"Food ways" is an expression that dates back to 1946. It refers to the eating habits and culinary practices of a people, region, or historical period. Food Ways Presented by Everyday Exotic Spices: Food finds for foodies and food lovers - curated content from around the web, sharing the ways we all like to enjoy our food! Food history, recipe sharing, and all things food-related. This foodie blog is aimed at newbie cooks or beginners. But everyone is welcome!
Maria Nasir Shares Her Recipe for a Refreshing Summer Drink Made With Mango and Chia Seeds. The mango fruit is surely a delight to anybody's taste buds. If you have never tasted a mango, you are missing out, and there is no reason why you should. If you can not find them at your local grocery store, they can be purchased online. (See below.)
Food Gifts : Mangos ~ Available at The Fruit Company Grown in tropical regions, we bring in the most delicious mangos available. Hand-selected by our team, we only ship mangoes that have their well-known distinctive sweet taste and are ready to enjoy. Send a mango gift box rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and so delicious.
Another discovery has been made in the study of food, health, and science. Credit is being given to Professor Kazuyoshi Ukena of Hiroshima University for identifying NPGL, a protein in our brain which “apparently aims to maintain body mass at a constant, come feast or famine”.
The professor's finding eliminates the excuse of not being able to lose weight and stop yourself from overeating because you don't have any willpower, because the mechanisms for appetite control are literally ... all in your head. :)
When it comes to being health and fitness conscious, making quality of life choices, and developing healthy living habits, citizens of Austin, Texas, set the example for everyone else to follow; including the Californians. { IMHO ☺} Sharing a recap of key facts to peak your interest and some information links on health, wellness, and fitness, diet, nutrition, and exercise for further reading and research.
I was binge-watching a
Turkish television series, set in 19th century Istanbul, and in
one of the scenes, the man offered a drink to the two ladies at the
table with him. Neither lady trusted him but they didn't want to be
rude, so they accepted the cup that he poured. He said that people
should be willing to experiment and try new things and that he wanted
to introduce them both to a new drink he discovered from India. Chai
tea!
As I'm watching the program, I'm going:
“Oh! Oh! Chai tea! I know what that is!!”
My husband is from The Bahamas, but he
needed to stop drinking coffee for health reasons and started trying
different types of teas. In the course of his experimentation, he
discovered chai tea and introduced it to me.
I must say it does have an exotic
flavor. I like it!
~ Any chai tea drinkers out there?
~ Are there different ways you choose
to enjoy this delicious combination of herbs and spices in drink
form?
Do you like Indian food? I watch a lot of cooking shows and videos. One thing I noticed about Indian cooking is that they really know how to blend herbs and spices and do amazing things to enhance the flavor of vegetables. Whether the veggies are cooked or eaten raw in a salad, they are so tasty.
Author: AnutaVasil The English primarily drank coffee and wine as their staple drink, and tea was unknown in England till as late as 1662. In 1662 Charles II married Catherine of Braganza of Portugal, and it was his new bride who brought with her a preference of tea. She served tea instead of wine, ale and spirit. Tea soon acquired the status of royal drink and a social nicety for the rich.
However, tea's acceptance by British masses was quite slow. It was in late 1700 that tea's popularity picked up. As tea came from British colonies, it came to be viewed as a national drink, with patriotic sentiments attached to it. Another reason which contributed to its popularity was the ease of its preparation technique. While coffee grounds could be brewed only once, and reusing the same ground yielded a much inferior flavour, tea leaves could be brewed several times without any significant drop in the quality of liquor. As tea was a high class drink and hence expensive, the British masses bought second hand, brewed leaves and brewed them longer to compensate. Tea was thus gradually finding place in British everyday life. Soon, tea began to be sold in London coffee houses. Tea was heavily advertised as a medicinal drink which helped maintain health and beauty. The coffee house owners charged heavily for a cup of tea, as much as 6-10 pounds per cup. The government soon imposed various taxes, regulations and restrictions on sale of tea, with a view to cash in on the growing tea trend. This even led to tea being smuggled into England. Finally the taxes were waived off to stop this illegal smuggling. Tea, meanwhile, continued to grow in popularity. Around 1800, there developed an "Afternoon tea" culture, wherein rich ladies invited their friends for a cup of tea in the afternoon. They also served pastries, sandwiches or some snacks along with it. It was accompanied by social graces, refined conversation, sweet gossip and polished etiquette. Yet another popular tea trend was serving tea in tea gardens. Pleasure gardens like Vauxhall or Ranelagh Gardens provided lush lawns for public to stroll and enjoy a hot cup of tea. The working class, however, took a break from work in the evening, and relaxed with tea. The most well-liked and sought-after teas were English breakfast tea and Earl Grey. English breakfast tea, as its name suggests, was consumed mostly in the morning, as its strong caffeine helped shake off sleepiness and start the morning energetically. It blended sumptuously with milk and sugar, and could be enjoyed any time of the day. The Earl Grey provided a classic blend of fine black tea with bergamot essence. It was considered a more sophisticated tea. In 1875, Thomas Lipton aggressively advertised tea. He replaced the coffee gardens in Ceylon with tea plantations and opened his first tea shop. By the end of 1the 9th century, he had almost set up his Tea Empire and laid the foundations of the modern tea trade. The Indian and Ceylon blends, Brooke Bond and Lipton, found a firm place in British everyday life. Tea had finally "arrived" in England.
