Just Hungry

[Update, added October 2006:] my review of the BBC bio-drama about Fanny, Fear of Fanny. continue reading...

One of the best aspects of IMBB is that I always discover food sites that I've never seen before. One new food blog that really stood out is delicious: days, which hails from München (Munich), Germany. continue reading...

A quick note: the entries for IMBB 13 are coming in in waves! So far there are well over 50 entries, and the deadline isn't past yet. I'll try to post them all as soon as possible. Oh..and write up my entry too. Stay tuned for a deluge of cupcakes and muffins!

Just a reminder that there is a week to go until the deadline for IMBB 13. Already a few entries are in, and I'm looking forward to seeing more. I'm not sure myself what I am going to do...I'm torn between one amazing, over-the-top, or a cupcake and a muffin. We'll see! Some experimenting to do this weekend.

(Yes, more round food!)

Last April I wrote about a local speciality of sorts, wild garlic, or bärlauch, pesto. It's a type of garlic that only appears in the forests in the spring. We still have about 15 cm / 6 inches of snow on the ground here, which isn't really that usual for mid-March. So spring still feels rather distant. continue reading...

I was just really very hungry (the site you are reading right now) is proud to host the lucky 13th edition of Is My Blog Burning, the mother (father?) of blogging food events originated by Alberto of Il Forno. The theme for this month is: My Little Cupcake (or muffin). continue reading...

My favorite television program at the moment is The Amazing Race. In case you have never watched this U.S. program, it's a reality/adventure show where 11 teams of 2 (the combinations vary from married or dating couples to parent and child, roommates, best friends, and so on) race around the world and try to end up being the first at each leg's destination. The final winner wins $1 million. It's really a fun show that even many reality genre haters like. continue reading...

I never finished my musings on food during my summer trip to England, and in the meantime I spent a month last November in the U.S., partly in New York. Before it totally disappears from memory, here is a brief roundup, from a foodie perspective of course.

Before we proceed, you should know that I am an ex-New Yorker, and had a fairly specific food agenda this time around, which included the following: continue reading...

Hi everyone! Well it has been a while since I posted, and I've gotten many comments, emails and IMs wondering if I'd stopped updating this site. Well, I haven't. I've just been very busy with other stuff.

I've also been wanting to update the design for some time, and this past week I finally got around to that task too. The new design is a bit less busy than the old one (I think anyway), and it feels ready to accept fresh new entries now! continue reading...

At the moment, I’m trying to lose some of that weight I put on during my vacation where I indulged in the delights of suet pastry and other things (And well, there’s some pre-vacation gain there to lose too.) This means of course that dreaded word, dieting. I do prefer to use the term “food intake adjustment” though. It sort of sounds more scientific. continue reading...

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I am off to England via France (we are driving there...) early tomorrow morning. I will be totally offline during that time (I really need a break from the computer, since I work with it all the time, so I'm not even bringing my laptop...), but I'm hoping to gather some good food tales while I am there. continue reading...

Just a quick note: I haven't been posting lately here because I hurt my left arm recently (and I am left handed), and doing any kind of serious cooking with one arm is sort of difficult. :) I hope to be cooking and posting more as soon as I can though.

The appeal of a buffet is rather obvious. It’s that notion of having no limits. No limits, unlimited, all you want—all you can eat. Human beings respond to the notion of no limits very positively.

And yet…about 99% of the buffets I’ve encountered are pretty bad. Food is either dried out horribly (such as chicken, or the surface of sushi rolls), is overcooked (such as…chicken again, or fish), or smothered in an insulating blanket of sauce that effectively chokes out any kind of real flavor. continue reading...

People in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. are now experiencing an assault of cicadas, that only occurs once every 17 years or so. No such insect attack here in Switzerland fortunately, but one sort of "bug" we see a lot of around this time are chocolate Maierhäfer, or May (June) bugs. They come in all sizes, from tiny foil-wrapped ones to monster bugs up to around 30cm long with bristling legs, which frankly look way too scary to eat to me. continue reading...

Being a chocoholic and living in Switzerland can be a dangerous thing. Just going to the supermarket, one is confronted with row upon row of high quality chocolate, the type that you'd have to pay a premium for in the U.S. Aside from perhaps the cheapest brands, most Swiss chocolate bars in the US $1-2 range are delicious. continue reading...

This great picture of a restaurant sign in Rennes, France was taken by my friend Ciprian. It naturally inspired me to contemplate that amour de pomme de terre —love of the potato. continue reading...

I've mentioned our local organic farm where we buy our eggs several times before. They also sometimes sell some locally produced food items. We spotted this wild garlic, or bärlauch pesto the other day and had to try it. (Ironically it turns out it's made by one of our neighbors who lives across the street.) continue reading...

There are two types of cooking for me. One is the type you do for sustenance, since we do have to eat every day. The other type of cooking I do for the creativity and the relaxation. Putting together a delicious, pretty, or ideally both delicious and pretty dish is a challenge, and a lot of fun. And that's the type of cooking that I write about mainly here. continue reading...

I wrote this review way back in March 2004. The Hungry Tiger disappeared from public view for a while, but it's now back in a new home, so here's my original review again, with updated links.

The Hungry Tiger is named after a character from from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and has a charming quote from that book as its subtitle: continue reading...

Most of the time I think we just go along without thinking much about such big themes as Our Cultural Heritage. But these days I've been contemplating more and more on this. One reason for this has been the movie Lost in Translation. For various reasons, this movie has brought up a lot of debate and thinking about what it is to be Japanese. (Some of the conversations about the movie are on my other blog.) continue reading...

Japanese people like to consume soy beans in many forms. The most well known soy bean product outside of the country is tofu, and edamame (green soy beans) is gaining in popularity too. There is one Japanese soy bean product that probably will never become very popular in other countries though, and that's natto. continue reading...

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I had been eyeing an interesting looking recipe in the weekly paper / advertising rag from Coop, one of the two big supermarket chains in Switzerland, for several days. The recipe was for a lentil loaf, with potatoes, leek, dried mushrooms, cheese and cream, held together with eggs. Since I have been on a sort of sort of lentil kick recently, it was something I really wanted to try. continue reading...

It hasn't been a good cooking week for me, since I've been very busy. Saturday is my birthday though, and we have been wondering whether or not to go out for dinner, or to cook something (well, for Max to cook something) at home. continue reading...

The window of a boulanger (bakery) in Beaune, France continue reading...

Top row: Sa (satoh=sugar), Shi (shio=salt); Middle row: Su (su=vinegar), Se (shoyu=soy sauce); Bottom row: So (miso=fermented soy bean paste)

Besides dashi stock, the basic flavors of traditional Japanese cuisine are sugar, salt, soy vinegar, soy sauce and miso. While not many sauces uses all of these ingredients, many use at least 3. continue reading...

I'm afraid the photo came out with a slight yellowish cast to it since I took it in the afternoon sun. continue reading...

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Two German guys are trying to eat their way through all sorts of "Asian style" noodles, and they are blogging their taste reviews (German site). I've tried some of the ones they've blogged so far though...and they are pretty bad. continue reading...

In case this looks familiar, this is an entry that was originally posted to my main site. Since it's food related it's been moved here. continue reading...

One of my earliest conscious memories is food related.

It is of a vast sea of shiitake mushrooms, stretching out forever and ever before my eyes. I think I must have been around 2 years old when I saw this, and the bounty of shiitake caps was probably just a boxful of them. continue reading...