Photo by John Suh

Bibigo from CJ Foods is the new kid on the gochujang block and pretty delicious.

​What is it?

A staple of Korean food, red pepper paste (or gochujang) is a condiment made from fermented soy beans, red chili pepper powder, glutinous rice, and sometimes garlic and onion. It is dark red in color and combines the flavor profiles of salty, savory, and especially spicy and sweet. Traditionally, gochujang was made by natural fermentation: ingredients were placed in earthenware jars under the sun for an extended period of time.

More >>

Photo by Christina Uticone

​Finding something light enough for a pre-yoga meal at Kenny & Ziggy's Delicatessen is quite a challenge--it's a huge menu, and the portions themselves are also huge. Even the salads are impressive in size, and so delicious that it's hard to stop eating even when full. I recently found myself tight on time before a yoga class and needing a quick refueling before hitting the mat. I eyed up my husband's Luck be a Latke (brisket between two potato pancakes) with envy while I limited myself to an order of three Potato Pirogen ($7.95)--boiled--with onions, sour cream, and apple sauce.

I have noticed that Kenny & Ziggy's gets some backlash from folks who don't appreciate the prices. Personally, I find the portion sizes justify the pricing, and I have never had a bite that was less than delicious. I may be from Upstate New York, but I know good deli when I see it and K&Z is great deli food.

More >>

Photo by Troy Fields

Pondicheri's counter: the site of many a customer temper tantrum this past Monday.

​Houston restaurants such as Backstreet Cafe have long offered Meatless Mondays, popular with vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike who enjoy eating meat-free meals that emphasize fresh, seasonal produce.

More than 30 percent of Indians, meanwhile, identify as vegetarian. There is a national system in place there to identify which foods are vegetarian. In many areas of the country -- from north to south -- vegetarian cuisine is preferred by both meat-eaters and vegetarians alike simply because of the region's long history of cooking vegetable-based meals.

Neither of these facts swayed the upset customers who came to Pondicheri last Monday and found that the Indian restaurant had switched to a Meatless Monday concept.

"Approximately 50 people turned around and left when they heard we were not serving meat," said Pondicheri chef and owner Anita Jaisinghani. "Some yelled at the counter server -- who happened to be my son valiantly trying to defend his mother. One demanded a chicken frankie and told my son, 'I know you have chicken back there, just pack one up for me and I won't tell anyone.'"

More >>

Photo by Flitzy Phoebie on Flickr

​Happy New Year! Forget that pesky diet; start off 2012 on the right (lucky) foot with some black-eyed peas. (We're talking the legume, not the music group.) Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's for good luck and prosperity has long been a southern tradition. Some say it stems from Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, when black-eyed peas along with leeks and other lucky ingredients are consumed. In the south, black-eyed peas are usually cooked with ham or bacon and served with some sort of leafy vegetable like collard, turnip, or mustard greens. The peas, which swell during cooking, represent prosperity, and the greens represent money.

More >>

Photo by Wright Reading

Taste that rainbow.

​What is it?

The most common variety is the garden beet: deep red in color and bulbous in shape. It was first discovered in the Mediterranean some millennia ago. Beets are high in phytonutrients called betalains, which are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory in nature, and their nitrites can enhance athletic performance. Beets are also a good source of lutein and zeaxanthin, both of which aid in macular and retinal health.

The beet root is crispy when raw and turns buttery when cooked, while the leaves are mildly bitter, like chard.

More >>

Photo by avatar-1 on Flickr

​It happens to the best of us. We boil a pot of spaghetti, stew a pot of tomato sauce, eat, refrigerate, heat and eat again.

Even though I prefer only a spoonful of sauce to my gigantic mound of pasta, everyone else I feed likes to drown their stuff in sauce. This means I always end up with that notorious Tupperware container full of leftover spaghetti noodles. I admit to having thrown away many servings of perfectly fine spaghetti, and each time, a mini version of my mother appears on my shoulder and wags her finger at me.

My conscience (and my mini-mother) got the better of me, and now I've come up with a repertoire of things to do with leftover spaghetti. Tuck these Top 5 tips away in your noodle (like how I formed that pun?), and not only will you reduce waste, you'll never go hungry again.

More >>

Photos by Troy Fields

Matti Merrell inside her food truck in the Third Ward.

​For most of the week, Matti Merrell and her husband Rodney Perry cook out of the little, cabbage-green food truck that's parked on Wheeler near Dowling. Their truck, Green Seed Vegan, is one of the few vegan eateries in town and certainly the only vegan food truck.

That changes on Saturday afternoons, when Green Seed Vegan cooks up an all-you-can-eat vegan brunch at The Eat Gallery (4420 Almeda), just down the street. Merrell is there every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., dishing up homemade vegan delicacies that you can eat in a sit-down restaurant with gracious service and good tunes: a quinoa scramble with her homemade chickpea tempeh, or chicken-fried cauliflower that even the pickiest person would devour. My favorite dishes at her brunch so far are both squash-based: pumpkin French toast with agave nectar and a butternut squash casserole with pumpkin, cranberries and crunchy pepitas on top.

Part of the draw of this weekly vegan brunch is, of course, the amazing food that Merrell prepares: vegan food that appeals to carnivores, with tongue-in-cheek touches like kombucha mimosas and coconut milk lattes served on the side. But the other part of the draw is The Eat Gallery itself.

More >>

​Vegan chef and book author Christy Morgan has been taking her food philosophy all over the U.S. "I want people to know that food is very powerful," Morgan said. "That cooking healthy is easy and doable."

This past Friday the chef stopped in Houston to give a cooking demonstration, tasting and book signing at One Green Street, an upscale one-stop organic products shop owned by Sherry Eichberger (first name "like the wine," she said) that offers everything from schmancy rock jewelry and "sustainable fashion" pieces, to Filthy Cock Soap -- all organic, of course. The place was filled with dedicated veggie lovers, from a casual vegan mom who just completed an 18-day juice fast to members of the vegansocietyofpeace.org and the owners of Green Seed Vegan.

Before Morgan could begin her demonstration, however, she made one thing clear.

"I am not a raw food chef," she said, referring to the slightly misleading advertisement posted around town about her appearance. "I am a vegan macrobiotic chef."

After setting the record straight, Morgan talked about her foray into the world of whole living, starting nine years ago, when she watched a video about the cruel methods of keeping and killing animals for human food consumption. It was a PETA production entitled "Meet Your Meat."

The very next day, she became a vegan.

More >>

Photo by John Suh

Buttermilk smashed purple potatoes

​Another discovery from last month's trip to Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc Restaurant is these little bites of purple delight. Simply prepared yet full of earthy goodness, the potatoes were my favorite thing on the dish; I raved about them even more than I did the Wagyu beef skewers and slow-roasted pork ribs. They're vibrant and delicious and make an awesome accompaniment. Read on and learn about the purple potato.

More >>

Photo by John Suh

Lovely broccolini

​What is it?

Often mistaken as young broccoli since it's sometimes called baby broccoli, broccolini is actually more closely related to Chinese broccoli (or gai lan) than American broccoli. It has smaller florets and longer stalks than American broccoli and a mildly sweet taste resembling both broccoli and asparagus. Dubbed as the Chinese kale, it contains an abundance of both vitamins C and A, calcium, folate, and iron.

More >>