To make the food good and very palatable, you will need to use the spices as well as various condiments. These spices will make the food more appealing, and for sure, there is no way that you can eat food that is bland and non-spicy. The herbs and spices that need to be added to the food to make it tasty will be based on two things, and these are the freshness of spices as well as the proper quantity.
A proper mix or proportion is very important for the addition of spices. Most of the spices come in the powdered form or in the leaf form. The compatibility of spice with certain types of food is a must-know. You should know which spice to use with which food. This operates on the same principle as the wine does, which is that you should know what wine to serve with what kind of food. There is no sure-shot method of the quantity that can be used in the food. Your help for the quantity is the online food sites, as well as recipe books available all over. Make sure that you do not add more spices because more is generally not acceptable, but less is acceptable. If you are reading the recipe books, they generally tend to border on the more commercial side of things, which means the quantities and styles are more over the top. You may need to use your own estimate for the home-cooked food. To keep the freshness intact of the spices, make sure that you buy the good brands which have good packaging as well as make sure that once you have opened them that you seal them properly to retain the flavor and the aroma.
Foodimentary is a website that publishes information about National Food Holidays. In an article by John-Bryan Hopkins, he shares an interesting fact about one of my favorite snack foods.
Did you know that the potato chip was invented by a man named George Crum who was annoyed that a customer had complained that his french fries were too thick?
Perhaps many will say that it's not a healthy snack but I will confess that potato chips are one of my guilty pleasures and every now and then I indulge myself. Hey! Life is short!
To celebrate this particular food holiday I found some short posts written by fellow bloggers at a social blogging community where I also publish content. One of the shares is about "a salty finger food enjoyed in India" eaten pretty much the same way we enjoy potato chips. Have fun!
UPDATE March 2025: APOLOGIES. Bad news I'm afraid. I don't know what happened. But this foodie website no longer exists. The domain name is available and is being used by another owner and it is not food-related. The best I could do is find sites like the "old" Gourmet Sleuth used to be. Sorry.
***
Have you ever had a recipe that
required a certain ingredient but that particular ingredient is not
readily available where you live OR if it is available, it's really
expensive. This website called Gourmet Sleuth will
share ingredients that you can substitute. For example:
If you don't have radicchio, use endive
or arugula.
If you don't have jack fruit, use
plantains, summer squash or papaya.
If the recipe calls for something exotic like Bhutanese Red Rice, you can substitute Black rice or brown rice. (Found a recipe at a site other than Gourmet Sleuth.)
"Bhutanese Red Rice is a partially-milled short grain rice grown in the Himalayan mountains."
You can easily look up what you need as the ingredients are arranged in alphabetical order.
The site also has HAD a blog and shares recipes, conversions, and articles. Because I am interested in world cuisine, I really like the article section titled "Ethnic, Unique Foods, Ingredients". Could not find another site. Can only refer you to Amazon. (Not like that's a bad thing. There's actually some pretty cool stuff there. 😀)
Connie Guttersen, author, dietitian, nutritionist, a lady on Twitter (@ConnieGuttersen) inspired me to pick salad for my topic. She shared a Tweet (below) about all the different kinds of lettuce that are “worthy”. Appreciated the info, but from there it was a leap into “winter salads”. Why? Because during the cold months, salad is not always on my menu. Bowls and bowls of warm and hearty soups. Yes! But salad? Not so much. That has to change.
Lettuce is lettuce, right? Not so fast! Some lettuces (like iceberg) have 0 nutrients, while others are worthy to be included in your salad. pic.twitter.com/2zAdfzUpLq
DID YOU KNOW? Sri Lanka's national cuisine is based on plant products: rice, corn, peas, lentils, and other beans. Plus, all sorts of flour made out of pulse crops and vegetables are an integral part of the local cuisine.
