Foodie Nuggets: Indian Food for Diabetics

Do you like Indian food? I watch a lot of cooking shows and videos. One thing I noticed about Indian cooking is that they really know how to blend herbs and spices and do amazing things to enhance the flavor of vegetables. Whether the veggies are cooked or eaten raw in a salad, they are so tasty.

Methi Sprouts Salad Recipe - Delicious Diabetic Snack by Archana's Kitchen

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Food and Drink History Lesson : English Tea (Guest Post)

Tea in England

Author: AnutaVasil

The English primarily drank coffee and wine as their staple drink, and tea was unknown in England till as late as 1662. In 1662 Charles II married Catherine of Braganza of Portugal, and it was his new bride who brought with her a preference of tea. She served tea instead of wine, ale and spirit. Tea soon acquired the status of royal drink and a social nicety for the rich.

However, tea's acceptance by British masses was quite slow. It was in late 1700 that tea's popularity picked up. As tea came from British colonies, it came to be viewed as a national drink, with patriotic sentiments attached to it. Another reason which contributed to its popularity was the ease of its preparation technique. While coffee grounds could be brewed only once, and reusing the same ground yielded a much inferior flavour, tea leaves could be brewed several times without any significant drop in the quality of liquor. As tea was a high class drink and hence expensive, the British masses bought second hand, brewed leaves and brewed them longer to compensate. Tea was thus gradually finding place in British everyday life.

Soon, tea began to be sold in London coffee houses. Tea was heavily advertised as a medicinal drink which helped maintain health and beauty. The coffee house owners charged heavily for a cup of tea, as much as 6-10 pounds per cup. The government soon imposed various taxes, regulations and restrictions on sale of tea, with a view to cash in on the growing tea trend. This even led to tea being smuggled into England. Finally the taxes were waived off to stop this illegal smuggling.

Tea, meanwhile, continued to grow in popularity. Around 1800, there developed an "Afternoon tea" culture, wherein rich ladies invited their friends for a cup of tea in the afternoon. They also served pastries, sandwiches or some snacks along with it. It was accompanied by social graces, refined conversation, sweet gossip and polished etiquette. Yet another popular tea trend was serving tea in tea gardens. Pleasure gardens like Vauxhall or Ranelagh Gardens provided lush lawns for public to stroll and enjoy a hot cup of tea. The working class, however, took a break from work in the evening, and relaxed with tea.

The most well-liked and sought-after teas were English breakfast tea and Earl Grey. English breakfast tea, as its name suggests, was consumed mostly in the morning, as its strong caffeine helped shake off sleepiness and start the morning energetically. It blended sumptuously with milk and sugar, and could be enjoyed any time of the day. The Earl Grey provided a classic blend of fine black tea with bergamot essence. It was considered a more sophisticated tea.

In 1875, Thomas Lipton aggressively advertised tea. He replaced the coffee gardens in Ceylon with tea plantations and opened his first tea shop. By the end of 1the 9th century, he had almost set up his Tea Empire and laid the foundations of the modern tea trade. The Indian and Ceylon blends, Brooke Bond and Lipton, found a firm place in British everyday life. Tea had finally "arrived" in England.

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History of Tea and Tea Shops

Article made available for republication via: articlesbase.com

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BLOG PUBLISHER'S COMMENTS:   Hope you enjoyed this article.  Do you also enjoy tea?  Before you leave this, please click the link to visit.

TEA LOVER'S PARADISE

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Use of Spices Explained for Foodies by Chris Donald (Guest Post)

To make the food good and very palatable, you will need to use the spices as well as various condiments. These spices will make the food more appealing, and for sure, there is no way that you can eat food that is bland and non-spicy.

The herbs and spices that need to be added to the food to make it tasty will be based on two things, and these are the freshness of spices as well as the proper quantity.

A proper mix or proportion is very important for the addition of spices. Most of the spices come in the powdered form or in the leaf form.

The compatibility of spice with certain types of food is a must-know. You should know which spice to use with which food. This operates on the same principle as the wine does, which is that you should know what wine to serve with what kind of food.

There is no sure-shot method of the quantity that can be used in the food. Your help for the quantity is the online food sites, as well as recipe books available all over. Make sure that you do not add more spices because more is generally not acceptable, but less is acceptable.

If you are reading the recipe books, they generally tend to border on the more commercial side of things, which means the quantities and styles are more over the top. You may need to use your own estimate for the home-cooked food.

