Eight months before my son was born, I was working on a project in Colombia. One evening, my local host took me and the team to a Parrillada in the hills overlooking Bogata. The meat was awesome, but the salsas that accompanied the meat were mind-blowing. This is one of those salsas.Here’s a recipe for Hogao, as commonly prepared in the Bogota region of Colombia:
Having travelled south from Beijing in a sleeper train, I was hungry when I arrived in Wuhan. After checking into a hotel, I went out looking for a late breakfast and found a small market with many food stalls. The smells coming from one drew me in, and I soon found myself tucking into my first Wuhan doupi.Wuhan Doupi Pancake” is a famous traditional dish from Wuhan, China. Doupi is a kind of street food that is popular in the Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. It is a savoury pancake typically made from sticky rice, minced […]
“Dry-Fried Sichuan Chicken” or “Gan Bian Si Ji (干煸四季)” is a popular Sichuan dish known for its dry, flavorful, and spicy profile. The classic dish in Sichuan cuisine originated in the Sichuan province of southwestern China and includes Sichuan peppercorns. The first time I enjoyed this dish in Chengdu was in 1987; it consisted of cubes of chicken, whole garlic cloves, peanuts, and red chillis stir-fried together in more or less equal quantities. I had arrived in Chengdu after a 63-hour train journey from Guangzhou. After having to eat the good but plain food served on the train, this was an assault on my […]
Lagos grilled lobster is a popular Nigerian delicacy that involves grilling or roasting crayfish with a blend of traditional Nigerian spices and herbs. While it is not as common as other Nigerian dishes, it is still a cherished speciality, particularly in the coastal regions where lobster is abundantly available.On both my three-week visits to Lagos in 2008, our host, Jochen Schroeter, took us to a ‘bush’ restaurant somewhere in the outskirts of Lagos. This involved travelling in a convoy, with our two vehicles flanked by two police vehicles carrying policemen armed with AK47s. We were served huge lobster and […]
Having hired a 4-wheel drive vehicle, we were driving around Namibia. One night, we stayed in a remote lodge that only had Kudu meat on the menu. This was a problem as the only meat my five-year-old son would eat was chicken. The greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is found throughout central & northern Namibia and is the second tallest antelope on the African continent. Kudu bulls bear long, spiral horns which reach record lengths of up to 1.8m. Horns grow to their full length at the age of six years.As we had been travelling all day, he needed to eat […]
Tandoori chicken was one of the first Asian foods I tried to make in the early 1980s before I had travelled to India. At the time, using red food colouring was essential to produce something like the tandoori chicken seen in Indian restaurants. Since then, I have seen tasty chunks of chicken cooked on long skewers in tandoor ovens in India and saw no sign of red food colouring. Tandoori chicken is a popular Indian dish known for its vibrant color and rich, smoky flavors. Here’s a traditional tandoori chicken recipe for you: Enjoy your delicious homemade tandoori chicken! Tandoori […]
Taking the train from Bangkok in 1987, my good friend Nitza and I travelled down to Penang, in Malaysia. The journey took us through a verdant landscape dotted with small villages surrounded by paddy fields. One of the most memorable aspects of the journey was the Thai Blue Swimmer crab curry served in the buffet car – spicy, delicious and a million miles away from the ubiquitous stale British Rail cheese sandwich. Cooked in a huge wok in the tiny galley next to the buffet car, this was a symphony of flavours in every bite, with the sweet, spicy, and […]
Kushiyaki is a Japanese technique that includes various skewered and grilled meat, seafood, or even vegetables and tofu. The ingredients are placed on bamboo skewers and are typically seasoned with either salt (shio) or a reduced and sweetened version of soy sauce that is known as tare.Kushiyaki should always be freshly prepared and served immediately after grilling, while the typical accompaniments usually include edamame, salads, or pickled vegetables.Here is a Japanese asparagus dish using belly pork bacon, based on a meal I had in Hong Kong in 1987, where this was one of the side dishes served with yakitori chicken. […]
Reindeer Stroganoff is a dish that puts a unique twist on the classic Beef Stroganoff by using reindeer meat as the primary protein. Reindeer meat is lean and has a slightly gamey flavor, making it an interesting and unconventional choice for this Russian-inspired dish. I first ate Reindeer stroganoff in a hut on the East coast of Svalbard. Outside, the temperature was a bracing -30C℃, but inside, it was a toasty 22℃. Our Italian guide prepared the meal, which he served with rice. It was delicious.It’s essential to cook the reindeer meat thoroughly, but be careful not to overcook […]
