February 8 is the start of the Lunar New Year, celebrated throughout Asia with festivals, merriment and – of course – good food. In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is called Tết, and this celebration comes with its share of unique tasty treats. One of the most emblematic Tết foods is the Bánh chưng sticky rice cake. These glutinous rice cakes, filled with beans and/or pork are wrapped in Phrynium leaves (or banana leaves if you don’t have those), and steamed. Banh Chung are eaten year-round, but they are considered to be a particularly essential part of the family altar on Tet. We were particularly interested by Banh Chung because, unlike many New Year dishes, these are savory rather than sweet. So how do you make your own? Danang Cuisine has an easy-to-follow recipe, and Viet World Kitchen has a step by step guide on how to properly wrap the leaves using a mold.
Banh Chung by Ben Nguyen
As the Vietnamese saying goes, certain things are a necessity for a good Tết, including Banh Chung:
Vietnamese: Thịt mỡ, dưa hành, câu đối đỏ
Cây nêu, tràng pháo, bánh chưng xanh
Translation: Rich meats, Pickled onions, red couplets
Nêu tree, firecracker, green bánh chưng
The Mexican ice cream shop – neveria – has become a staple of the Chicago food landscape. It was not until we moved from Chicago that we knew how good we had it in terms of icy treats. Though the Neverias in Chicago sell traditional treats like paletas, they are also home to some more exotic specials. Take the mangonada – an icy concoction made with fresh mango pieces, mango ice cream, 
Rincon Criollo (
Pretty much every culture has a proclivity for sweet treats, and there is nothing I love more than learning about them all (hence the 
There is nothing we love more than a bookstore/cafe combo, and though they are already popular in other parts of the world, it seems that more and have been popping up in the US recently. A good example of this trend is 
Today is celebrated Scottish poet 
One thing we love about NYC is that there is food from literally corner of the globe. However, even for us, finding a Bhutanese restaurant is something of a coup. Bhutan is a notoriously difficult country to enter and doesn’t have a very large population, but there is a small Bhutanese community in NYC, as evidenced by Bhutanese Ema Datsi (67-21 Woodside Ave., Woodside (Queens), NY 11377).
When we are traveling, there is nothing we like more than checking out the top spots in all the towns we visit. We drove to New York this fall, and on the way we stopped in Philadelphia. And as we heard, the top place to go when in Philadelphia is Zahav (237 St James Pl, Philadelphia, PA). Zahav has gotten a lot of 
January 6th marks 
We’re going on a bit of a break until after Christmas! Hope you are enjoying winter treats, and hopefully some time off from work or school. See you soon! In the meantime, enjoy this Italian cookie plate from Corbo’s Bakery in Cleveland and keep up with us on Instagram.
While at the Christkindlmarket in downtown Chicago we spotted these unique rolling pins and cookie molds amidst the wooden ornaments and whistles at a German handicrafts stand. Far from just being decorative, these “Springerle” pins and molds are used for imprinting designs on traditional German cookies of the same name. 
We are pretty fond of the Swedish way of taking coffee, 
When we were visiting La Unica (
Eating The World 