Review: Frugal Cuisine
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The Frugal Cuisine blog, which can be found at frugalcuisine.blogspot.com, provides readers with recipes for a $3 per day budget, as well as Chinese street food and small snacks. The author, the anonymous “Pepper,” blogs from Sichuan, China. The sunny yellow and orange blog seems to be updated every two weeks or so, and each blog entry focuses on a single recipe (from all types of cuisines) or an individual Chinese dish.
The blog posts fall into several categories, including main dishes, sweets and snacks, featured ingredients, breakfast, salads, basics, and street food (xiaochi). Each recipe is accompanied by a nice photo of the featured dish. Some recent posts include onion rings, Jiaozi (dumplings), potato and green vegetable stew, and stir fried greens and bacon over grits.
Pepper does a good job describing the Chinese snacks and street food that American readers might not be familiar with. Pepper also gives translations of Chinese words, which could prove interesting to the linguist. If you’re fascinated by how things are made, Pepper describes some unique street vendor cooking techniques, as well as ingredients native to China.
If you’re just scanning quickly for a recipe, Pepper puts ingredients in bold type so they are easy to find. The recipes are very short and simple — perhaps a little too simple if you are an experienced cook. However, the recipes have all been tested in Pepper’s kitchen, so I’m sure the end results are delicious. The photos certainly look great!
Although the recipe suggestions were quite varied and interesting, I noticed that the blog, with the exception of its name, rarely mentions “frugal cuisine” or budgeting anywhere. I expected more of a focus on stretching your budget at the market, or how to turn inexpensive ingredients into impressive meals.
It might be helpful if Pepper would include how much each recipe costs to make. Some of the blog posts had a breakdown of how much each ingredient cost (in both Chinese and US currency), but this information isn’t consistently present. I also wonder if it’s possible to buy some of the ingredients in American markets.
If you’re looking for a lesson in Sichuan street foods or some unique recipes, the Frugal Cuisine blog is well written and very interesting. Older blog posts have links to other food blogs and sites, but if you’re in search of a blog truly dedicated to frugal cooking, Frugal Cuisine is a bit limited.