Umami Crisps

By Andrew Hunter

All this week, Special Fork bloggers are revealing what’s in their pantry, with tips for using pantry staples. To celebrate Pantry Week, Special Fork has teamed up with Zojirushi, the Japanese maker of top-quality kitchen appliances, to offer a fabulous sweepstakes prize: the 5.5-cup capacity Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer ($192 MSRP), which not only cooks rice flawlessly, but also steams foods and bakes cakes. Menu settings include: white/sushi, mixed, porridge, sweet, brown, cake, steam and quick cooking. Enter to win!

The joke about a chef’s refrigerator is it’s filled with condiments, but nothing normal to eat like fruits, vegetables or meat. This is because condiments make everything taste better and because many of us shop for the immediate meal ahead instead of doing a weekly plan.

This week is “What’s in Your Pantry?” week at Special Fork. All week long, we’re blogging about our go-to pantry staples … the essential items we can’t live without.

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Irish Potato Leek Soup

By Andrew Hunter

All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for St. Patrick’s Day. And to celebrate, Special Fork is giving away a prize package of a year’s supply of delicious Kerrygold Butter and cheeses, imported from Ireland, courtesy of Kerrygold! It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.

There’s no better time than St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate the flavors of Ireland, even though they’re delicious year-round. For me, the highlight of Irish food has always been the butter and cheese. The reason is the cows eat the incredibly green grass and are only milked during their natural lactation cycles.

The other great thing about Ireland’s dairy is generations of family farms, many with only a few dozen cows. This means profits go directly to the farmers, the animals are treated humanely, and hopefully future generations of Irish kids will continue in the cooperative, national tradition.

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Umami Generation

By Andrew Hunter

Ben and Nick are my best taste testers. Their young palates are sensitive and bright. They are Generation Z…a generation of young foodies who unknowingly love bold flavors and appreciate the umami sensation. Even though they giggle when Marilyn and I say that “silly word!” So what does this silly word mean?

We all taste sweet, sour, salty and bitter, and the fifth taste is umami. A Japanese scientist who was doing research on amino acids and their effect on flavor discovered it. Commonly described as brothy, meaty or delicious, umami is difficult to explain, though you know the sensation when you eat a gorgeous tomato, aged Parmesan, stir-fried mushrooms or just a whisper of naturally brewed soy sauce. Then you know umami.

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Boyhood Evolution

By Andrew Hunter

My youngest one is growing up – at a whopping 3 foot 4 and 38 pounds, Nick no longer introduces himself as “Nic-a-yis.” He’s moving up to kindergarten, has plenty to say about all matters of fact (his lovely teacher, Ms. Britton, thinks the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree), plays second base on his T-ball team, loves to sing and dance, and believes in community service. As he grows in dimension, he’s also forming his own sensibility about food and eating.

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At the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco

By Sandy Hu

Many shows ago, I gave up on trying to make trend sense out of what I saw and tasted at the Winter Fancy Food Show. A trade show for gourmet retailers, the show covers 196.000 square feet at Moscone Center in San Francisco, embracing 1,300 exhibiting companies and attracting more than 17,000 attendees.

There’s simply too much real estate and too many disparate offerings to conveniently pigeonhole. So instead of trying, I just walk the show, see what I see, taste what I taste, and refuse to be overly ambitious in what I take away from the experience. Yesterday, I enjoyed the company of @JustinMcNeil of Delin8ted as I walked the show. He’s a new friend I met on Twitter, tweeting about #NASFT and #FancyFoodShow over the weekend.

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