Simple Methods, Wonderful Food Made Affordable
North America has always been the land of cheap beef - but that is coming to an end. The resources that supported cheap beef are running out, and the price increases we have been seeing are only the beginning. People turning away from beef are driving up the cost of other meats.
Incomes for the vast majority are not keeping up with this increase. Clearly, a new approach to food will be needed that uses meats more sparingly, as flavoring ingredients, not bulk content - like most of the world already does.
Some cultures that know a lot about really good food at really low cost and how to enjoy family and friends are precisely those countries to which American jobs are being "outsourced" - India, China, Indonesia, Mexico - perhaps it's time to learn how they do it. Perhaps we'll have to.
Authenticity
To the distress of "purists" there are no truly "authentic" cuisines - save maybe with the cannibals of Borneo and in the darkest depths of the Amazon jungle. In the 1500's Europeans developed sailing ship technology of unprecedented sophistication and efficiency, allowing goods to be moved quickly, in bulk, worldwide, and at acceptable cost.
Major articles of trade from the first were foods and spices - because the gourmets and the gourmet "wanabes" were willing to pay the transportation (and a goodly profit besides) - then as now.
Who today can imagine Italy without tomato sauces, Thailand without hot chilis, Germany and Ireland without potatoes, England without tea, or the American West without tumbleweeds (Russian thistle)? This exchange has accelerated and become less expensive with today's fast ships, containerized cargo and affordable air freight.
It is difficult, for instance, to find any recipes from West Africa that are based on ingredients native to Africa. Yes, a few flavorings are, such as native herbs and smoke dried fish.The rest of Africa isn't much more "authentic".
Yet "authenticity" is a major point with us. Each culture has integrated imports in its own very unique way and in combination with its own unique local ingredients yielding startlingly different results.
To us, "authentic" is how the best cooks in each culture cook now, and within personal or written memory, regardless even of what country they happen to live in now. By hewing as closely as practical to "authentic" you can broaden your experience and explore delightful tastes you would otherwise not think of. Ignore "authenticity", and you'll just end up making the same old things with some exotic names attached.
We are here to help you explore that "authenticity" easily and affordably.
Vegetarianism
While this is not a vegetarian site, there's plenty here for most varieties of vegetarian, and we try to keep things distinct as to whether it's vegetarian or can be made vegetarian. We do make little effort to satisfy hard core Vegans, as we find that satisfying them is pretty much impossible.
For the vegetarian, the aspiring vegetarian, and people who just want to depend less on meat, ethnic cuisines provide wonderful variety. In particular examine the several vegetarian cuisines of India. We also recommend the Mediterranean and Turkish cuisines which provide a great many vegetarian dishes and dishes easily adapted to a vegetarian diet. There is also the cuisine of the Chinese Buddhists, though strangely, their specialty is vegetarian imitations of meat dishes.
Pills & Potions
Current research shows that a varied and well balanced diet is far more effective at warding off disease than supplements and miracle potions. Supplements often have the right ingredients but not in the most useful form, and they aren't much fun to eat anyway. For these reasons we recommend few such potions, concentrating on real herbs, spices, sauces and the like and how to take advantage of them.
On the other hand, we are not at all against supplements, especially those that address specific health issues or that make up for missing ingredients resulting from factory farming and processing.
Economics & Health
Many American families are facing economic problems keeping food on the table, and it will get steadily worse and affect more and more families.
Back in the 1970s the fabled 1% possessed around 9.5% of Americas wealth, today the 1% possess nearly 40% of America's wealth, the very rich have 80% and the lower 90%, where you probably fall, now has only 22%. The lower 80%, where you probably fall, possesses only 7% of this country's wealth. Yes, those are real 2016 figures. This concentration of wealth has not been happening fast enough for the 1% (soon to be the 1/10%) so they have financed the Tea Parties, and purchased the Republican Party outright, to help make it happen faster.
Costs for everything are rising fast due to population growth, increasingly expensive energy, depleted aquifers, ill considered acts of Congress (like making SUV fuel from food crops), and especially climate change. You don't believe in climate change? Doesn't matter, climate change doesn't care if you believe in it or not - you'll be paying for it - just watch the prices.
As it stands, the traditional meat and potatoes diet is now beyond a very large percentage of the American population - and it doesn't stand still, it's getting worse. Do not expect help from government. Our government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 1%. The voters? They're who got us into this - almost every election goes to whoever has the most money to spend, and guess from whom they get it, and who they actually represent? Hint: it isn't you. If all this is hard for you to understand, you probably watch Fox News (another wholly owned subsidiary of the 1%).
Pressed for time, possibly working more than one job (Walmart has revealed they just presume their workers work more than one job) and money, a huge number of Americans have turned to the Fast Food industry. This is where they can get the most calories for the dollar, and get it fast.
The fast food industry (and to be fair, the entire food industry, including the "health food" industry) has no interest whatever in your health. Despite what the Supreme Court has said, corporations aren't people, and they don't give a damn about people. The only "health" they are interested in is the health of their "bottom line" - and guess who that money is coming from and who it is going to?
So, what you get from the Fast Food Industry is carefully engineered out of the least expensive, least perishable (and least healthy) ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, msg, refined starches, trans fats (and now trans fats substitutes, which may be even worse), fillers, gums, chemicals, preservatives, "natural" (actually means highly processed) and artificial flavors and colors - and lots and lots of sugar and salt - and as little expensive fresh ingredients as they can get away with - and they're experts at "getting away with".
The result is that Americans pay far more for health care than the people of any other country (and I'm sure you can figure out to whom all that money goes) yet are in much poorer health than much of the world. "But, we have the best health care in the world" - and we'd better, because we really, really need it.
So, if you can't fix any of this, how can you do better for yourself and your family when you don't have the time? Actually, you probably do have the time - if you turn off the 1%'s mind control machine (it's called Television). Advertisement by a television satellite provider, 2013: "The average American watches 13 years of television during their lifetime - shouldn't you have the best?"
Now that is totally scary. The average American is throwing away 13 years of his or her life for mindless, sedentary entertainment and mind control. You could prepare a whole lot of healthy, attractive, inexpensive and delicious food in that 13 years, and you'd be spending a whole lot less on health care and junk you don't need.
But only a very few of you will have the strength to do that - such is the power of the mind control machine. These pages are dedicated to those few.