ON CORN TORTILLAS A Mexican boy of 20 or so ... in long baggy shorts with a baseball hat is cooking my eggs while his mother rapidly peels potatoes with a curved blade flicking the peels a...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2015/11/corn-tortillas-word-on-food.html
“MICHEL BRAS” It was not originally on the itinerary at all, but as the months drew closer to our going Charlie came to one of his famously resolute decisions and told Steve Greystone, “...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2015/11/our-lunch-at-michel-bras-laguiole-france.html
INTERVIEW WITH NORMAN VAN AKEN What inspired you in the search of new flavors? how was your culinary style born? People inspire me. Food is about the love of people and families and t...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/12/interview-with-norman-van-aken.html
Despite our (we thought!), carefully planned strategy for a lunch of divine sushi… we were in for a shock as we slowed to pull on to the side street off the 79th street causeway. The shock...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-word-on-food-miso.html
We were in Atlanta for the annual Atlanta Food & Wine Festival a few years ago. The folks who started this up, have hit the sweet spot on all manner of Southern cooking and drinking with thi...
The summer I became a golf caddie was one filled with suddenly unfamiliar routines and the deep lows and soaring highs of messy adolescence. I was 14 years of age and not skipping smoothly a...
(From the NPR Radio Show, "A Word On Food" by Norman Van Aken) ‘A Word on Food’ is done with … words … of course. Where would I be without them? Our blonde-haired, blue-eyed grand...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-foods-of-india.html
Have you seen that now classic commercial where a bunch of cowboys get all freaked out about a salsa that is produced in NEW YORK CITY..!?!?! Well, I found it similarly amus...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/06/fried-green-tomatoes.html
When I was 19, 20 and 21 years of age … I seemed to be on a yo-yo between my boyhood home in Illinois and the place I was seeking. I wanted sunlight. I wanted music. I wanted good books. ...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/05/fried-chicken-word-on-food.html
I was near a small sandwich stand in an open-air market. It was like many you could see almost anywhere in the world. A radio was playing a vaguely familiar tune. Soft drink cans a...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/05/sandwiches-word-on-food.html
THERE ARE SOME STRONG WORDS OF ENDORSEMENT FOR YOUR BOOK. HERE'S A FEW. “. . . One of the most compelling and page-turning memoirs I've read. . . . Revealing, funny and brutally hones...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/05/an-interview-no-experience-necessary.html
We were in the Miami International Airport joined in a shuffling line of other travelers at ‘La Carreta’ ... the famously successful Miami restaurant chain that also boasts ‘Versaill...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/05/sopa-de-pollo.html
KATSUOBUSHI. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, wrote in “Ode to Salt” “I know you won’t believe me, but it sings, salt sings… Dust of the sea, in you the tongue re...
TACO LINGO. I learn words in many ways… but the best may be in eating. The words on the menus and in the cookbooks I have from around the world have helped me conquer at least ‘parts�...
NORMAN VAN AKEN’S WORD ON FOOD © TODAY’S WORD ON FOOD IS BLOOD. I walked into our restaurant kitchen and I inhaled an aroma I’d known before I knew it’s name. It was blood. It s...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-word-on-food-blood.html
NORMAN VAN AKEN’S WORD ON FOOD © HI. I’M NORMAN VAN AKEN AND WELCOME TO ‘A WORD ON FOOD’. TODAY’S WORD ON FOOD IS ADOBOS. Writing my radio show brings me to some words...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-word-on-food-adobos.html
CEVICHES. Controversies over the birthplace of certain dishes are part of the spice of life and landscape of any cuisine. A spirited discussion revolves around the origin of ceviches. Th...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2013/09/ceviches-word-on-food-series.html
You may be making plans to celebrate our day of "National Independence" from the once “Tax Mad” English by having friends and family over for backyard parties. Possibly your menu will be...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2013/07/happy-fourth-of-july-happy-hot-dogs.html
See my Twitter page for a picture of the American Flag snapping in the Illinois December wind. Stark, blackish telephone and utility poles punctuate the somber white fields. Snowplow cleared hi...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-little-town.html
My Mom's city was NYC but for Daddy it was CHI TOWN! We are heading there from the relatively steamy provinces of South Florida this morning. Soon I'll report on the City of Big Shoulders and wha...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/12/chicago-sweet-home-chicago.html
I'll have to put a picture of the Egg, Chorizo and Potato Tacos I had at "Antojitos" of Homestead, Fla on my Twitter page, @normanvanaken I can't upload it here as of yet. This family run place...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/12/wolves-at-bay.html
Over the next week plus we will journey to our birthplace in Northern Illinois to catch up with Family and Friends as well as celebrate Christmas. Along the way I know we will indulge our passion...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/12/road-to-christmas.html
Part of the reason we were able to prevail, (see the last quote in the story), was due to the fact that the three owners of Louie’s Backyard were gutsy enough to back my wild notions. One of...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/11/louies-backyard-remembering.html
I walked into shack of a restaurant (even by Key West standards) on a late morning in the spring of 1971 and was handed a sea-water damp menu with items like Turtle Steak, Jewfish Chowder, Fri...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/11/cooking-old-key-west.html
It has been a busy time with travel but I wanted to share the great time we had cooking together and doing a demo at the always blissful Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden just off Coral Way ...
http://normanvanaken.blogspot.com/2010/11/fairchild-tropical-garden.html