Gherkins & Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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Photo credit: Kumar McMillan

Tasting France in Senegal

March 9, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The ocean there, it’s infinite, a place where horizon and water meet like a seam in a dress, a little bump and then smoothness again. Sunlight pierces the dawn’s fading blackness and, overhead, the parasitic gulls swirl, their curved yellow beaks moving incessantly, filling the air with their own peculiar songs. And then human voices join in, throbbing, shutting out the pounding noise of the waves. Senegalese fishermen singing Men, women, and children rush to the boats, thrusting their hands […]

Categories: African Cooking, France, French Cooking, Senegal • Tags: African Cooking, Fish, France, French Cooking, Mullet, Senegal, West Africa

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Cabbage black-eyed peas

Cabbage and Black-Eyed Peas, Oh My! An Easy New Year’s Dish with a Long History

December 22, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Yes, I know, you’re overwhelmed with preparations for Christmas. If you’re like me, you’re still trying to come up with THE menu that will knock Uncle Scrooge out of his foul grinchy mood. So how come I’m looking at New Year’s foods already? There’s a good reason — there’s only one thing to eat that day. Black-eyed peas, a gift from a part of Africa ruled by the French for a long time. [They were there as early as 1659 at […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Cooking, France, New Year's Day, Southern Food • Tags: Africa, African Cooking, Black-Eyed Peas, Cabbage, Chou, Dawadawa, New Year's Day, Niebe, Pois yeux noirs, Science Magazine, Senegal, Southern cooking, Striga, Virginia, Witchweed

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Nigeria

Cooking Fish — Let Us Count the World’s Ways: Africa

March 8, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

It’s Lent. That means fish to a lot of people, even today, despite the relaxed rules of the Church. But how to cook fish? How to get past Mrs. Gorton’s Fish Sticks? Many, many ways. Let’s look at what people around the world do to get fish from the seas, rivers, and lakes from their pots and pans to their mouths, starting with Africa:* *For more on African food, see Fran Osseo-Asare’s magnificent blog about cooking in Africa, chiefly Ghana. […]

Categories: Africa, Cooking, Fish, Lent • Tags: Africa, Cooking, Fish, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Photo Essay, Senegal, South Africa

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pierre-thiam

Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal

April 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

To paraphrase Flannery O’Connor,* a good African cookbook is hard to find. And so when such a book appears,  the bubbly comes out and the music crescendos. Senegal-born Chef Pierre Thiam wrote the first cookbook on Senegalese food, Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal,  and ended up nominated for a prestigious IACP (International Association of Culinary professionals) award. Alas, this year someone else won, but that doesn’t really make much difference. As the chef said in an interview, his […]

Categories: Africa, Book Reviews, Cookbooks • Tags: Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Pierre Thiam, Senegal, Yolele

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Food forms the very essence of life, from the fruit fly to the elephant, with humans in between. So much of what we do revolves around cooking, eating, and the finding of food. Here you'll discover stories, meditations, and photographs celebrating the places that we call home. And, of course, the food that garnishes it all.

My book, due out September 15, 2013

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What’s Cookin’ Here

  • A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
  • “Stew’s so comforting on a rainy day.” *
  • Singkong, Manioc, Mandioca, Mandió, Tapioca, Yuca: Singing the Praises of Manihot esculenta (Cassava)
  • The Promise of Apple Blossoms

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Africa All Souls' Day American Cooking Art Barack Obama Bibliographies Book Reviews Bread Christmas Cookbooks Cooking Cooks Cuisine Francaise Culinary History Day of the Dead Eggs England English Cooking Fish Food Food History Food Photography France French Cooking French cuisine Gardens Haiti Halloween Herbs India Italian Cooking Italy Julia Child M. F. K. Fisher Monasteries Monks Morocco Mushrooms Paris Photography Provence Recipes Southern cooking Virginia White House

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