chefbrad's blog

There are basically two types of chefs: culinary chefs and bakers. I'm not much of a baker, and I never have been. No cakes, cookies or scones for me. I prefer the messiness and quick gratification of grill and saute, chop and mash. But bread-baking is the one exception. I love baking bread. The transformation from flour and water to the staff of life is magical to me. So I was excited to hear that a colleague of mine was publishing a bread-baking book. Read more »

Ever wonder how a tandoor oven works, and just how they bake naan bread and tandoori chicken in it? These videos show you how it's done.

Tandoor ovens have been around for a long time. Seven thousand-year-old remains of these cylindrical clay or brick cooking powerhouses have been found in the ruins of the Indus Valley civilization located in modern-day Pakistan. Read more »

We're so happy to finally have the best of Whats4Eats recipes now available as a cookbook. We've worked with Tastebook.com to create a beautiful and elegant cookbook of the most popular recipes from Whats4Eats.com and make it available for purchase online. Read more »

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 »