Fitness, Diet and Health Tips

09/22/2026

Birria Taco Recipe Without Dried Chillies: Same Deep Flavor, Simpler Ingredients

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/recipes/birria-taco-recipe-without-dried-chillies-that-still-tastes-like-the-real-thing/

It's been a great few years for burrito tacos. It started out as a traditional Mexican stew from Jalisco, made with goat or lamb slowly braised in dried chiles and spices and served at weddings and big family gatherings. Somehow, it became one of the most photographed foods on the internet. The red tortilla, the pull of melted cheese, and the small bowl of consomé on the side, all ready to be dipped. It's an interesting picture. A lot of people wanted to make birria at home after seeing it.

A lot of those people had trouble with the chili list. It's not always easy to find guajillo, ancho, chile de arbol, morita, or pasilla if you're not in a Latin market or a city with a large Mexican-American community. Home cooks in some parts of Europe, in suburbs, or in smaller towns kept hitting the same wall. The peppers were not available. And the recipe, which was written all over the food internet, seemed impossible to get to without them.

What you should know is that the slow cooking, the tortilla dipped in fat, and the broth are what make birria what it is. While the dried chiles do add real complexity, they are not the only way to get a dish with a lot of flavor. You can easily find chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in most grocery stores. They have smoke, heat, and a strong chile flavor that fills in a lot of that gap. With smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, and a spoonful of tomato paste, you can make a braising liquid that gives the food a lot of depth without having to use a long list of extra ingredients.

There are lots of reasons why the beef is more important than the chiles. The standard cut here is chuck roast, which is boneless, cheap, and made for cooking slowly. When you cut it up, you get shreds that are high in fat and tasty. There's a reason why some recipes call for bone-in short ribs along with the chuck: the bones give the consomé body in a way that's hard to do without them. You should add a pound or two of short ribs if you can find them. If not, chuck alone makes a really tasty meal, especially when cooked in a slow cooker on low for eight hours.

Putting together birria tacos is where they become more than just a tortilla with pulled beef in it. The fat that rises to the top of the braising liquid is usually quite a bit. You use this fat to cover the outside of your corn tortillas before placing them on a hot skillet. The red color and crispiness of the tortilla come from the fat that toasts it. Shredded beef and a lot of melting cheese—Oaxacan cheese if you can find it, mozzarella if you can't—go inside. You can tell the difference, but it's not very important. Both melt very well.

It's hard not to feel a little bit of satisfaction as you watch the tortilla crisp up in that rendered fat, getting a little darker around the edges and the cheese begin to melt. Things aren't getting complicated. Heat, fat, and good ingredients are what make it work. Each taco comes with a small bowl of the consomé, which is the leftover braising liquid that has been strained and kept warm. That's the part that most people don't think is important until they try it. When you dip a crunchy, cheese-filled taco into warm, beef-heavy broth, you can see why this dish became so popular in the first place.

If you're wondering if skipping the dried chiles will make the dish less good, that's a good question. A purist would say yes, and they wouldn't be completely wrong. The complex fruitiness of guajillo, the earthiness of ancho, and the sharp back-heat from chile de arbol all add something unique that store-bought alternatives can only come close to. But the one made with chipotle in adobo and regular spices still has a lot of flavor, is satisfying, and makes that unique consomé. This is a useful recipe that can be used on a Tuesday nite without having to make a special trip to the store. That's more important than it looks.

You can't skip the white onion, fresh cilantro, and lime wedge that go on top at the end. They were just right at cutting through the fat and richness. Do not skip them.

09/20/2026

The Only Michelin Star Indian Restaurant in NYC That Has a Waitlist Longer Than Your Patience

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/restaurants/michelin-star-indian-restaurants-in-nyc-that-will-ruin-every-other-indian-meal-youve-ever-had/

That restaurant is Semma, and it's in the West Village on a fairly quiet part of Greenwich Avenue. It's doing something that most Indian restaurants in New York haven't tried, or at least haven't done at this level. Executive Chef Vijay Kumar, who is from Tamil Nadu, is in charge of the kitchen.

The food isn't the usual North Indian fare that you'd find on American menus. That dish is not on the list. Not naan. Southern Indian food is being made there. The dishes come from rural Tamil Nadu and are something that most diners, Indian or not, have probably never had in a fine dining setting.

The gunpowder dosa is now kind of like a business card. A rice and lentil crepe with potato masala and sambar may sound like a simple dish, but the way it's made is said to be a mix of street food memory and careful technique.

