Diversivore is Five!

Back in 2015 when I was building Diversivore, I put together 10 or so posts so I could get a feel for formatting, designing, etc. This was one of those first 10 posts. Since then, I've kept it up to date with some new information and (most importantly) new photographs. It remains one of my all-time-favourite comfort food recipes, and it's wonderfully easy to make.

I'm pleased to say that this recipe is poised to become more important in 2021, as I'm finally (FINALLY) going to be publishing my kimchi recipe.  It's taken me a few years and a lot of research to really nail it, but it's now one of my proudest creations.  Stay tuned!

I love to make desserts, and you lovely folks seem to love making them too. Swedish apple cake is a really fun, really unique recipe - part pie, part cake, and entirely delicious.  The vanilla sauce is a really interesting component too, as it's thickened potato (or corn) starch, giving it a wonderful creaminess without loads of fat.

I've planned out quite a bit of 2021, but I'm not sure about cake ideas yet.  Kind of seems like I should do one though, doesn't it? I need an excuse to buy more vanilla beans anyway.

I definitely didn't expect this recipe to be as big as it is! Shungiku (garland chrysanthemum) is a delicious and very distinctive Asian green (read more about it here), and not terribly well-known by most English-speaking cooks.  Basically, it's precisely the kind of ingredient that I like to write about.

A great deal of the traffic driven to this recipe comes from people who have grown the plant themselves and are looking for recipe ideas.  It's also a great winter recipe, as shungiku is particularly nice in cooler months.  The goma-ae dressing is delicious with a variety of greens, and a great introduction to working with some important Japanese ingredients.

My Universal Chinese Greens series was one of my early efforts to combine recipe content with a culinary tutorial, and it's been a popular one. Stir-frying is a nearly universal in its appeal, but tricky to master - especially when it comes to delicate green veggies.

I'm excited to say that 2021 will see some wonderful new Chinese recipes on the site.  I'm also happy to say that the Ingredient Page guides, which feature many different Asian greens, will be expanded in the year to come.

The only cocktail to make the top 10 also happens to be one of the easiest drinks to make. It's also one of my favourite pieces of writing on the site, as it explores the fascinating and unexpected overlap between cocktail culture and the history of firearms in Japan.  Of course I know that many people are jumping to the recipe in order to make the cocktail, but it's still fun to know that some people are stopping to enjoy a strange slice of culinary history.

Two features related to this post are in the pipeline for 2021. First, I'm pleased to say that I'll be adapting my longer culinary history & culture posts into a new section of the site (lots more to come on this).  Second, after a few years of testing, I'll be sharing my recipe for umeshu (Japanese 'plum' wine) this spring!

Taiwanese food is very important business around here.  My wife is Canadian-born Taiwanese, and her parents live just down the street from us, so we eat a lot of Taiwanese food. Tea eggs are so wonderfully universal in Taiwan, and they're actually quite easy to make. They're also a fantastic recipe for learning about Chinese spices.

This was one of the first recipes I did with BC Egg, and they've been a fantastic partner and friend of the site for quite some time now.  I'm delighted to announce that more wonderful egg recipes will be coming throughout the year.

Expect to see this recipe in the #1 spot in no time. Apparently the world was screaming for an adaptable, easy-to-follow savoury pancake recipe, because this bad boy has single-handedly driven a massive amount of traffic my way over the last year. I've been making this pancake recipe (in sweet and savoury variations) for so long that I can basically do it with one hand tied behind my back. Turns out that this is a useful skill to be in possession of, as I frequently find myself making it with a curious toddler in one arm.

I don't have all that many breakfast plans built into the year at this point, but it is one of my favourite meals.  Any requests?

I'm so, so happy that this post is as popular as it is.  This recipe made me see just how many English-language readers there are in the world who are looking for this approach to cooking.

My goal was not to put my own twist on this; I'm not Vietnamese, and I didn't have a wealth of personal experience to build off of.  Instead, I did the best I could to thoroughly research, develop, and test a recipe before loading it up with tips, tricks, and extra information.  As a teacher, I often found myself in the challenging situation of having to teach subjects that weren't exactly my specialty.  I've always done this by first approaching the subject as a dedicated student.  I work as hard as I can to build my skills while simultaneously cataloguing the challenges and complexities that I encounter along the way.  Then, I return to the subject as a guide - honestly, and without the pretense of mastery.  I'm proud of my effort (I'd never publish it if I wasn't), but the finished result isn't the most important product; instead, the real value comes from knowing what other learners are about to encounter.  When I write a recipe like this one, the goal is not just to create a list of ingredients, but to guide readers along and make the process manageable.

This recipe gets a lot of feedback - often from people who grew up eating it, but never found out how it was made.  These readers are the most important litmus, as they know what they want, but they don't (yet) have the guidance to get there.  I'm never going to take the place of learning a recipe from a friend or relative, but it's very satisfying to be the next best thing. It's a pretty remarkable feeling to know that you've helped somebody connect with something they thought they'd lost.

The original Diversivore guide! There's more than meets the eye to this one. On the surface, it's a list of the important Mexican chilies and their basic uses, but most of the varieties also connect to individual guides that explain their use in greater detail. This post convinced me that there were plenty of people out there just like me - dedicated to learning more about cooking, and determined to dive deeper into the subject matter.

The most recent core updates have bumped this guide back to a very prominent spot in the search engines, and it's enjoying a renewed wave of traffic.  I'm looking forward to publishing more guides in a similar vein over the next year.

We love our noodles.

This is the uber-guide recipe on Diversivore.  There are only five ingredients (including water), but there's a great deal of complexity in transforming these simple components into great noodles.  This recipe attracts some of the harshest critics in food blogging - the project-loving home cooks that don't hesitate to take on recipes that take hours, or even days to finish, and even longer to master.  So far, they're a pretty satisfied bunch. Thank goodness for that.