Even though Bostonians are deprived of real Californian Mexican food, we still have enough Mex-run taquerias and burriterias around that I've never felt the urge to go to Qdoba. I haven't avoided Qdoba on purpose, I've just never trained the fast-food-chain-shopping part of my brain to sync up with the burrito-eating part: I've never been to Chipotle, either. But I found a reason to try Qdoba last week when I saw a poster for their Mexican gumbo. More

When suffering through the after-effects of a late night on the town nothing quite sets me straight like a bowl of gumbo. When served the traditional way (with white rice) it satisfies all my hangover needs; carbs, heat, salt and fat. Some may be tempted to skip the somewhat tedious step of making a dark roux; I advise against this. The time and energy spent lovingly stirring the flour/oil mixture is essential to gumbo, and in my mind is part of the magic that can turn a rough morning around. More

October is Filipino American History Month, and on that note, Filipino food blogger Marvin over at Burnt Lumpia (tagline: "Finding identity through food") posits a theory that his peeps may have had a hand in helping create gumbo: So what’s all this have to do with Gumbo you ask? Well, given these facts, one can conclude that like the French Acadians (roux), Africans (okra), and Choctaw Indians (File powder), perhaps Filipinos (shrimp) can be included in the melting pot that is Gumbo. I won’t go so far as to say that Filipinos are responsible for shrimp being an ingredient in some Gumbos, but I will venture to say that Filipinos at least contributed to this fact. We were, after all,... More