Lentil and Brown Rice Compost Broth

This was one of these things that I read so long ago that I don't remember when, or who, save that it was an interview with a rather clever and creative chef being interviewed, and just about that time I had despaired of finding any broth – canned or as a bouillon cube – at the commissary or local supermarket which wasn't expensive, unbearably salty, or both. Now HEB, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's all offer a nice variety of flavored and low sodium broths and I have used them for some splendid soups, especially when nothing sits very well on on a fractious stomach except chicken broth with a smidgeon of rice or fideos in it ... but nothing beats home-made broth made

Eating on the Go

by Celia Hayes

Well, there is fast food, and then there is fast food – fast food that comes to the customer. When I was stationed in Korea such a convenience was called the 'chogi' truck, or as the local national employees called it 'roooch-coachie'. It came around mid-morning to the building where I worked, dispensing hot sandwiches, snacks, candy bars, ice cream and bags of salted or sugared snack foods. But the chogi truck is to a food truck today as a Model T is to a Jeep Cherokee. They're gasoline-powered motor vehicles, and they dispense food to the hungry ... but the 21st century food truck tends to be a specialty gourmet kitchen on wheels. Certainly in a large and

Comfort Food – Mac & Cheese

by Celia Hayes

When my younger brother and sister and I were in elementary school, my father was a grad-student in hot pursuit of a doctorate in zoology, and my mother was – in the tradition of the time – a full-time stay-at-home mom. This was in the late 1950s to early 60s, and it was the commonly accepted practice. As there were three of us (later to be four) it was really the only practical option – and one of the reasons that it worked was that Mom was a fair to middling cook, very much into the traditional D-I-Y household arts (including sewing childrens' clothes and decorating our home with cast-off and inexpensive furniture. I would hasten to add that it was usually quality stuff; ages later, when Mom and Dad were

More Flavors of Spain

by Celia Hayes

My mother just sent us a basket of gourmet foods from Spain as a Christmas present for us again, since last year's basket from La Tienda was such a big hit. We loved living in Spain, loved the food, adored grazing from the little plates – the tapas – invitingly set out at bars, loved the fact that a 'bar' in Spain was usually not just a seamy joint serving spirituous liquors to an assortment of skeevey low-lives. A bar in Spain was much more likely to be a kind of café, coffee shop and neighborhood club-house, the place housing the pay phones, ATMs, video game machines, and clean bathrooms ... and oh, yes – serving snacks and alcoholic drinks of every possible description. It also mildly freaked out many Americans

A Disquisition Upon Jello

Now if I had once thought that the garlic snails at the yearly NIOSA street food event were dubious eats, I had not had a chance to grok the full horror of the guacamole bird - it's the third one down. click here ... Finished shuddering yet? Good. You see, there is Jello and all the horrors that are perpetuated with it, and then there is just plain gelatin mixed with a variety of sweet or savory liquids and poured into an appropriate Jello mold.

There is the stuff whipped up by the staff of women's home magazines trying to catch the eyeballs (or stimulate the nausea reflex) and not coincidently sell more Jello... and of late there is the parody stuff (like the famous brain mold), and