“WHAT’S IN YOUR POCKET?”
The weekend before I had bought a dozen Autumn Queen peaches from Costco. I tried my hardest to use them all up before they went bad, knowing peach hand pies photographed with a late summer color palette was the perfect distraction from the news. I wanted to add a nuanced layer of sweetness, so I dug into my homemade cardamom and vanilla simple syrup, a mainstay in my fridge for fancy coffee, tea, cocktails, and compotes.
The meat pie is thought to have been introduced during the British occupation of Belize, then known as British Honduras. Over time, the meat pie took on more idealistic Belizean flavors of recado and black pepper--and spicier versions include a fermented habanero-based hot sauce like Marie Sharp’s.
Monique Santua was born in the Philippines, and moved to Hempstead, TX when she was 5. At 7, her family made the move from there to Houston, where she spent her childhood. While her mother paved the way for the Santua family here as a nurse to get them to the US, Monique has had the opportunity to feel out a couple of different career options before launching Gastromonique this year as a way to share her love of cooking with the people of Austin.
We let our pocket-loving stomachs do the writing and put together a roundup of the best pupusas and El Salvadorean (also seen in many places as El Salvadoran or El Salvadorian) food in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. From pupusa trucks, sit-down pupuserias, and drive-thru eateries, the Triangle offers quite a few places to find some damn tasty pupusas. Are we missing your favorite pupuseria or El Salvadorean food spot? Let us know in the comments!
Filipino cuisine is steadily gaining popularity around the world for its spice-packed flavorful dishes. Over thousands of years, other countries’ occupation in the Philippines have influenced the Filipino food we know today. Filipino cuisine is constantly growing and changing –– from the their first encounter with the Chinese, who introduced the small group of islands in the Pacific to rice, soy sauce, and the egg roll (aka future lumpia), siu mai (hello pockets!) to their interaction with the Spanish, who introduced cutlery, tomatoes and cattle-raising, and the Americans who brought canned meats. While the cuisine is always evolving, traditional Filipino culture and cooking are still represented in each dish, some even with a hint of peaceful resistance.
Turon is a traditional Filipino dessert made of plantains and jackfruit dredged in brown sugar, wrapped in rice paper and fried to a golden crisp. Brown sugar melts into sweet plantains and shredded jackfruit, making for the perfect hand-held tropical dessert.
We put our heads (and bellies!) together to find the best Filipino food in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The Triangle offers a small but mighty selection of restaurants and food trucks offering traditional Filipino cuisine to the mashups inspired by the Philippines' storied history. Are we missing your favorite Filipino food spot? Let us know in the comments!
Jenn de la Vega is a competitive chef, cookbook author, video artist, and caterer based in Brooklyn. The After wearing many hats outside of the food industry, she has chosen to dedicate the year 2018 to pursuing food full-time.
Healthyish is my new mantra this summer. How can I stuff my face with delicious pocket foods while keeping my diet well-rounded? How can I make healthy Mexican food so I’m not wanting to undo the button on my jeans after eating? How can I use up the turkey picadillo I made earlier in the week? These healthyish turkey taco and black bean empanadas are the way to go!
Hand pies with ruby red grapefruit curd made with Campari and rosemary for Pi Day.
Pan-fried pork, shrimp and kimchi dumplings for your Chinese New Year celebration.
The World in a Pocket is collaborative visual storytelling project dedicated to better understanding the world through the lens of a dumpling.
