A good chain restaurant, in my mind, doesn't necessarily serve the best version of a given food, in a given city. (Though it might!) What it should do is serve a reasonably tasty version of said food, reliably and at a reasonable price. In London, there are quite a number of chains that I wish would make their way stateside. Here are just a few. More
Note: On Wednesdays, Andrea Lynn, senior editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by with Serious Heat, with additional writing by Lillian Cho. [Photograph: Bill Milne] Think a lone jar of Dijon or squeeze-bottle of yellow in your fridge covers all your mustard needs for the Labor Day grilling holiday? Well, we were under that assumption too until we went on a quest to find the best spicy mustards around. From orange to white, smooth to chunky, mild to weepingly hot, each mustard we sampled was so original that by the time we had reached the end of the taste-test, we were mustard maniacs. These are our top favorites. But we're still open to opinion. What are your favorite mustards that... More
That's not just any field; it's a field of your nasal passage's worst nightmare. Kayoko of Umami Mart took a photo of a field of fresh wasabi while visiting Joren waterfall in Izu, Japan. If you visit there, you can buy fresh wasabi stems and wasabi-flavored soft serve. Related: Photo of the Day: Rice Field... More
Researchers in Japan are working on a new smoke detector/fire alarm that uses the strong odor of wasabi to wake up the deaf. Watch the alarm in action with this video from BBC News.... More
Astronaut Sunita Williams was making sushi aboard the International Space Station when she squirted wasabi out of a tube—it started floating around everywhere and hitting the walls. Oops! The wasabi was part of her bonus container, a personalized package of favorite foods given to astronauts to help make the months they spend in zero gravity with mostly MRE-type food more bearable: Williams, whose father was born in India, has several Indian dishes in her bonus container, including Punjabi kadhi with pakora — vegetable fritters topped with yogurt and curry — and mutter paneer, a curry dish. The dishes are packaged to have a long shelf life in space.Her U.S. crew mate, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, is an even bigger "foodie." Lopez-Alegria,... More