Spice shop in Kandy Market, Sri Lanka By McKay Savage [CC BY 2.0], Rice is the basis of many of the national dishes in Sri Lanka. It is spiced with curry, seasoning and other local ingredients here, with seafood and fruits, coconut flakes and vegetables. The combinations, at first sight, are unbelievable!
Traditionally, the food is prepared in either handmade crockery-ware or metallic crockery over an open fire. There are a lot of seasoning and sauces in traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, which is why it is practically impossible to define its unique taste. Curry is the most popular seasoning. But there is also, a hot sauce antiaris made of fruits with seasonings, red hot sauce masala, miti kiri dry coconut milk, cut thin mix of onion and salt, dry fish, red pepper and lemon lunumiris, a ginger hand in syrup and other exotic seasonings are common.
The Ceylonese (Sri Lankans in Singapore) consume a huge number of fruits and greens. They make salads out of different fresh vegetables and fruits or just some greens using traditional tomatoes, pepper, onion, bamboo runoffs and a various exotic assortment, including some special tree leaves, banana palm flower, and algae. Meat is not consumed much due to the cows to being considered holy animals. Instead, they eat a lot of and a variety of seafood.
Sri Lanka courses:
Roti, which is a rice cake, a daily course in Sri Lanka
Appa, which isrice-flour and coconut milk pancakes. They look like typical pancakes but whiter and more transparent.
Indi appa, which is rice pasta made of rice flour of course.
Pitta, which is boiled steamed rice-coconut mix in bamboo handle.
Kiribath, which is pink rice, boiled in coconut milk.
Tea is the main drink in Sri Lanka. But fruit juice and coconut milk are preferred drinks as well. As for the local alcohol, it is better for a traveler not to become familiar with it. Alcoholic beverages are available but there is basically no purification procedure for making the local alcohol so most Europeans or westerners may not appreciate the taste. As for the local Lion beer, it is brewed in accordance with classic recipes. It is not expensive and some who drink it say it's very delicious.
About the author: Melisa Marzett whose current activity is writing for Pure writing company always welcome a new writing challenge. She is passionate about writing, which is why what comes out is interesting to read.
Growing up in America, there was only one main tea (that I knew of). Lipton. To my late sister's credit, she made great tea! Her hot tea or her iced tea were both dee-licious! However … it was just Lipton tea. The Lipton brand name and company have been around so long that it's practically revered as part of American tradition. I'm not being disrespectful. Don't get me wrong. But I went through my entire childhood and even went several years into my adulthood before I even realized there was something other than Lipton orange pekoe tea! Not just “other than” but even “better than”. Yes! I know! I'm speaking in treasonous language for sure! LOL. Anyway … whereas I can only remember Lipton orange pekoe tea on the store shelves as a child (I can even remember the commercials), these days the grocery store shelves and the company's official website, display a variety of teas. Oh yeah! They have green tea, matcha tea, berry hibiscus, etc. When did this happen and why? I don't know the WHEN but I do know the WHY. When I was a kid, Lipton had hardly any competition. They dominated the market for American tea drinkers. But times have changed and the American taste buds have changed and now we drink a wide range of teas. Our grocery store shelves are loaded with every kind of tea imaginable. If you can't find what you're looking for in the local grocery store, then surely you can find a tea online and/or a video on how to brew your “special cup of tea”... Which brings me the main point of this discussion. CHAI TEA. I only learned about this wonderful drink a few years ago. Come to find out that it's only been around for an eternity.
What happened was that my late husband stopped drinking coffee and opted to begin drinking tea instead. That led him on a quest to find a particular tea that he liked and that he believed would contribute positively to his health. One thing led to another, and he eventually discovered chai tea. However, being my typical husband, that meant that I couldn't just go to the grocery store and pick up a box labeled “Chai Tea” and bring it home. Oh no! Certain chai tea has this ingredient or that ingredient, and he wants this or that … yadda yadda yadda. He came up with his own chai tea recipe. I'm like: “You made up own recipe? Isn't that like … UN-Indian or something?” It seems it's not. It seems that whoever drinks what they call “chai tea”, Indians or non-Indians, many have their own special recipe for this drink! I found a few YouTube videos for making chai tea. The first video led to the next video and that video led to a bunch of other terrific videos! I searched some of the discussions here at Forum Coin found a couple of interesting comments. * Per @mandeep4687:
Air India national carrier of India wish to introduce Indian traditional food on board to their passengers soon, Now they are offering ... Lunch and Dinner with masala chai(Tea). ...
