Thinking About Going "Saltless" or "Sugarless"? Things You Should Consider

Cravings for Salt and for Sugar

If you, like me, are either diabetic, overweight, or both, I’ll bet your Doctor has told you, on more than one occasion, “Cut down on salt and stop using sugar.” While it’s easy to avoid adding sugar or sprinkling salt on our food, there are just too many places where salt and sugar hide. Processed meats, cheeses, prepared soups, Chinese take-outs, non-diet soda drinks, and even the lowly restaurant-prepared green leafy salads are all prime suspects.

Salt, is a conundrum Spice. Salt, chemically known as Sodium Chloride, is one of those minerals that are both beneficial and toxic to life. Also known by its chemical moniker, NaCl, salt in its various forms will be actively sought out by living creatures, instinctively. Everybody remembers putting out salt licks for wandering animals, especially in the winter months. Continue reading “Thinking About Going "Saltless" or "Sugarless"? Things You Should Consider”

Penis and Testicle Dining for Health and Virility in Beijing

There is a new restaurant in Beijing – a specialty penis restaurant. Their fare includes penises that once dangled proud and strong from yaks and oxen, seals and dogs, horses and donkeys. You name it, they have it!

I am mostly a vegetarian but I am planning a trip to Beijing soon and I am not taking my wife with me. She’s an absolute vegan. When she was last here in China she was shocked when our companion stopped mid-track and slapped the trunk of a tree, picked out a dead insect that looked like a cricket and promptly dispatched it’s edible portions into his mouth. He looked happy and said it was delicious but my wife! She was shocked. Later, he took us to a restaurant where stir-fried crickets were the specialty of the house. We couldn’t say no as our companion was hosting two Germans, as well, who were willing to try anything. The restaurant floor was stacked inches deep with left overs of crickets, their shells and the like. If that was bad for my wife Beijing would be murder. Continue reading “Penis and Testicle Dining for Health and Virility in Beijing”

Pune – A Hot Spot For International Cuisine

Fusion Food – Affordable International Food

Pune has now become a hub for a multitude of cultures with foreign fare not surprising the regular restaurant-hopper. Eating out has become the norm rather than the odd meal out, but that’s not all. Today Pune boasts of uber cool international cuisines which are not only served from la-di-dah Michelin starred Restaurants & Bars across the city, but from Inns that dot the landscape right from Koregaon Park to Kondwa.

Pune has arrived!

International cuisine is not limited to just Chinese food with an Indian twist. From the predictable to exotic, these Inns are either run out of street cafes a La Paris or have popped up in dense neighborhoods and abound corners, streets and complexes ubiquitously. So the Marathi manoos can dress-to-kill-to-eat-in-style at the numerous exorbitant fancy eating houses or eat at reasonably priced and freshly baked & served Inns across the city. No plush interiors. No lavish spreads and no ambience maybe, but the food is lip-smacking fresh and completely affordable to any pocket – school going kids, to college teens to a hard pressed housewife and what-have-you’s! Continue reading “Pune – A Hot Spot For International Cuisine”

Freedom From Want

Thanksgiving is the start of a month’s worth of expectations. That family and friends should be gathering, that there should be an abundance of food and gifts. That everyone is supposed to be warm and loving to each other.

Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell

My family of origin lived up to those expectations for the first fifteen years of my life, until the patterns started to break down. And we had pretty high expectations. My great-uncle Jim McCabe is in the iconic Norman Rockwell painting.

My early memories are of grand holiday meals, although we lived overseas most of those years so sometimes we had goose instead of turkey. Continue reading “Freedom From Want”

Chinese Noodle Salad With Roast Beef and Fresh Vegetables

At the end of a busy day you want to kick off your shoes, relax, and enjoy a tasty meal. Hungry as you are, you don’t want to spend lots of time on cooking. Frozen meals may be the answer, but they tend to be loaded with fat, salt, and preservatives.

How can you get a quick and delicious meal on the table?

Pre-chopping vegetables one answer. If you are cutting the tips off fresh string beans, for example, and cutting them into pieces, you may as well fix extra. The same is true of carrots and mushrooms. Weekends are a good time to prepare vegetables for the days ahead.

Cooking extra is another answer. When I’m cooking spaghetti or any other kind of pasta, I cook double the quantity I need. I drizzle a little olive oil over the drained pasta to keep it from sticking together. Extra pasta is refrigerated or frozen in plastic zipper bags. Continue reading “Chinese Noodle Salad With Roast Beef and Fresh Vegetables”

The Spice Trail

I get comments about my calling out of specific types of spices and whether or not that’s required.