To keep the freshness intact of the spices, make sure that you buy the good brands which have good packaging as well as make sure that once you have opened them that you seal them properly to retain the flavor and the aroma.

• Article Credit:

Donald, Chris "Use of spices explained for foodies." Use of spices explained for foodies. 17 Feb. 2009. uberarticles. 8 Dec 2012 <uberarticles.com/food-and-drink/use-of-spices-explained-for-foodies/> (archived copy).

Suggested spice storage products:

• wall mounted spice racks;

• under counter spice racks.

My Dollar Store Hack to Organize My Spice Cabinet https://t.co/2alyUdGWP9 via @flipboard

— EverydayExoticSpices (@EverydaySpices) November 23, 2019

Food Trivia Quiz: Everyday Exotic Spices https://t.co/6Bc0IW3OiL via @virilycom #Takethequiz

— Treathyl Fox (@cmoneyspinner) November 12, 2019

Tips About Using Everyday Exotic Spices https://t.co/c8S5yMBv6f via @virilycom

— EverydayExoticSpices (@EverydaySpices) November 23, 2019

3 Obvious Reasons Why People Love Herbs and Spices https://t.co/2va47ZXuQM via @virilycom #foodanddrink #foodandcooking #cooking #food pic.twitter.com/ad95p2L4Wj

— EverydayExoticSpices (@EverydaySpices) November 23, 2019

Crunch Time: Celebrating National Potato Chip Day

Foodimentary is a website that publishes information about National Food Holidays. In an article by John-Bryan Hopkins, he shares an interesting fact about one of my favorite snack foods.

• Did you know that the potato chip was invented by a man named George Crum who was annoyed that a customer had complained that his french fries were too thick?

March 14^th is National Potato Chip Day | Foodimentary.com

Perhaps many will say that it's not a healthy snack but I will confess that potato chips are one of my guilty pleasures and every now and then I indulge myself. Hey! Life is short!

To celebrate this particular food holiday I found some short posts written by fellow bloggers at a social blogging community where I also publish content. One of the shares is about "a salty finger food enjoyed in India" eaten pretty much the same way we enjoy potato chips.  

Have fun!

Foodimentary by John-Bryan Hopkins

If You're Going to Indulge in a Guilty Pleasure?

Might as well go gourmet!

Natural Nectar Oolala Potato Chips, Black Truffle and Olive Oil, 5 Ounce

Lay's Kettle Cooked 40% Less Fat Jalapeño Cheddar Flavored Potato Chips, 1.375 Ounce (Pack of 64)

Late July Organic Sweet Potato Snack Chips, 5.5 oz

Sanders Dark Chocolate Potato Chips 16oz Container

If the choices above don't suit your fancy, click here for more gourmet potato chips.

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Foodie Nuggets: Gourmet Sleuth is an Excellent Cooking Resource (Bye Bye!) [UPDATE]

UPDATE March 2025: APOLOGIES. Bad news I'm afraid. I don't know what happened. But this foodie website no longer exists. The domain name is available and is being used by another owner and it is not food-related.  The best I could do is find sites like the "old" Gourmet Sleuth used to be.  Sorry.

  

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Have you ever had a recipe that required a certain ingredient but that particular ingredient is not readily available where you live OR if it is available, it's really expensive.  This website called Gourmet Sleuth will share ingredients that you can substitute.  For example:

• If you don't have radicchio, use endive or arugula.
• If you don't have jack fruit, use plantains, summer squash or papaya. 

If the recipe calls for something exotic like Bhutanese Red Rice, you can substitute Black rice or brown rice.  (Found a recipe at a site other than Gourmet Sleuth.)

"Bhutanese Red Rice is a partially-milled short grain rice grown in the Himalayan mountains." 

You can easily look up what you need as the ingredients are arranged in alphabetical order.

The site also has HAD a blog and shares recipes, conversions, and articles.  Because I am interested in world cuisine, I really like the article section titled "Ethnic, Unique Foods, Ingredients".  Could not find another site.  Can only refer you to Amazon.  (Not like that's a bad thing.  There's actually some pretty cool stuff there. 😀)

Substituting Ingredients: The A to Z Kitchen Reference (Must-Have Kitchen Essential with 1,000 Easy-to-Find, Healthy, and Cheap Substitutions)