Food 101

Stuffed cabbage is one of those classic peasant dishes with endless variations. If you've never tasted it, the idea of stuffing cabbage leaves with some kind of meat or veggie mixture might sound a little strange, but good cooks around the world have been stuffing cabbage for years, so there just must be something to it.

Near my home is an international grocery with foods from across the world, an aisle for Mexico, an aisle each for India, China and Mexico, with half aisles for Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia, western Europe, Africa, the Caribbean. It's a destination store of the best kind, a place where recent immigrants and foodies stumble over one another to stock up on ingredients otherwise difficult if not impossible to find. I love to ask a shopper whose cart is teetering with some foodstuff, knowing I'll hear a story about how much that something reminds her of home.

Every holiday has symbolic foods, and for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (also called Chanukah), eating fried foods is traditional as a reminder of the miracle of Hanukkah, when a flask of oil that should have lasted for one day kept the eternal flame in the Temple in Jerusalem burning for eight days. This gave time for the Temple to be re-dedicated after its desecration by Syrian forces.

Thanksgiving is the most food-centered holiday of the year, which means food writers all want to weigh in on it. Every year newspapers, food magazines, food sites, and food blogs all offer tips, suggestions, and menu ideas for the big day. For a few weeks now I've been watching for Thanksgiving advice to show up on my favorite food blogs and food sites.

It's time to get serious about turkey. Thanksgiving is approaching, and this is a great opportunity to make the centerpiece of your holiday table a local and sustainable bird. I'm no stranger to alternatives to the traditional industrial turkey from the grocery store. Last year, I hosted Thanksgiving at my then-fairly-new Oakland apartment. It was just me and my parents, so I announced an Asian twist on the poultry theme. "We're going to have Peking duck," I said. "Not turkey."