Montreal bagels
The City Works Depot is Auckland’s newest nook of regeneration, a municipal hangar on Wellesley Street West given over to casually artisan eating and drinking. Chef Al Brown has taken a chunk of the site for a Montreal-style bagel bakery called Best Ugly. The distinctive…
Jerk chicken
Jerk chicken, famous for its heat, spice and smoke, has a story going back to the escaped slaves of Jamaica. In recent history it’s played a delicious part in sharing Jamaican culture with the world, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States where…
Bircher muesli
Bircher Muesli is generally known as a Swiss breakfast dish made up of oats that have been soaked overnight in milk or fruit juice and combined with fruit and nuts. The man it’s named after, Dr. Maximilian Bircher-Benner, ran a sanatorium –…
Chinese food, Indian-style
Just before I visited India in 2007 I came across this article in the Guardian – what do people in India eat when they want a change from their indigenous cuisine? The answer was Chinese, sometimes known as ‘Chindian’ – the most popular ‘ethnic’ food…
Bean-to-bar chocolate
A wind-powered schooner glides into New York harbour transporting Dominican Republic cacao beans to a small chocolate company in NYC’s too-hip Williamsburg. It’s an alluring image that along with the company’s singular ethical vision, the exquisite chocolate wrappers, and the owners’ Civil War-era beards, shapes…
Vanilla
With cheap imitation vanilla essence providing the ultimate non-flavour, in the late 20th century ‘vanilla’ had become a synonym for ‘banal’. It was the ice cream that went with everything because it tasted of nothing. But over the last two decades tastebuds have been reawakened…
Campbell’s Soup
Andy Warhol had been eating Campbells Tomato Soup for 20 years when he immortalised the soup can design in pop art in 1962. Now Campbells is releasing limited edition Warhol-inspired soup cans on the work’s 50th anniversary (and providing its ailing sales with some much…
Tempura
Portugal may now be a pleasant minnow of Europe, but in the 16th century it was the dominant world explorer, leaving culinary footprints at its major colonies and more fleeting encounters. In Japan tempura is a legacy of Portugal’s brief presence in the south. As…
Injera
Ethiopian food is experiencing a swell of popularity in the United States, as explained in this Washington Post story. You know times are achangin’ when the staple grain of Ethiopian cuisine is flourishing in the fields of Idaho. Rather than import the grain teff that…
Xiao long bao
Xiao long bao are pleated Shanghai dumplings filled with pork meat and a juicy broth that have sparked quests and queues in US Chinatowns. Steamed dumplings are comfort food enough, but filled with a little burst of soup, their soothe factor is sensational. seriouseats explains…