Category Archives: Food 101
Food 101: How To Make Bibimbap, Donburi, Rice Bowls, Etc…
One of my big things I like to preach to people unexperienced in the cooking world is the importance of leftovers. Leftovers are the best utility at your disposal when it comes to making lunch, and can really help out at dinner too. I bring this up because of the versatility of everyone’s favorite starch: rice. Leftover rice is a brilliant tool that can form the basis for an entire lunch pretty easily. The easiest way to do this is through what’s known as a “rice bowl”. They’re delicious, easy, healthy, and can be made with pretty much anything lying around.
Food 101: Know Your Milks
I know what you’re thinking…how much can I really need to know about milk? It’s milk! While back in the day milk was milk, there are now a lot more milk options. There are also certain types of milk better for certain types of applications. Hopefully this post will be a nice little guide for what milk is best for what and which can be substituted for another.
Cow’s Milk (whole milk, 2%, skim): This is your standard milk. The different names refer to the fat content of the milk, with whole milk having the most and skim having the least. I’ve found that whole milk and 2% are pretty much interchangeable in recipes, but I wouldn’t recommend using skim for cooking.
Did someone say milk?
Food 101: Basic Guacamole
In my experience guacamole seems to be one of those foods that most people either love or hate. Some people are happy with any guacamole, but others take it much more seriously. There was even a huge social media blow-out (Guacamole-gate) when it was suggested that a guacamole that included peas could be superior to others. Personally I’m more on the traditional side of guacamole things. A good basic guacamole is a culinary multi-tasker. You can set it out as a dip at a party, put it in a burrito, on a sandwich, or use it as a topping for quesadillas, chicken, etc.
Guacamole can range from super basic to super loaded. With this post I’m going to go over how to make a super basic guacamole and then add some suggestions to amp it up a bit if desired. There’s really only 3 ingredients you need for your most basic guacamole: avocado, lemon or lime juice, and salt. Once you have this base you can easily decide on other ingredients to add in to give your guacamole a different taste to fit the occasion. Or just eat it as is. Whatever suits your mood that day.
The line-up
Food 101: How To Make Shish Kebab
Everyone knows my favorite season is Summer. Everything about it is awesome. The weather is great, you can enjoy being outside, plants are in bloom, fresh fruits and vegetables are growing, and the list goes on… I guess if you don’t tolerate heat well, you could go on about the weather not being great and drag in that tired, pointless argument of ‘Derp but if you’re cold you can always put on more layers, if it’s hot you can’t take more clothes off.’ Seriously that explanation makes sense in the very plainest of forms, but it makes absolutely no sense in the real world. Also, I doooo love when people in the first world with air conditioned homes and air conditioned cars and pools and refrigerators and freezers list off their white person problems and piss and moan about how it’s too hot during the Summertime. Oh I do love it!
But really, come on, how can anyone complain when it’s barbecue season? Definitely, inarguably one specific great point about Summer is grilling, which cements it in the running with Autumn when ranking seasons based on their food. We’ve already explained how to grill in another post, but now we’re gonna talk about one tried and true favorite, skewered meat, AKA shish kebab!
Spices 101: What is curry powder? Garam masala? Curry leaf?
Over the past couple of years I’ve really become a hardcore fan of curries. The flavors that come out from combining the amazing blends of spices they employ are out of this world. Best of all, they’re easy. Throw a bunch of shit into a pan and 40 minutes later, there’s a complete meal which smells like upper class India. Unfortunately there’s this odd misconception people seem to have about curry in general. For most of my adult life, my mother has expressed her distaste of Indian food because she “can’t stand all the curry they use in their food!” She’s somewhat come around from that perspective from eating my cooking, but alas there are still a lot of people out there who believe ‘curry’ is some sort of single mystical spice from a far-off land. If you’re not aware, curry seasonings actually encompass a great deal of different spices such as cumin, chili powder, turmeric, etc… But there isn’t actually one single spice called “curry”.
Son of a bitch!
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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