The first time I tasted this dish I was in paradise on earth. After exploring the Douro valley of Northern Portugal where grapes for port wines are grown in one of the most dramatically beautiful landscapes in all Europe, we crossed the rolling mountains of the Beira Alta by car. After being too late for […]

Deep South meets Singapore in this dish I cooked for Anna in her kitchen the other day when I was still too depressed to use mine in the middle of a construction site. I’m sure soft shell crabs are a treat outside the Southern States too – Louisiana and Mississippi especially, but that’s where I […]

My apartment is still a mess because of the water damage, but I got my laptop back, and even managed to whip up something despite the debris around me. Today’s recipe may not be top cuisine – it’s definitely not what I had in my mind before I started cooking – but the end result […]

Institutional food can scar you for life. At my previous job in Helsinki, the hospital chefs disguised cheap sources of animal protein as culinary innovations, coming up with dubious creations such as Rainbow Trout Topped With Grilled Edam Cheese or Salmon Sprinkled With Pizza Herbs. Suffice it to say, I have been turned off novel […]

When friends from abroad visit Helsinki, we tend to stuff them to their gills with herring, salmon, trout, and arctic char. No wonder foreign visitors quickly form the impression that Finns eat nothing but fish. While this is wildly incorrect, Finland does have over 1,000 kilometers of seaside and 190,000 lakes. When I was growing […]