January is a great time for citrus, but the My Berkeley Bowl challenge means you won't find any navel oranges on this blog. Nope, this blog necessitates something extraordinary. And I assure you, you won't find a citrus fruit more extraordinary than Buddha's Hand.It's not hard to guess how this fruit got its name. The [...]
This week's recipe is one that I developed for an article I wrote for Bay Area News Group, just released this morning. Given the "mainstreamedness" of the readership, I had to keep things a bit more tame to be accessible to a wider audience, while still giving the recipes an "exotic" spin to stay true to [...]
As I already explained in Part I of Squash Week, this is a big freakin' deal in our household. It's like when the fair comes to town, except that instead of feeling all gross inside after gorging on funnel cake and corn dogs, we feel all warm and gooey inside after gorging on one of [...]
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/12/03/blogger-inspired-by-unique-exotic-at-berkeley-bowl/ I had the immense pleasure of being interviewed by Alix Wall, a writer for Berkeleyside Nosh and fellow Berkeley Bowl fan. She really captured the inspiration behind this project and what drove me to this insane challenge of designing a recipe for each and every unusual fruit and vegetable at Berkeley Bowl. Please check out [...]
There's a satisfying logic to why I named this salad after the legendary music producer, Quincy Jones. (Well, it's satisfying if you love puns and music trivia as much as my family does.) Here's the logic: The exotic fruit I feature in this recipe is quince, Mr. Jones' fruit namesake. I'll talk more about quince in a [...]
For some, the plantain might be the exotic part of this dish. But to me, the milpero were the little nuggets of exotic, tangy perfection that inspired this concoction. If you're debating whether to read on, let me just say that my trusty taste-tester Mike threw his hat on the floor and cried out "this might be [...]
Gazpacho is my absolute favorite summertime food. But because the cornerstone of the dish is ripe, juicy tomatoes, I only get to make it a few months out of the year. When it's that time, I go buy tomatoes by the flat at the farmers market (negotiating like a crazy pirate woman) and keep a couple gallons [...]
Nothing screams summer like frozen treats. So in honor of the first week of summer, I am introducing you to my life-changing sorbet. Yeah, that's right, LIFE-CHANGING. This sorbet is so lusciously and luxuriously magenta, you won't be able to stop staring at it. And when you take your first bite, you won't be able to stop [...]
I'm a complete sucker for anything almond. Almond croissants, almond-scented lotion, marzipan, almond paste straight from the tube... yeah, I have been that desperate before. The word "almond" on a dessert menu can magically create a vacancy in my stomach that just a second earlier seemed stuffed to the brim. If you are like me, [...]
Blast some Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the stereo, grab your cocktail shaker, and get ready for a party--- in your mouth. This is one crazy fruit. As if the florescent orange color weren't enough, the spikes shooting off of it really make it look like a tropical puffer fish or some sort of martian weapon [...]