All that matters is you find the freshest best ingredients you can get your hands on. I make the rice vinegar seasoning for the rice instead of buy the seasoned rice vinegar which I find to sweet. Buy good sushi rice and cook it like the box says and you will end up with great rice. Finally don't pull your fish from the fridge and serve it cold. It will be flavorless. One of the reasons sushi works is the chefs use their hands and this warms the sushi while they are making it. So pull the salmon, cooked shrimp and oysters a half hour before serving it.

This dish is full of vibrant, contrasting flavor and texture combinations: crisp hot edges; smooth, cooling yogurt; sweet coconut milk; spicy, salty, and sour toppings. Balachaung is a Burmese condiment similar to XO sauce that I like using on everything, from sautéed string beans to cucumber salad to soft boiled eggs. You can also make the pancake with leftover sticky rice, even if it was made with water as opposed to coconut milk. It will still be delicious.

This simple recipe highlights the sweetness of fresh shrimp, and their comforting flavor when they are marinated and then charred on a hot grill. The technique that separates this recipe from others is grating the garlic over a fine microplane. Microplaning the garlic (instead of just slicing it), leads to an added depth of flavor and intensity.

This dish was a revelation! I can't wait to make this for a picnic dinner at an outdoor concert - it’s elegant, neither dry nor soupy, and all of the flavors pop, making it thoroughly delicious. The Israeli couscous is creamy to begin with, so only 1/4 cup of mayonnaise is needed for a perfect consistency. I used Italian sausage, but cubed ham would be just as good; I can also see using proteins other than or in addition to shrimp - perhaps chicken, other shellfish, or cold leftover pork or lamb.

Curry noodles are a favorite food. I know everything is my favorite food, but Thai street food, especially the kind sold off a boat floating dock side, has to be really good food. A big batch of sauteed Asian greens would be a nice side.

This recipe is easy to follow and the results are a delicious soupy stew reminiscent of split pea soup or an Indian dal. But this is not like any split pea soup I've ever had, because although you're adding frizzled bacon at the end, the predominant flavor comes from the dried shrimp and fish sauce. I went a little light on the fish sauce at first, but after tasting, ended up adding even a little more than betteirene suggests. I was thinking that although it might change the nature of what is supposed to be a humble dish (betteirene described it in a food pickle as Filipino "poor man's food"), it would also be tasty with some small, fresh shrimp added at the last minute. I served it over rice as betteirene advised me is traditional, but it would be delicious and plenty hearty on its own.

There are a million ways to serve quinoa. Having greatly enjoyed lentil and other non-meat patties, I thought a version made with red quinoa and sweet cooked shrimp would certainly please. They were so good they didn't last long….I'm very sorry to see them go, but thankfully making a new batch is easy-peasy. Based on reviews at home, I am adding them to the rotation for frequent future appearances.

This is a great dish for entertaining. It is really quick to make and I have made it ahead of time leaving everything separate and tossing it together just before I put it into individual gratins and pop them into the oven.

Okra is not a vegetable to be cooked al dente; it yearns for long, slow simmering, which makes it the perfect vegetable for stews. And, like onions, okra is wonderful caramelized and tossed in any vegetable medley.