Italian Food

Italian Food: Pasta

Nothing says Italian food like pasta. There are many Italian immigrants in SF. They brought Italian food culture to here. Beside of many wonderful restaurants in SF, we can easily to buy various shapes of dry pasta, and make it at home. Dried pasta is nutrition and long shelf life.

Sauce is very important for pasta cuisine. In fact, there are many kinds of sauce for pasta. My favorite is tomato sauce. The ingredients are: diced tomatoes, wine, tomato paste, chicken bouillon granules, basil, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper with the onion mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook at a simmer, stirring frequently, for 1 hour.

A16 is a great Italian restaurant in SF. The Southern specialties of Campania are the inspiration for chef David Taylor at this always crowded Chestnut Street restaurant. The maccaronara pasta is great. It’s located on 2355 Chestnut Street, and parking is difficult.

Italian Food: Pasda by Farrah Lee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

French Food

French Food: Foie Gras and Baguette

French food has a long history. When we talk about French food, no matter traditional food or modern food,  Baguettefoie and foie gras  are considered the symbols of French food culture. Baguette is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust. It’s always offered before dish at French restaurant.

Foie gras is another special French dish, which tender and delicious. But in fact, it’s banned in California on 1^st July last year. foie gras suffers from a bit of an ethical foible: the force-feeding required to enlarge the duck or goose’s liver in the final 2-3 weeks of its life. That’s a big issue in California. In San Francisco, foie gras enforcement falls to Animal Care and Control.

Although foie fras is banned in Bay Are, people can tasted other delicious French dish. Such as lobster, onion soup, salmon. The wine is the most important drinking that you cannot miss for French dinner.

Masa’s is a wonderful restaurant in SF. Although the price is more expensive than other French restaurant, the atmosphere is great. The tailored dining room features well-spaced, white-clothed tables. Each set with a bouquet of dozen pink roses, French romantic style. The specialty is its nine-course tasting menu. So if you want to have a romantic or wedding dinner, you can come Masa’s, 648 Bush Street in SF.

A Bite of Life in SF: French Food by Farrah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

KOREAN POPULAR DISH: BIBIMBAP

KOREAN POPULAR DISH: BIBIMBAP

Bibimbap, the most popular dish in Korea, is appeared in 19^th century. What’s bibimbap? It’s a bowl of hot rice served various vegetables that are cooked and raw on the top of hot rice. Vegetables can be seasonal, bellflower roots, gosari, bracken, bean sprouts, and spinach often served. Other ingredients include jujubes, ginseng, a small amount of seafood or meat, and so on.

A raw egg is very important for Bibimbap. Most Korean restaurants served a raw egg on the top of rice. People can stir by a scooper. The hot bowl will sizzle with stirring. Most people would like adding a big scoop of gochujang, a kind of Korean chili pepper paste. Gochujang is so different from other chili pepper saucee, such as Chinese chiliaookspice pepper I mentioned before. Actually, I think gochujiang is not very spicy, but it makes bibimbap more visual. So that’s why many people like to add more sochujiang to make spicier, as well as looks delicious.

Bibimbap has been a part of Korea traditional cuisine culture. There are so many Korean restaurants in Bay Area. Such as Stone Korean Kitchen, which located on four Embarcadero, Street Level, SF. There are various Korean food, especially delicious Bibimbap.

     

KOREAN POPULAR DISH: BIBIMBAP by Farrah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Important Ingredients of Thai Food

There are some important ingredients and herbs that make Thai food delicious and special. The tastes of Thai food is sour, sweet and spicy. I will introduce some important ingredient that your should put into when you cook Thai food.

Galangal: Used in Thai soup or in curry paste. It has various forms fresh, dry. powdered or frozen.

Thai Sweet Basil: This fragrant relative of common basil is used in most curry dishes, fresh one is far superior.

Curry Paste: There are many kind soy curry in complete Thai cuisine, that's totally different with India curry of Japanese curry. You should go to oriental markets and larger supermarkets, but local market is best.

Fish Sauce: Substitues for sly in most Thai dishes. Each brand has a different salt content that can affect the flavor of dishes.

Kaffir Lime Leaves: It's an very important herb in preparing curry dishes, can be purchased dry, fresh or frozen.

Green Lemon: It's totally different with the yellow and green lemon that you buy from common market. It's special lemon that grow up in Thailand. It much more greener, smaller much sour.

Lemongrass: This ia sn essential herb that is used in curry paste and two well-known soups, Tom Yum Goong and Kai Dom Khaa. This herb is also reputed to be good for nervous systems. It makes flovr special and sour. It's different that you squeeze lemon into dishes.


Mangos: A sweet delicious tropical fruit that can either be eaten ripe or green. Good in salads, desserts and drinks.

A Bite of Life in SF: Thai Food by Farrah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Thai Food Culture

Thailand is a Southeast Asian, predominantly Buddhist Kingdom almost equidistant between India and China. For centuries known by outsiders as Siam, Thailand has been something of a Southeast Asian migratory, cultural and religious crossroads. 

There are many things relate its religion in Thailand. You can see many buildings that relate Buddhist culture. So it also relates the food culture. When you go to any Thai restaurants, you can see many Thai decorations, such as gold color, fruits. Since its geography belong subtropical zone, there are also many subtropical fruits, such as mango, durian and lemon.The Thai fruits are various and fresh.

There are also some special ingredients forThai food. Such as Galangal, Thai Sweet Basil. When I went to Thailand with my parents, they love Thai food so much, so we talked about why it's so special, so we went to super markets to buy some Thai ingredients and sauce, chili, so on. When we went back China, we tried to cook Thai food by ourselves, but we are failed. However those ingredients is most important factors that make special tastes.

A Bite of Life in SF: Thai Food Culture by Farrah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.