My stock answer is, “You may use whatever spice choices as you may desire. But if you want to enjoy and savor the subtle flavors in these recipes, I suggest you hunt down and use the specific spices I call out.”

I use spices from different regions strictly because of the nuances that the spice brings to the food.

For example, you can buy the generic “Oregano” in your local grocery store and for most meals that is more than sufficient.

However, there is a subtle difference between Mexican Oregano, Mediterranean Oregano, and store-bought generic “Oregano.” Continue reading “The Spice Trail”

Diet and Migraines: Migraine-Friendly Foods and Foods to Avoid

If you suffer from migraines, you may recognise a pattern of how the food and drink you consume affects your body, how you feel and the likelihood of getting a migraine. However, different food items affect different people in different ways. For instance, consuming salty foods may trigger a migraine in one sufferer, but not in another. There is a pattern and here I am going to share with you the potential threats and give you some idea of a diet that may be more suitable.

Food and Drink to Avoid

I always like to save the best for last, so I will start off here with food that you need to avoid to lessen the risk of an attack.

1. Citrus Fruits, Bananas, Apples, Peaches, Tomatoes – Believe it or not, even certain kinds of fruit are more likely to have an adverse affect. These include citrus fruits, but also include bananas, apples, peaches and tomatoes. It is the contents of the skins that cause the issues. Bananas, for one, include an amino acid called tyramine which reduces serotonin levels in the brain. Continue reading “Diet and Migraines: Migraine-Friendly Foods and Foods to Avoid”

Does Your Chinese Girlfriend Really Love You?

Because many men have a fear that if they marry a Chinese woman she may be just doing so to improve her financial status and because it’s often a question guys email me about, I’m writing this article. Not everyone has visited or lived in mainland China, not to mention having dated a cross-section of Chinese woman, so there is certainly some kinds of information you should be aware of, no matter in the beginning stages, or even at the marriage stage.

Even though I had been involved in the Chinese community in my own country for many years, and also dated Chinese girls in my own country, it didn’t prepare me at all for mainland Chinese women! Continue reading “Does Your Chinese Girlfriend Really Love You?”

Rediscovering Brown Rice

Rice is a staple food for more than one and a half billion people. For many, a meal would not be complete without rice. There are over 120,000 known varieties of rice. Though white rice is the most common and preferred, there is a lot to be said about brown rice. This healthy grain has been available it seems since day one, it really became popular during 1960s and 1970s when organic and more health conscious diet started to take root.

I was always told that brown rice is better for you because of the vitamins in the hull. I tried this wholesome healthy grain in my early 20s (around late 70s, early 80s). I did not like the texture or the taste, I found, for me, it was an acquired taste (like whole wheat bread).

But now, brown rice is making a come back. Japan, a huge consumer of white rice, is creating some exciting recipes using brown rice. Since writing about dishes served over rice, and learning about its come back, I decided to re-explore this healthy grain. Continue reading “Rediscovering Brown Rice”

What Food Does a Cruise Ship Crew Eat?

Food keeps crew members from fully integrating, perhaps more than any other single thing on the big ships. Access to ‘food from home’ at sea varies dramatically because ‘home’ varies dramatically. Some cruise lines have more Indian dishes, or eastern European, or Caribbean, depending on the make-up of the crew. Happily, cruise lines take food for the crew very seriously. It’s the real deal-unlike, say, the food court at ye olde shopping mall. Sure, it has Mexican, Italian, and Chinese, but only via Taco Bell, Sbaro’s, and Panda, respectively. And those, of course, are hopelessly Americanized. Prior to international corporations, I doubt native Mexicans, Italians, or Chinese would have even recognized such foods as being ‘theirs’ – especially after eating it. But I digress.

Strangely, ships cater to American tastes below the waterline, despite a dearth of them aboard. The irony is complete when you realize that nearly 100% of said Americans are entertainers who won’t eat anything provided. Why? Because hot dogs and hamburgers do not lend themselves to attractive bodies. So why, then, do ships bother? Because hot dogs and hamburgers are cheap. Even better, both can sit under a heat lamp for hours and you’d never know it. Or at least a lad from Indonesia wouldn’t. Mystery solved. Continue reading “What Food Does a Cruise Ship Crew Eat?”