Rachel Laudan

One of the hardest things to figure out about food, if you live in the US, is how tastes are changing in other parts of the world. Cookbooks and food magazines spend most of their time exploring “authentic” traditional cuisines.
So it was great to find Farid Zadi’s summary of how Algerian Cuisine has changed [...]

The Bajio, the rich farmland of Central Guanajuato, is becoming a major vegetable growing area for the international market. A good article in the NY Times interviews American farmers who are now renting land here. I would add that it’s not just Americans who insist on porta potties, clean water etc. Big Mexican [...]

That’s a question I have been asked several times. In my Mexican Kitchen’s Islamic Connection I mention only the Mughals.
Yes, clearly there was. Muslims conquerers had begun entering India around 1200, 300 plus years before the Mughals. The traveler Al-Biruni describes (more or less accurately) meals at the sultans’ courts. The [...]