WHEN food’s OUT of sight, it’s OUT of mind....We find over AND over that the most visible foods are the ones you eat FIRST AND eat most. The best thing you can DO IS NOT TO have food sitting OUT IN the kitchen, unless it rhymes WITH roots AND wedgies. This isn’t always AS easy AS clearing cereal boxes AND cookie packages off the counter. IF you have OPEN shelves, USE them TO display anything but food. IF you have clear cupboards, make sure you put the dishware there AND put the Chips Ahoy! behind closed doors, AS Charlie Rich would have suggested. The tasty stuff that’s visible IS what you most overeat. READ More...

The humble Goan vinegar is going global, literally, with the Journal of Food Science reporting it as the possible next big superfood. The fact is that the uses of this acidic liquid extend much beyond adding the sour, zingy tang to traditional Goan Christian cuisine like the sorpotel, vindaloo, meat roast, and the like.

So, let's start at the very beginning — the making. World over, there are different types of vinegars depending on the base ingredient fermented to generate the acetic acid — the main constituent of the liquid. There is red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, rice vinegar, cider vinegar, malt vinegar and coconut vinegar aka our local variety.

The largest selling of these remains the commercial white vinegar, which is distilled from ethyl alcohol and has none of the nutrients and anti-oxidants found in natural vinegars. Read More...

In all of literature, bread has always been used as a metaphor for food; for nourishment. That is how critical bread is to our existence. Despite the fact that bread, as we know it today, is only a couple of centuries old, a table will seldom feel balanced unless it has some format of bread prominently featured in it. The aroma of bread making — whether it is a mother making phulkas puffed to the seam on a naked flame or a French baker pulling out light as air baguettes with artisanal scoring on them — evokes a sense of comfort and warmth in us. Perhaps it is the carbohydrates, perhaps it is our conditioning — but the truth remains that bread does have a primeval appeal. Read More