THE HIGHEST CALIBER OF ITALIAN FOOD

     LA LAMA MOUNTAIN OVENS posts two new “family secret” recipes every month. These are Italian recipes of the highest caliber. They may sound like ordinary recipes, but when you take a close look you’ll see the little extra touches that turn an ordinary dish into a great one. This site is a true treasure.

http://www.parshift.com/ovens/home.htm

“HEAVEN IN YOUR MOUTH”

     I have some great memories of great food, but this fellow’s description of tiramisu exceeds them all. Find the HEAVENLY TIRAMISU site, plus a recipe for the dish he raves about, at:

http://www.heavenlytiramisu.com/rave.htm

     But there’s more. Legend has it that the glorious Italian dessert of tiramisu has been around for hundreds of years – since the Italian Renaissance, in fact. Jane Black did some sleuthing and decided it was invented more recently. And by “recently” she means that the baker who invented it is still alive. And he’s not only alive but still baking. And he’s doing his baking in Baltimore, Maryland.

     Lest Italians feel their cultural history is being sideswiped, I will add that the baker is Italian, and he was in Italy at the time he says he invented this dessert.

     Read all about it, and get an authentic recipe, at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/07/10/AR2007071000327.html

AUSTRIAN FOOD FROM THE HEART

     Some food is so close to the heart that a person can tear up just thinking about it. That’s the kind of food Bernhard presents to us in his website. He’s gone to a lot of trouble for you and me. He’s translated the text from his native German into English in order to reach a wider audience. He’s also beautifully illustrated his recipes.

     Bernhard adds to the site regularly, so that you can learn much about Austria as well as Austrian cooking.

http://www.bernhards.at/

EUROPEAN DELICACIES

     EASTERN EUROPEAN, that is. I haven’t seen a lot of recipes for this style of cooking, but here’s a delicious one, called “Bulgarian Sopsky Salad.” It’s perfect on a warm day:

http://linoleumdynamite.blogspot.com/search/label/Bulgarian

     CROATIAN FOOD. MINOS IMPORTS has some excellent Croatian recipes, ingredients all nicely translated into American measurements:

http://www.minosimports.com/croatian%20recipes.html

     While RECIPEZAAR has a whole nest of totally authentic Eastern European recipes, so authentic that they often use European measurements rather than American ones.

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?categ=15,117

CHINESE “NICE FOOD”

     NICEMEAL.COM has Chinese recipes that are the real thing rather than Americanized versions of Chinese food. This is food worth cooking from scratch: food you won’t find in your local Chinese restaurant.

http://www.nicemeal.com/

     And the ABOUT people will tell you where you can buy those special Chinese recipe ingredients. (You’ll also note that they can tell you about Chinese cooking techniques.)

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/onlineshopping/tp/buy.htm

BEAUTY IN A LUNCH BOX

     For centuries Japanese women have painstakingly learned the art of bringing beauty out of common items: a single branch of a blossoming plum tree, a bowl of soup. This website shows the beauty to be found in a Japanese lunch box. They are called bento boxes, and they are a world away from Western lunch boxes. They in fact bring beauty from such common foods as hard-boiled eggs and rice. Scroll down to see bento boxes that are not even the ultimate in bento boxes but still have beautiful design:

http://www.getinmybelly.org/gimbarchives/cat_bento_boxes.php

     And that takes us to Japanese sushi, which has become so popular in the U.S. that it is served, after a fashion, as part of my local Chinese restaurant’s all-you-can-eat spreads. The Golden Dragon’s sushi is frankly not that good. You can make better sushi yourself. Click below to find a site in which a “master sushi chef” will teach you how to make really good sushi, using videos you can watch if you have Windows Media Player:

http://www.eatsushi.com/demos.asp

     Or, if you’d like a sushi lesson that’s less complicated and without videos, try this one:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/1/171344/4974

RECIPES FROM ALL OVER ASIA

     ASIA RECIPE gives links to many sites with Asian recipes. That’s just for starters. Scroll down the site a bit further, and you’ll find the names of many Asian countries. I clicked on Bangladesh. This brought up several kinds of Bangladeshi recipes. I chose “Vegetarian.” (And if you’re looking for unusual vegetarian recipes, this website has many of them, from many different countries.) Most of the recipes didn’t ask for ingredients I couldn’t find locally, but with those that did, the site includes a good resource. Among the other sites given on the ASIARECIPE.COM links page, you’ll find ASIANFOODGROCERS.COM. And there you are.

http://asiarecipe.com/links/pages/Recipes/

AN ALBERTA FAMILY COOKBOOK

     The Lien family of good Canadian cooks are happy to share their best recipes with you. And what a selection! They must have a couple hundred recipes, each one sounding more delicious than the rest. The sections are in alphabetical order, which puts Candies, Cookies, and Desserts up high on the list, with Meats in the middle, and Vegetables at the end. Which some would say is the proper order.

http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/elien/recipes.htm

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Healthy-Living/Low-Calorie/ViewAll.aspx