…if what they want is GOOD food.

It may not be in my best interest to admit this, but here goes nothing: grilling chicken scares me. It’s just too easy to get wrong. Black, cremated skin on the outside with an interior so pink that just looking at it might give you salmonella. Or worse, well-cooked flesh with skin so flabby that it can be removed in a single piece. I think this is why I am especially in awe of Vietnamese chefs.  I’m not exactly sure how they do it, but somehow they’re able to keep their grilled chicken juicy and moist  inside, but with a crisp exterior reminiscent of deep-fried chicken skin.  While I’ve yet to master this elusive technique, with this fairly simple preparation the delicious results were worth the potential for failure.

A great alternative to the standard barbecue chicken, this recipe relies on the exotic flavor of Chinese five-spice powder.  Usually a mix of star anise, fennel, cinnamon, cloves and Szechwan peppercorns, the blend lends a sweet and subtly spicy flavor to the dish along with an especially heady aroma.  While its great fresh off the grill, this stuff is just as addictive cold from the fridge or at room temperature for a picnic.

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I don’t do a lot of baking, but sometimes I come across a recipe that inspires me to go outside of my culinary comfort zone.  Such was the case when I saw Hubert Keller make this dish on his PBS television show, Secrets of a Chef.

Having made pies and tarts in the past, I came to realize that I’d never baked anything savory using homemade pastry dough and thought it might be a good time to try.  While I’ve eaten the pizza-like rendition of the French favorite, pisaladière on a few occasions, I’d never seen a version like this before.  Definitely a bit more substantial than it’s flatbread cousin, the salty, pungent flavors of niçoise olive and anchovies are offset by a creamy, custardy filling of caramelized onions and smokey bacon.  While it was great served warm for dinner, a slice of this pie would be perfect at room temperature served alongside a lightly dressed, mixed green salad for lunch.

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On a recent trip down to Cabo San Lucas, Lauren and I had dinner at a restaurant serving the largest margaritas I’d ever seen and some pretty decent Mexican food, as well. We were told this is where we would find the most authentic cuisine in town. After paying off the Mariachi band to stop harassing us and shrugging off the guy selling roses, “authentic” is not the word that came to mind.  Still, the food was good.  That night I ordered Tacos de Cochinita Pibil for the first time, and while I’m sure they’re better in the Yucatan, I thought this was a great alternative to your run-of-the-mill taco plate.

Not your crispy, sometimes greasy carnitas or dried out carne asada, this meat was juicy beyond belief and delicately flavored with achiote and garlic.  Served on handmade tortillas and topped with housemade salsa and tart pickled red onions, this might have been the best food I had on the entire trip.

When I got back home, I set out to recreate the dish and picked up a copy of Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen for $6.00 at a used bookstore.  The tacos were met with rave reviews from friends, even without the influence of ginormous maragaritas.

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