Traditional Food in Air India flights * * * Are you a tea drinker? Do you have your own chai tea recipe? If not chai tea, do you have your own special tea recipe? Do you prefer your tea sweetened or unsweetened? My Chinese friend used to brew a cup of tea made with popped rice; no sugar. I'm like "You can do that?" One of my daughters just loves hibiscus tea. She always keeps some in her pantry. A few of my other daughters love to experiment with all kinds of herbal teas. All of my daughters prefer sweetened tea. No doubt about it. The wonderful world of teas is fascinating!
Chai Masala Powder - Secret Ingredient of Flavoured and Aromatic Indian Tea | Winter Special
Growing up in America there was only main tea (that I knew of). Lipton. To my late sister's credit, she made great tea! Her hot tea or her iced tea were both dee-licious! However … it was just Lipton tea. The Lipton brand name and company has been around so long that it's practically revered as part of American tradition, I'm not being disrespectful. Don't get me wrong. But I went through my entire childhood and even went several years into my adulthood before I even realized there was something other than Lipton orange pekoe tea! Not just “other than” but even “better than”. Yes! I know! I'm speaking treasonous language for sure! LOL.
Anyway … whereas I can only remember Lipton orange pekoe tea on the store shelves as a child (I can even remember the commercials), these days the grocery store shelves and the [url=https://www.lipton.com/us/en/our-teas.html]company's official website[/url], display a variety of teas. Oh yeah! They have green tea, matcha tea, berry hibiscus, etc.
When did this happen and why? I don't know the WHEN but I do know the WHY. When I was a kid, Lipton had hardly any competition. They dominated the market for American tea drinkers. But times have changed and the American taste buds have changed and now we drink a wide range of teas. Our grocery store shelves are loaded with every kind of tea imaginable. If you can't find what you're looking for in the local grocery store, then surely you can find a tea online and/or a video on how to brew your “special cup of tea”..
Which brings me the main point of this discussion.
[size=150]CHAI TEA.[/size]
I only learned about this wonderful drink a few years ago.
[i]Come to find out that it's only been around for an eternity.[/i]
[attachment=0]chai tea.jpg[/attachment]
What happened was that my husband stopped drinking coffee and opted to begin drinking tea instead. That led him on a quest to find a particular tea that he liked and that he believed would contribute positively to his health. One thing led to another and he eventually discovered chai tea.
However, being my typical husband, that meant that I couldn't just go to grocery store and pick up a box labeled “Chai Tea” and bring it home. Oh no! Certain chai tea has this ingredient or that ingredient, and he wants this or that … yadda yadda yadda. He came up with his own chai tea recipe.
I'm like: [i]“You made up own recipe? Isn't that like … UN-Indian or something?”[/i] :? :lol:
It seems it's not. It seems that whoever drinks what they call “chai tea”, Indians or non-Indians, many have their own special recipe for this drink!
I found a few YouTube videos for making chai tea. The first video led to the next video and that video led to a bunch of other terrific videos!
I searched some of the discussions here at Forum Coin found a couple of interesting comments.
* Per [user]mandeep4687[/user]:
[quote]“ … "Masala Chai" in India which can be made by adding Indian spices such as elaichi, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, milk, sugar and herbs to your everyday black tea.[/quote]
Last Drink You Drank (Daily Thread)
https://forumcoin.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4750
* Per [user]ksridharprasad[/user]
[quote]Air India national carrier of India wish to introduce Indian traditional food on board to their passengers soon, Now they are offering ... Lunch and Dinner with masala chai(Tea). ...[/quote]
Traditional Food in Air India flights
https://forumcoin.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10523
* * *
[b]Are you a tea drinker?[/b]
[b]Do you have your own chai tea recipe?[/b]
[b]If not chai tea, do you have your own special tea recipe?[/b]
[b]Do you prefer your tea sweetened or unsweetened?[/b]
My Chinese friend used to brew a cup of tea made with popped rice; no sugar. I'm like [i]"You can do that?"[/i]
One of my daughters just loves hibiscus tea. She always keeps some in her pantry.
A few of my other daughters love to experiment with all kinds of herbal teas.
All of my daughters prefer sweetened tea.
No doubt about it. [i]The wonderful world of teas is fascinating![/i]
[url=http://www.glitter-graphics.com][img]http://dl4.glitter-graphics.net/pub/484/484434weadiltopn.gif[/img][/url]
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