MY WORLD: [my
favorite things][writings & musings]
CYBERGRRL WEBSTATION: [planet cybergrrl] [cybergrrl village] [webgrrls] [femina] [womenzone]
as published in the Resident Paper, NYC - written 1995
Hawaiian, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, French - where besides New York City can you find foods from around the world? On the Internet, of course! The World Wide Web offers up hundreds of resources about food, especially archives of recipes to satisfy any tastebud and please anyone who likes to cook.
The perfect place to start your epicurean adventure is in Yahoo, the most popular searchable Web database (http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Food/Cooking/). Listings include information on everything from Bread and Pancakes to Desserts, Ethnic Foods, Healthy Foods and more. For the party animal, there is always Chaz Baden's Jellophile Page at http://sundry.hsc.usc.edu/hazel/www/jello.html which specializes in alcoholic jello recipes. For the sweet tooth, visit Kathy, the executive pastry chef at the AA Restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico at http://cyspacemalls.com/cook/recipe.html where her Recipe Club features pastry recipes and other specialties contributed by visitors to her home page. And of course, life wouldn't be complete without the Perfect English Muffin Pizza Page at http://www.ganet.net/~ps2/pizza.html which gives you step by step instructions on how to achieve that perfect snack including tips like "do not use broken or ripped slices (of cheese) as the sauce will ooze onto the muffin and destroy your creation." Words to live by!
You can see what big food companies are up to such as Birdseye, the maker of frozen vegetables at http://www.birdseye.com which has nutrition information, tips on how to "liven up your evegetable menues and help you get the Five-A-Day you and your family need for healthy eating", a Food Guide pyramid that you can print out and hang up on your fridge, and an order form for the free "Fresh Ideas for Vegetables" cookbook. For not only food information but good entertainment, stop by Ragu & "Mama's Cucine" (http://www.eat.com). Discover their New Sauces, Pizza Party tips, take a Tour of Little Italy featuring photos taken on Mama's trip to New York City, enjoy Italian Arts and Architecture, and delve into Mama's Italian Cookbook. The cookbook section includes a cooking glossary, pasta glossary, Ragu product information and recipes for Appetizers such as Italian Marinated Bean Salad and Main Dishes such as Chicken with Pesto Alfredo. There is also a section for Desserts as well as Light & Healthy meals.
The San Jose Mercury News has a section on their Web pages called "CyberFood" at http://www.sjmercury.com/cyberfood/ where they point to recipes, advice and ingredients found on the Internet. There is also an article by David Plotnikoff called "The Web�s Servers Offer a Full Menu of Food Sites" where you can jump to places such as the electronic Gourmet Guide (eGG) at http://www.2way.com/food/egg/. eGG is a general interest food magazine (which also has a presence on America Online) which contains columns, feature stories and index of recipes. This month's features include Halloween tips, a review of the Mushroom cookbook, Food Greeting Cards, and a Food Trivia Game. To wash it all down, try a little wine at the American Wine on the Web site (http://www.2way.com/food/wine), their sister magazine.
For those with a daring palate, there is the Chile-Head's Home Page at http://www.netimages.com/~chile where you can read about growing, harvesting, and preserving your own chiles and explore recipes, restaurants and chile festivals. Everything you wanted to know about chile peppers but were afraid to ask is in this site as well as information on the chile-head newsgroup online and details on attending chile-head potluck gatherings (in real-life versus virtual).
A stop by the Recipes Folder (http://english-www.hss.cmu.edu/recipes.html) adds a little dry humor to your search for appropriate recipes with categories including Vegetarian, Dead Animals (including Dead Chicken, Dead Cow, etc.) and Things Possibly Involving Dead Animals or Possibly Not. If that�s enough to make you lose your appetite, hurry over to the general recipe library in Ketchum's Kitchen at http://www.recipe.com where they also answer your food questions or Kosher Express which has kosher recipes for a Passover meal at http://www.marketnet.com/mktnet/kosher/recipes.html or http://www.fatfree.com which boasts over 2303 fat-free and low-fat recipes as well as FoodWeb which is an "encyclopedia of food from the earth."
Who said surfing the Web can't be good for you? Bon apetit!
Go play or get lost in the ultra-hip Web site for Joe Boxer at http://www.joeboxer.com/normal/world.html which goes way beyond showing you their boxer shorts. Over 250 pages of fun for the whole family!