Deep Dive into Food

By James Shi, Foodie When I first started cooking, I tried to stay away from chicken and turkey as much as possible. Nobody likes the cardboard texture of a dry chicken breast.  Thankfully, I’ve learned to prepare my meats so that they’ll always be juicy off the grill or out of the oven.  The secret is brining.  Brining is simply preparing your meat by soaking it in salty water. When you brine, the salt acts as a catalyst agent that breaks down proteins. This yields a meat with a more tender mouthfeel and reduced chewiness. By breaking down the protein,...

By James Shi, Foodie Ramen is one of my favourite comfort dishes. I love the chewiness of the noodles, the tenderness of the chashu, and most importantly, the rich, mouth-watering flavours of the soup.  Ramen was born when the Chinese noodle dish came to Japan in the 15th century and was fused with Japanese cuisine. Just like how there are hundreds of ways to make a sandwich, there are limitless variations of ramen as well, such as soy sauce ramen, miso ramen, salty ramen, pork bone ramen, and dipping ramen.  To spot a high-quality bowl of ramen, we must start with...