As Thai food has gained a foothold in the United States in recent years, it seems that pad thai is as ubiquitous as spaghetti. The rice noodle dish with its sweet, sour and salty elements balancing each other, is a common street food in Thailand, though few Thais would actually make this at home. During World War II, the Thai leader Luang Pibulsonggram named Pad Thai the national dish, in part as a way to encourage the citizenry to increase their rice noodle consumption (leaving rice available for export).  After the war, the dish was promoted as a way to increase employment by increasing …

If the perky little red rooster on the sign at Su Pollo doesn’t clue you in, the smell of roasting chicken as you drive north from Woodlawn on Route 1 surely will.  The clean and bright spot was a go-to for my family when my daughter was taking riding lessons at Woodlawn Stables.  We couldn’t resist that delectable aroma of chicken fat flaming up on the hardwood charcoal fire.  Even writing about it now is making my stomach growl.  Pollo a la brasa is a Peruvian style of preparing chicken by roasting it on a rotating spit over hardwood charcoal fire.  Its Peruvian origins do not trace back to…

We travel to a third continent via Route 1 this week: Africa. Rahama African Restaurant brings the cuisine of West Africa to Mount Vernon, though in some form or another, the cuisine has been here since the early days of the slave trade. Traditionally, the West African diet included rice, peanuts, yams, and black-eyed peas. These foods became staples of the cuisine of the American South when they arrived with the slaves from West Africa.  When trading ships returned to Africa with okra, plantains, and peppers from North America and the Caribbean, the plants adapted well to the climate as well…

In an unassuming little white building on Richmond Highway, behind a custom-crafted wooden door, lies a charming and welcoming Korean restaurant run by sisters SunYong and Lisa Pang.  The three-year-old restaurant has a comfortable feel, as though you are visiting a friend's house for dinner.  The interior was designed by an artist friend to emulate the style of the Korean countryside.  If you are fortunate enough to visit more than once, it is quite possible that you will be greeted as a family member on your second visit.  Each time we visited, it seemed that every group that entered were …