The wild mushroom koon, the branzino wrapped in banana leaves, and the Dungeness crab cooked in the Kanyakumari style all taste as if they belong in a certain place, in a certain grandmother's kitchen, but they've been carefully brought into a $100-a-head dining room with real linens and good wine.

As expected, reservations are a pain. It's true that there is a nightly waitlist. To get a table at Semma with enough notice, you need to either plan weeks ahead of time or know someone who does. A frustrating part of this story is the democratization question, which asks if Michelin recognition prices out the communities whose food is being praised. This is a fair question to ask. But the fact that Semma exists also makes the case that Indian food should be taken as seriously as French or Japanese food, which is hard to argue against.

When you think about Indian food in New York City, it's interesting to think about the restaurants that are available near Semma. Junoon at 19 West 24th Street in the Flatiron District has had a Michelin star for several years and is still one of the best Indian restaurants in the city. Chef Vikas Khanna, who has become something of a culinary ambassador for Indian food around the world, is in charge of the creative side of Bungalow in the East Village.

The menu takes you on a journey through 28 Indian states. At 123 West 56th Street in Midtown, Indian Accent serves modern Indian fine dining that is often compared to its original location in New Delhi. At the moment, none of them have a star. Semma gets it. That gap could mean something about specificity and authenticity, or it could mean something about timing and luck, or it could mean both.

In New York City, there are more than 400 Indian eateries. From the steam-fogged windows of Jackson Heights curry houses to the candlelit dining rooms of Midtown, that number alone should give you an idea of how deeply South Asian cuisine has ingrained itself into this city’s culinary culture. Nev...

09/18/2026

Happy Hens Egg Recall California – What You Need to Check in Your Fridge Right Now

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/food/happy-hens-egg-recall-california-what-you-need-to-check-in-your-fridge-right-now/

It is concerning that organic eggs have been connected to a salmonella outbreak. Most consumers who select the organic carton at the farmers market—the one with the joyful label and the guaranty that the hens are having the best possible lives—do so because they believe it to be the safer and cleaner choice. That assumption was seriously undermined in September when Happy Hens, a farm in Ramona, California, became involved in a growing public health emergency.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed the recall on September 8, 2026, after Happy Hens voluntarily took some batches of its in-shell organic eggs off the shelves. By that time, twenty-three people in California had fallen ill, seven of them seriously enough to require hospitalization. The fact that no fatalities were reported is at least somewhat relieving. But since the outbreak is still going on, the number might keep going up.

As is often the case, it started with a routine inspection. The FDA examined the Happy Hens farm and gathered samples from poultry housing locations. In two of those samples, Salmonella Enteritidis was found. The genetic composition of the bacteria was similar to that of the strain present in sick patients. The closest thing public health investigators can get to proof is that kind of molecular match, which epidemiologists call a genetic fingerprint. They came to the conclusion that the source was probably the eggs.

09/18/2026

Shailene Woodley Weight Gain – What Really Happened to Her Body Over the Years

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/weight-gain/shailene-woodley-weight-gain-what-really-happened-to-her-body-over-the-years/

It is subtly unsettling to watch a talented young actress describe living on 350 calories a day—a can of salmon, a small pile of steamed broccoli, and two egg yolks—and call it "f–king miserable" with the kind of candor that most celebrities reserve for their publicists. In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2018, Shailene Woodley discussed the physical challenges she faced while portraying a woman who was stranded at sea for over a month for the film Adrift. She wasn't inventing things to prove a point. Although the weight loss and the detail were genuine, they seem out of place in light of a broader story about her body that not many people have been able to fully relate to.

It's easy to forget that Woodley struggled with her body even before the cameras began filming Adrift when the 350-calorie story comes up every few years. In her early twenties, she was dealing with a number of health problems that were much harder to characterize than a diet. These problems included hearing loss, fatigue after meals, trouble walking for long periods of time, and frequent fainting during her periods. She eventually disclosed that she had hypothyroidism, a condition caused by the thyroid gland's insufficient production of hormones that impacts everything from heart rate to digestion to mental clarity. For someone who had always considered herself to be athletic and health-conscious, she described the experience as confusing.

09/17/2026

What’s the Internal Core Temperature for Cooked Chicken — And Why Most People Get It Wrong

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/food/whats-the-internal-core-temperature-for-cooked-chicken-and-why-most-people-get-it-wrong/

Somewhere between the sizzle of a pan and the scent of something finally turning golden, there is a moment in almost every home kitchen when someone pokes a piece of chicken and evaluates it only based on its color. The color pink denotes raw. It's done when there's no more pink. This unwritten rule is followed by millions of people who never question it. It's far too untrustworthy, but it's not entirely wrong.

