See what I StumbleUpon online See my Flickr photostream Follow me on FriendFeed Follow me on Facebook Follow me on Twitter Hear what I hear on last.fm See what I like on Yelp See where I eat on Urbanspoon See what I say on Tumblr Get my RSS feed Email me

Recipes from my Father

Recipes - (c) ML

Recipes. A half dozen of them. I can't believe it. My father actually sat down to write a few recipes for me! Hm .. goulash .. potato dumplings .. meatballs. Simple. Hearty. Good. It feels a bit strange to look at these hand-written pages. His handwriting. His words. Swedish and German. Sometimes mixing languages within a single sentence.

These are the notes from a professional chef. There are hardly any measurements. Only suggestions to add a little of this or that. I remember watching him cook a few times almost 30 years ago. He never followed any recipes — everything was in his head. Sitting here in my apartment, thousands of miles away from him, I'm trying to picture him writing these recipes, perhaps sitting at his kitchen table in his apartment in Stockholm. I wonder what he was thinking? He must have thought that this was a rather strange request.

A Food-Shopping Tour in Philadelphia

Reading Terminal Market - Photo by ML

The Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia

— Photo by ML

Philadelphia is a great city for foodies. Not only is there food everywhere, but there is also all kinds of food from pretty much every region and culture on this planet. More importantly, a lot of it is actually very good. There are top rated restaurants like Le Bec Fin and Parc, and (my personal favorites) Alma de Cuba and Buddakan, which are always safe (although rather expensive) choices. And at the other end of the price spectrum you'll find the ubiquitous food trucks. It's obviously a bit more hit-and-miss here, but many of them will surprise you with fast, simple, and really good food.