Mexico City is my second home. I lived there for four years up until January, and I fell in love with its wild, chaotic energy. I fell even harder for the food — so much so that I went to Mexican cooking school and started my own culinary tourism business there.

In a few weeks I’ll make my third trip back so far this year. I pack lightly as a rule, but when traveling to DF, I always take a second fold-up bag to fit all my purchases. (They’re almost always food-related.)

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I must confess to eating this entire bowl of soba by myself. I didn't share. I didn't look up from the bowl. I just inhaled. Fresh buckwheat soba is an entirely different food group from the dried soba we usually buy at the store. It's like night and day. The nutty aroma of the buckwheat, the perfect chewiness of the noodles, the way they slip perfectly around a chopstick — fresh soba needs little more than some dashi and a splash of soy sauce to be the perfect meal. Here's how you can make it at home.

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If you do one thing this summer, pick up a package of grains of paradise. Your grilled steaks will thank you. Also your fish. Also your potato salads. In fact, I think the warm, spicy, woodsy flavor of this little known West African spice is going to make a top-notch addition to just about all our favorite summer picnic foods. Now that I've discovered it, I can get enough.

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If you asked me ten years ago after feasting at a trattoria in Florence on fiocchetti alle pere con salsa di taleggio e asparagi that one day I would be able to replicate the experience, I would have laughed in your face. Back then the only thing I knew how to make was frozen pizza. But time has a way of changing us, and that trip to Florence changed me too. Here I am ten years later, recreating that meal of a lifetime. 

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I've heard it said that curry powder — that deep yellow blend of spices you can find premixed and on offer in almost any grocery store's spice rack — is not for serious cooks. And there's some truth to that. Curries are a complex category of dishes, and a true curry will have a specific blend of spices to match the ingredients and methods used. There are thousands of curries and to apply one generic powder to all of them is frankly insulting. That said, I still keep a small jar of the generic curry powder in my spice cabinet and I feel it has its place, but just not in most curries!

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Do you love horchata?  This sweet, creamy, rice-and-almond-based drink is not to be missed, especially now that summer is here and a cool, refreshing drink is always appreciated.  While traditional horchata contains milk and sugar, it can also be made without dairy and lends itself well to sugar alternatives such as agave or dates.  Read on for our classic Mexican horchata recipe with some extra ideas for non-dairy and sugar-free alternatives.

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Even if you don't have any international travel plans this summer, these ten refreshing drink recipes will give you a taste of far-off places and keep you cool as the weather warms up. Try tangy papaya lassi from India, Mexican watermelon-lime agua fresca, fun (and chewy!) bubble tea from Taiwan, Italian caffè shakerato, or another of these ten non-alcoholic sips from around the world.

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Q: I recently returned from a trip to Turkey, along with 250g of Turkish coffee (about 2 cups). I have an ibrik and love making Turkish coffee, but wondered if there was anything else I could do with it considering how finely ground it is. Thoughts on recipes?

Sent by Hillary

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Have you had Thai- and Vietnamese-style iced coffee? A combination of strong black coffee, sweetened condensed milk, and plenty of ice makes these drinks a refreshing change from your standard brew. From Girl Versus Dough, here's a frozen version topped with toasted coconut. What a treat! 

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I ate my first kouign amann from the palm of my hand at a farmers market in Oakland almost two years ago, and I will never in all my life forget the taste of those first buttery, caramelized, incredibly flakey morsels. I dream of traveling to Brittany to try a kouign amann straight from the source. Then again, now that I know that making them at home is not only doable, but just as buttery and flakey as anything coming from a bakery, I may not need to. Kouign amann? At home? I'm not kidding. Here's how you, too, can have a fresh batch of kouign amann cooling on your counter right now.

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