Ingredients: The Scavenger Hunt

Everyone knows that there's more to cooking than what you do in the kitchen: one of the most important things is doing the shopping. With the advent of supermarkets and instant cooking, some ingredients are becoming harder and harder to find. When I first moved in- I wanted to try a lemon chicken recipe I had which called for lemon curd. After figuring out what I was looking for, I found it in only one of the 4 grocery stores in town. More recently, I've been looking for frozen rhubarb and Mexican sweet chocolate. As far as the frozen rhubarb goes, it seems that the dole product has had a falling out with major supermarkets, and I will have to replace it with fresh rhubarb. For the Mexican sweet chocolate, I am lucky enough to work with a Mexican man who was able to direct me to a handful of Mexican grocers, and tell me at least one brand that I'll definitely be able to find.

The lesson here- is when you have a recipe that calls for an ingredient that you're not completely familiar with, look for that ingredient first before you get any others, or make any plan to use that recipe. Not everything is as readily available as you might think.

Trust Me, There's a Difference

I often browse the cooking magazines at the grocery store, considering that they change a lot more often than the cookbooks at the bookstore. I've been looking into Mexican recipes lately and I feel that there is a very important distinction that must be made.

You see, my girlfriend is not a big fan of spicy things- as many people aren't. But one has to remember that Mexican food is not what you get at Taco Bell, which is the difference I'm talking about. There is a humongous difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex. Although there are many traditional Mexican recipes that use hot peppers, not all of it is spicy. Tex-Mex is the category in which Taco Bell and 5-Alarm Chili falls.

Lastly, it's very important that everyone who cooks keeps this in mind, because the retail stores won't differentiate for you. As a matter of fact, I find that the Old El Paso and Taco Bell taco kits are in the international foods aisle at the grocery store.

Just something to keep in mind.