THE NIBBLE Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
Read all of our content on TheNibble.com, the online magazine about specialty food.
Archive for Ethnic Foods
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March 9, 2008 at 9:22 am
· Filed under Ethnic Foods, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy
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A stack of Hispanic cheeses. Roth Käse’s aged, Manchego-style GranQueso is on top. |
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Half of the top 10 fastest-growing cheeses at retail are Hispanic-style cheeses—queso blanco, queso fresco, cotija, more than a dozen types. So, we took a giant nibble and created a muy gran article on the topic. While some cheeses are imported, only cheeses aged 60 days or longer can enter the country; so the fresh cheeses used for cooking—queso blanco, queso fresco, queso para freir, panela and requeson—are being made in the U.S.—in large numbers in California and Wisconsin. The other categories include melting cheeses and aged cheeses. We promise a tasty introduction to Mexican/Hispanic cheeses.
Read the article and master Mexican cheese. Discover many more cheeses in the Cheese Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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March 4, 2008 at 7:47 am
· Filed under Fish/Seafood/Caviar, Ethnic Foods, Gourmet News, Restaurants
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Now, your surf clam can surf over to you via
conveyor belt. |
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Is America about to experience conveyor-belt sushi in a big way? Known as kaiten-sushi, a branch of the largest chain, Sakae Sushi, has made the leap to America (“leap” is an appropriate analogy, since the company logo is a frog on a lily pad—although no frog sushi is served). The premiere is the launch of a goal to be, ostensibly, the first successful sushi chain in America. The company, based in Singapore, has 40 sushi restaurants there, and 20 in other countries—none of which offers the market potential of the large and sushi-hungry American public. |
| The high-tech restaurant should also appeal to the experiential dining desires of Americans. There’s a patented interactive menu at each table, enabling patrons to create custom orders, as well as a hot water tap to refill cups of green tea. There is three-tiered pricing—three different colored plates, priced at $1.90, $3.90 and $6.90, depending on the value of the contents. In a bit of architectural irony, the two conveyor-belt restaurant, totaling 97 feet of rolling sushi, sashimi, soups, salads, dumplings, ramen, yakitori and other bites, is located in the venerable Chrysler Building, one of the country’s most dignified architectural landmarks. It’s an easy location for anyone to get to, right across the street from Grand Central Terminal, at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Taking the train into town? Drop in for some sushi before heading to your destination. The speed with which consumers can get their sushi from the conveyor belt gives new meaning to the term “fast food.”The chain was established in Singapore in 1997 with the goal of offering affordable Japanese food. In New York City, which is not known for conveyor-belt restaurants, it will certainly be the king of kaiten. The restaurant, located at 405 Lexington Avenue at 42nd Street, is open 7 days for breakfast, lunch and dinner, from 7 a.m. to midnight. A 24-hour delivery service will be offered. For more information, visit Sakae-Sushi.com or telephone 1.877.SAKAE-USA. |
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February 24, 2008 at 8:03 am
· Filed under Ethnic Foods, Snacks, Daily Food Holidays
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Tortilla chips are made in yellow, white and blue corn (shown above); and riding the whole grain nutrition wave, are also made in multigrain blends. |
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On the heels (perhaps too close on the heels) of National Corn Chip Day (January 29th), February 24th honors one of America’s favorite snack foods, the tortilla chip. Surprisingly, tortilla chips are not a traditional Mexican food. They were first popularized and mass produced in southwestern Los Angeles in the late 1940s by Rebecca Webb Carranza, who, with her husband, owned a Mexican deli and tortilla factory. Misshapen tortillas were rejected from the tortilla manufacturing machine, and she turned them into chips—cutting them into triangles, frying them and selling them in snack-size bags. Needless to say, they sold well, and became a popular appetizer in Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants in California. They expanded beyond California in a big way in the late 1970s, with the growth of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants, replacing corn chips like Fritos as America’s favorite corn chip snack. As we mentioned in our post on corn chips, the main difference between the two types of chip is that a tortilla chip is cut from a whole tortilla, and a corn chip is corn meal processed into a particular shape. |
- See our favorite gourmet tortilla chips.
- Make this tortilla soup recipe—a favorite Mexican dish, blending chicken, corn and tortilla chips.
- Enjoy one of our favorite guacamoles with your chips, Yucatan Guacamole—not only delicious, but organic and kosher.
- Find our favorite salsas in the Salsas and Dips section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
- Before they were tortilla chips, they were tortillas. Read about our favorite tortillas, from Tumaro’s. |
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December 16, 2007 at 11:08 am
· Filed under Ethnic Foods, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy
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| A few months ago, we went to a press reception where we were introduced to the wonders of Chipilo Authentic Mexican Crema. Crema, or cream, which is what Mexicans call cultured sour cream. If you are a sour cream lover, it will take you higher—in a slightly different way than Ike and Tina Turner, but just as exciting. It’s richer, sweeter, more complex in flavor. It’s la crema de la crema. Newly available in the U.S., it’s made in Wisconsin according to Chipilo’s specifications, since fresh dairy products can’t be imported into the U.S. until next year. (However, most Mexican cremas are made from milkfat imported from New Zealand!) This is a crema worth going out of your way for, and worth spending your calories on. |
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Much more exciting than sour cream.
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| Use crema as you would sour cream; but it can do much more. The innate sweetness makes it a natural dip for fruit, a topping for pancakes, a spread for muffins and toast. Just resist the temptation to eat it from the carton. The first sales initiative focuses on Latin markets—their customers already understand what crema is and are familiar with the brand (Chipilo is the number one crema in Mexico). From our point of view, it’s taking too long to get into the mainstream. So, get over to the nearest Latin market and buy a few pounds. In one-pound containers, give them as holiday gifts. Not only will they be the most inexpensive gifts you can give, they’ll probably be the most appreciated by anybody who likes good food. To find a market near you, email chipilo@intermarketsourcing.com. |
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October 29, 2007 at 10:29 pm
· Filed under Ethnic Foods, Gourmet News, Diet Nibbles, NutriNibbles, The Nibble
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Gourmet Indian in a flash.
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If you’ve wanted to do some Indian cooking but were intimidated by the thought of Indian sauce recipes, Devya Indian Gourmet has the solution. Three simmer sauces—Butter Chicken, Channa Masala and Vegetable Curry—plus a Tandoori Chicken marinade, offer quick-and-easy preparation of Indian favorites. The spice level is authentic but appealing to Westerners. Devya is currently the only organic Indian sauce line on the market, and is also gluten-free. We’re thrilled to add Indian to our home cooking repertoire with these high-quality sauces. Read the full review in THE NIBBLE online magazine. Read about other Indian and global gourmet products in the International Section of THE NIBBLE. |
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October 3, 2007 at 4:55 pm
· Filed under Ethnic Foods, Gourmet News
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Why take out? Visit RealAsianMadeSimple.com to enter to win an authentic Asian dinner for 10, cooked by TV chef Katie Chin, courtesy of Simply Asia and Thai Kitchen.
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