food

Thai Tradition is one of my favorite Thai restaurants in Wichita.

It is dark and pretty inside, with a romantic ambience that sets it apart from many other Thai establishments in town. The food is delicious and beautifully presented on nice china. I like to take out-of-town guests there to relax and chill out after a long day of travel or business work.

I am not a gardener. Plants wither and die at my very glance. I don’t even like it when I accidentally touch leaves, because they can itch or harbor bugs or any number of dreadful things. I envy those who can nurture a plant from shoot to fruit, but I am not one of them. I’m happy just to be able to use the produce and flowers that talented gardeners and farmers offer.

My plan for today was to talk about leftovers and what to do with them, but as I sat in my office typing and watching snow fall beautifully onto our patio, I changed my mind.

For those of us who adore fresh fish, ceviche is one of the best ways to eat it.

French onion soup is the iconic bistro classic that nearly everyone is familiar with. Rich beef broth, filled with onions, topped with a slice of baguette and covered with cheese. Well done, it is delicious. Poorly done, it is hell in a bowl.

When I developed my recipe for this soup, I decided that there were a few things that I would change. Most apparent was the fact that the bread was always soggy and the cheese, once broiled, would harden immediately into a spoon-rejecting casing.

When I was growing up in Newton in the '70s, I was unaware that there were more than five kinds of cheese.

The holidays can be extraordinarily stressful for even the most spirit-filled person. If you are the one doing the cooking, replicating a giant, fancy holiday meal can bring one to wit’s end, particularly if you just did another elaborate dinner at Thanksgiving.

Spices and herbs are as essential as a sharp knife when creating delicious food.

My knife is the most essential tool in my kitchen arsenal. All the beautiful, expensive pots and pans in the world cannot make up for a bad knife.

Mexican restaurants abound in Wichita, and each is unique in quality, authenticity, menu and style.