Food

Nini Nguyen is loudly and proudly embracing her Vietnamese culture now more than ever before. The Vietnamese American chef, who grew up in New Orleans and moved to New York City to further her career, gained national exposure as a contestant on “Top Chef” in 2018.

Are burgers made from plants really better for you than real beef burgers?

Chicken noodle soup, a cozy blanket, your favorite TV show, lots of sleep. When you’re feeling sick or stressed, you likely have a few go-tos that help you feel better.

An award-winning chef and former Spokane bakery owner took home a $25,000 grand prize after beating out three chefs from across the country in a pizza-baking competition last weekend in California.

The Inland Empire’s fair season has closed for the year, with the Central Washington State and Lewis County, Idaho Fairs concluding the weekend before last. The Spokane County Interstate Fair finished a couple of weeks earlier.

Gooey cinnamon rolls, flaky croissants and other baked goods fill the shelves of the Leaven Bakery & Patisserie in Deer Park three days a week, at least until hungry shoppers clear the display cases each day.

Q: I want to learn to cook meat, but I don’t like touching it, and I always overcook it because I’m worried about getting sick. Where do I even begin with this?

“What did you put in the ricotta?” Ann Maloney asked me.

I’m not a perfect role model for a healthy or sustainable diet.

The memories consumed her.

Watching news reports of Haitian kids being forced to stay home from school to prevent violent attacks in Springfield, Ohio, makes me cry about my own childhood in New York.

I adore beets of all kinds: the earthy sweet, the lurid magenta, the striped pink and the goldens. Sure, they’re not to everyone’s taste, but their strong character stands up to a range of intense flavors – vinegar, horseradish, mustard, piquant dairy sauces, vinaigrettes, smoked fish.

Going out on a date night? In this economy? While stagflationary dining may seem outlandish, it is possible with $50 and a little scheduling. Better than that, you can eat at places that inspire you to dress up and don’t limit you to Rainier and fries (unless that’s your vibe; no judgment).

With the onset of fall weather, it’s a good time to think about throwing a chicken into the pot. For those who like chicken, that is. Our apologies to those who don’t.

Even before I quit drinking, I had a lot of questions about the legitimacy of a booze-filled brunch. As someone who enjoyed alcohol a bit more than the average bear, I should have been thrilled there was a socially acceptable excuse for slamming back cocktails at 10 a.m.

This March, I felt the ground thaw after an unusually difficult winter. Cherry blossom buds popped up on craggy branches, and our dogwoods’ bracts sprang open. As April approached, I caught myself smiling, finally, as the daffodils curled their necks up to the sky.

The health benefits and sheer earthy deliciousness of lentils may be some of the best-kept food secrets outside of the Palouse. Until my school days at the University of Idaho, my only exposure to lentils was enduring an occasional can of Progresso’s lentil soup during my early college years in Seattle. My family were pinto bean people. I’d never even seen a lentil, domesticated or in the wild, until then.

Your food may soon come with warnings.

Community is a guidepost for Amber Park: the community she felt in her early childhood growing up among “hippies and wolves” in the Okanagan of British Columbia, trading with neighbors, milking cows, preserving food and reading atlases for fun, the community she’s fostering at Wanderlust Delicato with her wine club and cooking classes, the community she felt serving residents their meals at a retirement home as a teen mom, or in the Perry District with her new wine bar, Pacific to Palouse, designed to feel like an extension of the neighborhood’s living room.