Saveur | hungry sofia

Dec 31

Storybook Ending

I’m known in my family for withholding information. More absentminded than secretive, I’d forget to tell my parents about field trips, birthday parties, science projects, and even award ceremonies (never for science) until the last possible moment. On the upside, friends can attest that I’m all vault. Where it’s not so great is how slow I’ve been to post the good things that have been happening since the release of the The Cuban Table…and there has been a lot of good to share. Read more

Apr 5

Catching Up in April and Springing Forward

Now that it’s almost over, I can admit that this winter has been hard. It wasn’t the severity but the unpredictability that had me – and almost everyone else I know – on edge. Desperate for any lasting sign of spring, I wrote this short piece on getting through the final weeks for Devour. Last week, in a fit of spring induced optimism, I brought an armful of herbs home from the farmer’s market. I’ve never been great with plants, but seeing them lined up along the windowsill, I’m hopeful that these will be different. Read more

Aug 5

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Catching Up in August

Every time I sit down to write my catch-up posts, the more practical how-to/technique links get pushed down the list or drop off altogether. I thought the last one of the summer was as good a time to finally get them in. With the markets bursting, it’s easy to over-buy, so this post from the Kitchn on small batch canning will help you keep it in a jar. I also love their quick guide to ingredient substitutions for near kitchen emergencies. This low-tech ice cream post from Saveur will get you through the worst of the heat, with out without the gadgets. For basics, Food Republic offers a 5 Crucial Kitchen Techniques, and How To Use Them and a general Word of the Day Guide. If you want to put it all together for the perfect dinner party, the Cooking from Every Angle section on Food 52 gets it down. Finally, for awhile I’ve been flagging Tar-Tyrin’ post with plans to make polka dot utensil jars, copper dipped flatware, cake stands, and even stenciled area rugs. Full disclosure, it hasn’t happened yet but there are still a few weeks left of summer to get to it.

Apr 17

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Saveur Nomination and Spring Fever

First of all, I am thrilled to announce that Hungry Sofia was nominated by SAVEUR as one of this year’s best blogs in the category of Best Regional Cuisine! I am so proud to be included in a fantastic group of bloggers and can’t thank everyone enough for putting my name into the mix. I’ve discovered amazing new sites among the nominees, so I hope you’ll take a moment to jump over to Saveur. Voting is open from now until April 26. Registration is painless and you can do it here then vote here! Read more

Oct 31

Catching Up in October

I usually use my catching-up posts to link to things I’ve read, but this October I thought I’d focus on what I’ve seen…Now that the vampire craze has given way to zombies, I hope the mad scientist is the next ones due for his close-up. I’ve never been a fan of Hollywood horror, but I started out the month with the new Almodóvar, The Skin I Live In, and loved it. It always feels so right when his latest arrives in fall – an over-saturated season to perfectly mirrors his over-saturated films. Set somewhere between Frankenstein and Hitchcock with the voice of Concha Buika (above) piping through, if you don’t think you could live there, then you haven’t seen the house. Read more

Feb 28

Catching Up in February

I may be biased because it was my birthday month but it has been a fantastic February. I got started on a couple of new projects that I’ll have more details about soon, spent a lot of time with friends, and saw some great performances and shows including Balanciaga: Spanish Master at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute and El Bulli: Cooking in Progress which just had it’s New York premiere at MoMA. When my head wasn’t in Spain past and future, I was flipping through the latest Saveur and thrilled that they featured Leticia Moreinos Schwartz’s Brazilian Kitchen in Dorothy Irwin’s Taking Root. I was also taking vicarious tours of Chile, starting with the New York Times 36 Hours in Santiago, Chile and ending with the Atlantic’s In Chile, Molecular Gastronomy and Locavores Collide. While the latter was a fun read, I was disappointed that it didn’t describe an actual chef rumble where no one gets hurt but everyone eats. Read more

Sep 9

Peruvian Treasure

Since realizing how much we owe to them, I have been looking for anything and everything to do with Peruvian cuisine. With so many ingredients difficult to find, I sometimes have to be content to read the food rather than make it. In Food Fit For The Gods for Saveur magazine, Gabriella de Ferrari describes the way recipes were passed (or not) among family and friends:

When my mother came to Peru, no Peruvian cookbook of any significance existed. Instead, recipes were passed from mother to daughter—or, like beauty secrets, were exchanged cautiously by word of mouth, as symbols of friendship. I remember that one of my classmates got into trouble because she revealed to me her mother’s special method of preparing mazamorra, a dessert made of fruit and purple corn. Read more

Aug 25

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Last Gazp

I know it will still be warm in September, but with August almost gone, summer is definitely slipping away. I wanted to include one more gazpacho recipe before it was over, using the few tomatoes that had made it to market despite the late blight. I checked Saveur for recipes and found this post featured on their best of the web section, which led me to delicious days. A wonderful site maintained by Nicky and Oliver, a couple based out of Munich, the recipe itself comes from their friend Carlos fittingly named Gazpacho con Tropezones or stumbling stones. Once I’d finally jumped to the right page, I found it as easy and straightforward as the recipe promised, and just in time.

Aug 1

Picking a Pepper

I found myself at Whole Foods last week staring blankly at their large chile peppers selection. The signs above the peppers gave involved descriptions of where they were from, what was mild and fruity, and what was deadly but there was no correlation to the actual chiles. So while I knew each one’s life story, I wasn’t sure which basket of peppers it described. Unsure of what to buy, I took a small selection to figure it out later. Maricel E. Presilla’s A World of Peppers in this moth’s Saveur should help avoid confusion the next time around.

Jul 12

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Hunger Killer

I came across this recipe for an Argentinian matambre or “hunger killer” when I was reading about guachos in Savuer and had to try it. I was a little apprehensive about cooking it for three hours and so were the guys at Staubitz who butterflied the flank steak, but it worked well. There was another version on the site where the steak is seared first then cooked in the oven for a shorter time which I plan on trying soon. I choose this one first mostly because it was attributed to Rosa Angelita Castro de Flores from El Bordo de las Lanzas. I love a recipe with a landscape and with no immediate plans to go away this summer, it temporarily quieted my travel pangs.