Bonny Wolf

Why You Shouldn't Wrinkle Your Nose At Fermentation

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 08:57:00 +0000

It's delicious, it's nutritious and it's basically rotten. Fermentation is a hot culinary trend, and, as Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf explains, the preservation process gives food a flavor unique to time and place.

People you know may intentionally be growing bacteria in their homes — on food, outside the refrigerator. And they are doing it to make food safe, and nutritious.

They are doing what cooks have always done: fermenting food.

For decades, we have fought against bacteria in our food.

Oysters Rebound In Popularity With Man-Made Bounty

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 10:37:00 +0000

In Colonial Virginia, oysters were plentiful; Capt. John Smith said they lay "thick as stones." But as the wild oyster harvest has shrunk, Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf says the market for farm-raised oysters is booming.

The local food movement is expanding from fertile fields to brackish waters.

Along the rivers and bays of the East Coast, where wild oysters have been decimated by man and nature, harvests of farm-raised oysters are increasing by double digits every year.

On Your Plate In 2013, Expect Kimchi And Good-For-You Greens

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:12:00 +0000

Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf offers her predictions of what we'll eat in the new year.

Asia is the new Europe. It's been gradual: from pan-Asian, Asian fusion and Asian-inspired to just deciding among Vietnamese, Korean, Tibetan and Burmese for dinner.

Should we have the simple food of the Thai plateau or the hot, salty, sour foods of southern Thailand?

The new flavors of the year won't come from the kitchens of chefs trained at Le Cordon Bleu. More likely, they'll trickle up from Asian street foods.

Wild Turkeys Gobble Their Way To A Comeback

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:45:00 +0000

Wild turkeys and buffalo have more in common than you might guess. Both were important as food for Native Americans and European settlers. And both were nearly obliterated.

There were a couple of reasons for the turkey's decline. In the early years of the U.S., there was no regulation, so people could shoot as many turkeys as they liked. And their forest habitat was cut down for farmland and heating fuel. Without trees, turkeys have nowhere to roost. So they began to disappear.

By the early 1900s, there were only about 30,000 wild turkeys left in the whole country.

To Find Truly Wild Rice, Head North To Minnesota

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:23:00 +0000

Harvest season is upon us, but in the U.S.'s northern lakes, it's not just the last tomatoes and first pumpkins. Through the end of this month, canoes will glide into lakes and rivers for the annual gathering of wild rice, kick started with the popular Wild Rice Festival in Roseville, Minn., on Saturday.

Wild rice - an aquatic grass that bears a resemblance to the edible grain - has been the center of the Ojibway Indian diet and culture for centuries.

Since When Does Summer Taste Like Doughnuts?

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 10:08:00 +0000

I get saltwater taffy. You're at an ocean that is made of salt water. But doughnuts?

I'm clearly missing something, because many summer communities have doughnut shops, often open just for the season.

What The Well-Dressed Salad Is Wearing For Spring

Bonny Wolf — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:27:00 +0000

I ordered a side salad with my dinner the other night, feeling the need for something green. This usually is an afterthought — for me and, it often seems, for the kitchen.

What I got, however, was the product of obvious thinking — a plate of baby greens, sprinkled with pieces of cauliflower pickled in turmeric, tiny rings of pickled shallot and tasty cherry tomatoes, all dressed with a light, creamy vinaigrette. The greens were arugula, spinach, kale, mizuna and tatsoi (Asian mustard greens).

Bring On The 'Yabbies': Australia Ditches The Bad British Food

Bonny Wolf — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:08:00 +0000

Travel often brings the unexpected. But I was unprepared to find some of the best food I've ever eaten in Australia.

On a recent trip, we stopped at a café for lunch. An Australian woman we had seen earlier at a sheep dairy ran over and recommended the marron salad. "What is marron?" I asked.

"Well," she said, "you know what yabbies are."

Toto, we're not in Kansas any more. We are in Oz — which is what the locals call Australia.