chefbrad's blog

Ever get a hankering for some great Hokkien mee? Want to throw together the perfect shabu-shabu? Looking for beautiful photos of mouth-watering caldereta? If you answered yes to any of these questions — and even if you didn't — you won't want to overlook these great websites dedicated to the cuisines of East Asia. Read more »

East Asian cooking, especially the cuisine of southeast Asia, uses a lot of rice noodles. They are served hot, cold, in soups, in salads and rolled up into spring rolls. Their lightness and chewy texture make rice noodles a pleasant change from heavier wheat noodles. Only thing is, many of us don't have a clue how to soak them properly. Perhaps I can help. Read more »

The Huffington Post has a piece today on the Top 10 Farmers Markets in the US. They have a pretty good list: Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Savannah, Madison. But as with any Top 10 list, they miss quite a bit. Read more »

There are a lot of yogurts out there on the market. Quality plain yogurt should be just milk, live cultures and perhaps a pinch of salt. But so many brands out there have additives, stabilizers like gelatin and carageenan, or preservatives. Others are so spiked with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup that they have more carbs than a can of soda. I found a yogurt with none of that, but one that has all the thick, creamy texture of a great Greek yogurt. Read more »

I love mole poblano. The subtle heat of the ancho, pasilla and mulato peppers. The sauce, its flavor deepened with chocolate and thickened just enough to coat slices of turkey or chicken with a cocoa-velvet sheen. But all that wonderfulness can take a long, long time to make. I came up with this speedy version that—while not quite as ethereal as the hours-long stuff—can still make your heart sing and your tummy beg for más! Read more »

Given that Whats4Eats is a website with international recipes, it's no wonder that we get visitors from around the world too. The Philippines, India, Germany, Mexico — they are all big sources of traffic for the website. Not all Whats4Eats visitors speak English as their first language. So now we have a tool that can help you. Read more »

With travel season starting, I thought it would be a good time to check out the food festivals and events taking place around the country this summer. Here's a list of some of the more interesting happenings. Some are big, some are small. But I'm sure there's fun to be had at all. Read more »

Everyone loves mashed potatoes. Creamy, buttery, smooth. The ultimate comfort food. Your basic ingredients are quite simple: potatoes, milk or cream and butter. But why not mix it up a little? With just a bit of tweaking your basic mashed can be transformed into a high culinary masterpiece. So get on the bus, Gus! Here are 50 Ways to Mash your Taters. Read more »

Whats4Eats now has a Facebook Fanpage for you to visit and join so you can always get the latest updates on food, cooking and recipes from around the world. Start a discussion or give a review. Suggest us to a friend.

And that's not all! We also have our own Twitter page with a streaming list of thoughts and tidbits from Chef Brad and a running update of any new additions to the website.

So climb on the social media bandwagon and friend and follow Whats4Eats today! Read more »

With all of the recent food contamination scares, most of us are understandably worried about the safety of what we put in our mouths or those of our children. While salmonella in a peanut factory is a matter for government regulators, there are some basic steps you can take in your own home to make sure your family's meals are safe to eat. To get started, let's break down food sanitation into three numbers and one letter: 40, 140, 2, and X. Read more »