hungry sofia

May 16

Sorvete de Carambola

Some days, Manhattan’sChinatown could pass for Miami’s Little Havana. I have better luck finding tropical produce there than some of the smaller bodegas or upscale markets where a few tiny specimens are overpriced and undersold. A couple of weeks ago, I took the long way home, working my way through the East Village going along the Bowery to Canal St. where the fruit carts are piled high with pitayas, sapotes, and fresh guavas. Coming across a stack of carambola, I heard music. Read more

May 7

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Crêpas de Castaña con Miel

I hope I’m never too old to play in my mother’s room. Stocked like a beauty counter at Saks and filled with back issues of ¡Hola! (similar to the UK’s Hello! magazine but with fewer Windsors and more Grimaldis), my sister and I treat it like a duty free shop where everything is actually free. Searching through her neat drawers and tables, we call dibs on new masks and eye creams, bracelets and rings we’re sure our grandmother would’ve wanted us to have, charms and trinkets that we casually discarded like the wicked stepsisters when we were younger but now want to reclaim for sentiment, or irony, or both. Overcome with the mami-can-I-haves from the moment we land, we can be pretty tough to take, though in our defense, she gets pretty spoiled when she comes to visit us. Read more

May 4

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Food Blogging with Steven Shaw

On May 19th, the International Culinary Center is starting a new session of Food Blogging with Steven Shaw, their Director of New Media Studies and founder of e-Gullet. I was talking with a friend interested in starting her own blog the other day and found myself gushing about how much support, encouragement and invaluable information Steven packs into the six-week course (and beyond). If you ever considered starting up your own site or just want help developing the one you have, this is a great way to go about it. This year, they’re also offering one full and one half scholarship to enrolled student. The deadline for submissions is coming up (May 9th) so I hope you’ll click here for more information.

Apr 30

Catching Up in April

The last few weeks, I’ve had some unexpected travel. The trips themselves were planned but it was unexpected how quickly the intervening weeks flew. Feeling like I’d hardly been home when it was time to pack up and leave again, it didn’t help that the entire city is coming out of hibernation so every weekend offers competing to dos, openings and events. Back from Puerto Rico after Easter, I missed the beach but was comforted to find Cobble Hill in full bloom. I had the chance to do a little virtual traveling as well and put up a few more posts on Devour the Blog including camarones al chipotle and torrejas with lavendar and honey syrup with more to come. Read more

Apr 27

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Tembleque

While I may take it back in November, Easter is my favorite eating holiday. With no menu set in stone, the variety of colors and texture from the markets jump on the plate and like Dorothy landing in Oz, someone, somewhere turns on the technicolor. While spring officially started weeks ago, the end of lent and celebration of Easter marks the time we’re officially allowed to enjoy it – unless that’s just my guilt talking. Read more

Apr 20

Hungry in Mexico, Part 2

From the moment we returned to Mexico City, the meter was running. With only two more days, the list of things that we just had to do was growing. Taking the long way around through Condesa and along Reforma, we went back to the historic center of the city to pick up where we’d left off. Read more

Apr 13

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Hungry in Mexico, Part 1

I had planned on a seamless travelogue describing my recent trip to Mexico City – from pre-boarding expectations to new discoveries and life changing insights. But if time stops while you’re on vacation, it goes into fast forward as soon as you get back, so it’s only now that I’ve had a chance to really get back to posting. Visiting for the first time, I wanted to be like Cantinflas‘ Passepartout in Around the World in 80 Days – taking in the countryside as it gracefully glides past, dancing on tabletops, and jumping in bullrings – but more often I was Niven’s Phileas Fogg, nose buried in my moleskin diary planning the next step. I was shaken out of this by the actual Cantinflas in the form of an enormous bronze statue of the actor Jose Moreno in the Zona Rosa. I was fidgeting with my camera and almost missed it altogether. When I finally looked up, he’d turned his back to me – I was disappointing both of us. Thinking too much of what I might be missing, I wasn’t seeing what I had right in front of me. I put the camera down and looked around. Read more

Apr 8

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Chiles Rellenos con Camarones al Chipotle

The weeks between Mardi Gras and Easter are defined by what you can’t do (or can’t do just yet) – light jackets but schizophrenic weather, longer days but dark morning commutes – a period of austerity before it’s all bunnies, baskets and tulips. While I’m far from orthodox, I do try to follow the no-meat on Friday rule during lent (though full confession I only seem to remember halfway through a turkey sandwich or mid-Korean barbecue). With friends coming over, the timing was right for seafood. Read more

Apr 1

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Catching Up in March

March has been such a whirl that I made it all the way to April before I could stop and catch my breath. It started well with my first contribution to the Cooking Channel’s Devour the Blog and it was great to see so many of you making the jump. A new post on stocking my Latin pantry went up yesterday with more to follow. I laid my cupboard bare (well I straightened it up first) so I hope you’ll visit the site again and let us know what’s in yours. I also wrote a piece about Latin American staples – Running with the Grains – for Marcus Samuelsson‘s Food Republic that combines two favorite obsessions – seeking out new ingredients and running till I just can’t anymore. A new site covering everyone from Junot Diaz to Michelle Bernstein (who also helps spices up school lunches here), I was thrilled to be a part of their launch this week. Read more

Mar 22

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Arepa de Dominó

I was working on a post on the Latin pantry for Devour the Blog when I decided to take a look at my own. I’m constantly straightening and organizing my shelves in the on-going game of kitchen Jenga that my limited New York storage space forces me to play. I can’t complain though because a few years ago my cupboards would have been bare. It took me awhile to figure out what I like, how I should store it, and how often I would use it. I hate waste and there were a few forgotten items staring at me resentfully from behind the much loved olive oil and sea salt, but I think I got it down to the essentials. I don’t know if it’s pure projection or all those chiles and peppers, but Latin American products seem to vibrate just a little bit more than others. I feel like if I winked at the woman on the P.A.N. Harina bag she just might wink back and I’m also absolutely terrified of the Abuelita on Nestlé’s Mexican chocolate discs though I’m sure she means well. Read more