Posts for 'Spicy Food' Category

In this month’s focus on how to drive drink sales around food, Jo Bruce looks at ideas for wines and beers to match with Mediterranean food.There are many ways in which wines and beers can be paired with Mediterranean cuisine.

Below, we have picked a handful of experts to recommend some magical matches.

Fiona Sims, wine writer, advises: “Look to punchy New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, and to northern Italy’s more flavourful whites. Young, robust reds that France turns out by the bucket-load are also a perfect match for Med dishes.

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Instead of the usual drill when a restaurant offers free fare -- long lines and overworked staff -- the Atlanta-based fast-food chain is experimenting with a free-food offer with a twist: Online reservations. That's right. Consumers salivating to try Chick-fil-A's new spicy chicken sandwich must go to a special website and reserve a time between May 31 and June 5 to try one for free. The sandwich gets launched officially June 7.

The system not only avoids the cattle-car experience of some food giveaways, it also neatly limits the amount of free food that Chick-fil-A offer up. (Reservations are limited, so don't dawdle.)But why stop there? If consumers can be persuaded to schedule a food giveaway online, imagine the other food experiences for which they'd gladly pull out a BlackBerry or iPhone.

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Spicy food is enjoyed the world over. In some countries, like Indonesia, spicy foods are even fed to newborns and only the dying are kept from enjoying everything the spices have to offer. Eating spicy foods will open up a whole new world of culinary delights to those who dare to venture.To start your own journey into the world of spicy food, begin by:

Eating with your fingers is fun which is just as well, because at most Ethiopian restaurants they don’t give you silverware. Sometimes they don’t even have silverware, so the fastidious among us have to grit their teeth, tear off a piece of injera that fabulous Ethiopian bread made from tef or fermented millet and sop up the marvelous tastes and textures of doro wot, lamb tibs and other fabulous concoctions.

If you’re a vegetarian, there are several vegetarian options, including yellow split peas and lentils that we always include in our carnivores’ dinner, but you could make a meal of them. We also drank Ethiopian beer and were surprised that we could get dark, medium or light. The dark was good and not too sweet and the light was also tasty. Honey wine is another good option—its sweetness perfectly complements the spicy food. We ate at Abyssinia, our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. It’s on Colfax and Albion. Try it.

Eating with your fingers is fun—which is just as well, because at most Ethiopian restaurants they don’t give you silverware. Sometimes they don’t even have silverware, so the fastidious among us have to grit their teeth, tear off a piece of injera—that fabulous Ethiopian bread made from tef or fermented millet—and sop up the marvelous tastes and textures of doro wot, lamb tibs and other fabulous concoctions.

If you’re a vegetarian, there are several vegetarian options, including yellow split peas and lentils that we always include in our carnivores’ dinner, but you could make a meal of them. We also drank Ethiopian beer—and were surprised that we could get dark, medium or light. The dark was good and not too sweet and the light was also tasty. Honey wine is another good option—its sweetness perfectly complements the spicy food. We ate at Abyssinia, our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. It’s on Colfax and Albion. Try it.

This recipe is named after my friend Cindy coz she is the one who shared this recipe with me. Although I fail to recollect how and why we got talking about okra at 3 in the morning after countless Kamikaze shots and DJ Akeel blasting in the background.

But anyway, sometimes the journey becomes irrelevant when you reach the destination. In spite of my semi intoxicated state, I couldn’t help imagine the crunchy crisp okra mixed in with spices and caramelized onions. I couldn’t wait to get home and try Cindy’s recipe.

And let me add, Cindy is true sardaarni (well….ok maybe not entirely…..she is from Modesto CA but then that’s the next best thing to Punjab if you are out of India!) so I suspect this is an authentic Punjabi recipe. In any case, this okra recipe is absolutely fantastic. Move over Paula Deen, my girl Cindy’s Bhindi totally rocks.

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BUKA Puasa Buffets are an excellent opportunity for everyone to sample a wide range of delicious Malay and Ramadhan dishes. The Islander, Trader Hotel’s coffee house, is an ideal place to go.

The cheerful ground floor outlet is a pleasure to eat in. It’s modern and sparkling, the minimalist decor sleek and trendy (love the bunga kantan floating in tall transparent vases).

As you enter, the food counters are positioned on the right, under bright shining lights which beckon you invitingly to come and see what’s on offer that evening.“We have dishes from different states. So, our guests will be able to sample food from all over Malaysia,” said executive chef Francis Arokianathan.With five sets of menu which change daily, you can be assured of plenty to choose from whenever you visit.

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POPULAR hot and spicy dishes from Negri Sembilan will be served at the Saloma Theatre Restaurant this whole month of Ramadan.

Main dishes feature Dendeng Lambuk, Udang Goreng Cili, Asam Pedas Ikan Jenahak, Daging Salai Lemak Pedas, Daging Gulai Belimbing Besi, Pindang Ikan Tempoyak, Ikan Keli Goreng Berlada Sambal Manis, Rendang Minang Tulang Rusuk, Ayam Gulai Cili Padi, Paru Lembu Goreng Cili Manis, Sambal Ketam Manis and Sambal Udang Petai.

Sweet creations such as Wajik Kesirat and local kuih-muih will continue to attract and entice the taste buds of patrons.Chef Kamaruzzaman Halim said previously Saloma had featured dishes from Johor and Kedah.“This year, we are going with dishes from Negri Sembilan, which are dry and spicy.“They are ideal for breaking fast,” he said.

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Have you come across a chef who loves his ingredients and talks about their emotions besides their taste? If you haven't, sign up with Doha Marriott Hotel and attend maverick Executive Sous Chef Ajay Pant's cookery class every Monday.

Pant, an Indian cuisine specialist, has a unique style of preparing his exotic dishes and teaching aspiring amateur cooks. He talked about shrimps being 'shy' and they being 'comfortable' when he covered them with mashed potatoes and applied a batter of chick peas while shaping them into dumplings.

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Nothing says summer like an outdoor picnic, and Martha Hall Foose wants to show you how to do one with Southern flair. Her new book "Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook" has several regional staples.

From the proper way to fry chicken to the simply perfect, simply sweet tea, Foose teaches readers just how they do it in Dixieland and why it's so delicious. Check out some of her recipes below.

Martha's Southern Sweet Tea

Voted Best in the Delta, With Crooked-Neck Spoons

Sweet tea or unsweet tea? That is the question waitresses across the southeastern United States pose as a greeting to diners. As Dolly Parton proclaimed in her role as Truvy in the movie based on the play Steel Magnolias, it s the "house wine of the South."

The summer Mockingbird Bakery opened, Delta magazine, our regional Vanity Fair, bestowed upon us the honor of "Best Sweet Tea." We had ordered dozens and dozens of those crooked-neck spoons that can hang on the side of an iced tea glass. In the following eighteen months, the spoons had almost all disappeared. I could not imagine they were getting thrown away. I even installed a magnetized trash can cover to catch them. I had scoured the place looking for them. Then one day, in the middle of the lunch rush, I spied a woman deftly swipe her tea spoon into her expensive handbag. As she was a regular customer and well regarded in the community, I decided to let her get away with the petty theft. I was, at the very least, glad that the mystery of the disappearing spoons had been solved. Several days later she returned with her usual luncheon coterie. I'll have you know that when the table was bussed, there was not a single crooked-neck spoon to be found. The next time she lunched with us, the spoons were left behind when she departed. I do not think she had reformed her ways; I think she simply had acquired a service for eight. The rest of the spoons must have been absconded with by similar crooks.

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