored bowl of noodles on the shop shelf and it said Beef (Pho) Flavour Instant Noodles on the side, I pretty much expected it had been manufactured in Vietnam.
Silly me. This stuff came from Thailand!
Fashion Food Co., Ltd., is [...] Read more »

The man, er, robot in the picture above has every reason to be afraid. You should be afraid too! Yes, the previously human-only realm of chef-prepared goodness is being taken over. By robots…
And not just any ol’ robots either. High-tech, modern robots. From (of course) Japan. They just couldn’t leave well enough alone, apparently.

I [...] Read more »

Photo from “Cooking Up a Storm”
Ken Hom is one of the most prolific cookbook writers you never heard of (I bet). He’s been pumping out books on Chinese, Thai and other Asian cuisines for more than 25 years now, and he’s been featured on television cooking shows.
He even did “East Meets West” style cooking and [...] Read more »

This is the last Fish 4 Friday before Turkey Day hits us in the beltline. With cold weather now affecting most of us (in North America, at least), I decided to take us back to the Tropics with a healthful, spicy dish that also fills our craving for soup:

Tom Yam Soup Your Way

This is a [...] Read more »

Courtesy Food Network Magazine, November/December, 2008
If you enjoy spicy fish dishes, you should run right out and get the ingredients for this dish! The new Food Network Magazine presents this recipe as one of several seafood items, and it’s truly delicious! And good for you too.
My attempt to improve on this scrumptious dish:

Red Curry Mahi [...] Read more »

When the weather cools down I get out my soup recipes. And my stews and chilis too, but I always like to start with something simple, not too hearty (it’s only in the 70’s after all, not that cool yet!), and with “adjustable zing.”
Thai-style chicken soup is just the thing, I think.
Of course there are [...] Read more »

Welcome to the inaugural review for the Chile Underground’s new feature, the Book of the Month! We know you’ll find it to be ‘da BOM.’
The (first) featured book is a cookbook, “The Spice Merchant’s Daughter” by Christina Arokiasamy. Ms. Arokiasamy is originally from Malaysia, and from a family of spice merchants. Her great-great-granddaddy was a [...] Read more »