Adding Spice to Your Meals

If variety is the spice of life, then interest in international recipes will certainly zest up your menu. Cooking foods from the world over, however, may lead to frustration when ingredients aren't available at your local grocery store. Enter the Internet!

With today's commercial facilities just a 'modem' away, you can order practically any ingredient and have it shipped to your doorstep in possibly less time than it takes to drive to market after market searching for saffron.

Search phrases like "Italian Specialties" (or any other country) will pull up a multitude of websites offering native ingredients. Likewise, typing in the particular ingredient needed (i.e., Sazon Goya) will also lead you to specialty websites offering them.

In summary, don't shy away from recipes the world over due to unfamiliar ingredients. Besides providing your diet with a wonderful assortment of flavors, these dishes will provide different proportions of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that will balance out your own cultural diet. And don't forget the cost benefit: tasting Rome from your own kitchen is infinitely less expensive than traveling there!

* DVO welcomes your kitchen hints and cooking or nutrition questions! Email us and we'll post your hints and Q/A's in upcoming newsletters! *