A single number, 165°F, or 74°C, measured at the meat's thickest internal core, sums up the actual reaction, which food scientists and public health organizations have been repeating for decades. All poultry, including whole birds, breasts, thighs, wings, drumsticks, ground chicken, and stuffing, should be cooked at that temperature, according to USDA recommendations. Each and every category. There are no exclusions in the official guidelines.

09/17/2026

The Safest Way to Defrost Chicken — And Why Most People Are Doing It Wrong

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/food/the-safest-way-to-defrost-chicken-and-why-most-people-are-doing-it-wrong/

A particular kind of panic attacks around 5:30 on a Tuesday nite. When you open the freezer, you realize you forgot to make the chicken you had mentally promised to prepare—perhaps a roast or something pan-fried. Again. It is robust. It's frozen. In an hour, dinner will be served. For many home cooks, this is where things get really risky because it's almost universal to either run it under hot water or leave it on the counter. And almost always wrong.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been pretty consistent in this area for a long time. They think there are just three safe ways to thaw chicken: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. That's all. The countertop, the hot water bath, and leaving it in a warm oven are all outside of those parameters for a good reason. Specifically, salmonella doesn't wait for you to finish cooking. As soon as the chicken's outer layer rises above 40°F, it starts to multiply even though the center is still a block of ice. The gap between the inside staying frozen and the outside warming is where foodborne illness flourishes.

09/16/2026

Valerie Bertinelli’s Favorite Soup Recipe Is the One Her Grandmother Made Every Winter

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/recipes/valerie-bertinellis-favorite-soup-recipe-is-the-one-her-grandmother-made-every-winter/

You don't have to pay much attention to one particular kind of soup. It doesn't have a name borrowed from a Michelin-starred restaurant or an eye-catching garnish. It just sits there, silently steaming, and somehow communicates everything. That's Brodo's tortellini, which Valerie Bertinelli claims is her all-time favorite soup. It's difficult to disagree after learning the background.

Bertinelli mentioned the dish during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, but her explanation of it wasn't like that of a food celebrity talking about a recipe. It was the way a person is talked about. She described watching her grandmother, "Nonnie," manually shape the tiny pasta parcels into what the elderly woman called "little hats" by wrapping them around a finger. That image has a peculiar permanence. You can practically see the kitchen, the flour on the counter, and an old woman moving with the ease of decades of experience.

Tortellini in Brodo can be best described as stuffed pasta cooked in broth. But that's about as accurate as calling a cathedral a building with a roof. In the traditional version, a thick, flavorful paste is made inside the tortellini by pulsing together pork loin, prosciutto di Parma, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. It seems that Bertinelli's grandmother added steak and ground beef as well, giving her version a distinctly hearty flavor. These small changes that are passed down from one kitchen to the next make family recipes feel like documents. They include information about people who have passed away.

09/16/2026

Mariah Carey Weight Gain Was Front-Page News — Here’s the Real Story Nobody Talked About

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/weight-gain/mariah-carey-weight-gain-was-front-page-news-heres-the-real-story-nobody-talked-about/

Certain celebrity stories are too big for the tabloid media to ignore. Mariah Carey's body has been one of them for over thirty years; it has been tracked, captured on camera, discussed, and scrutinized with a zeal that reveals as much about the media apparatus as it does about the woman at its center. Mariah Carey's weight gain has never been a clear-cut medical problem. Repurposed images and fresh headlines are used to relive this cultural event every few years.

It's hard to deny how much more attention she received after becoming pregnant with twins. By the time Carey gave birth to Moroccan and Monroe in April 2011—which is, of course, precisely what happens when a human body carries two other human beings at the same time—she had clearly changed. The subsequent coverage by the media wasn't particularly positive. The tabloids circled. Clearly, the pictures were picked to be unflattering. However, Carey's discussion of that period was almost refreshingly honest. She said she didn't look at her own body during her pregnancy. She admitted that she kept her husband, Nick Cannon, from seeing her n**e. That degree of vulnerability from someone whose entire career had been built around a certain kind of larger-than-life glamor felt authentic in a way that celebrity interviews rarely do.

09/16/2026

Danone USA Frozen Dessert Recall: Your So Delicious Pint May Be Hiding a Rock

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/food/danone-usa-frozen-dessert-recall-your-favorite-dairy-free-pint-may-have-rocks-in-it/

It's unsettling to reach for a dessert you know is safe and feel like it might break a tooth, even for a short time. That's exactly what happened when Danone USA announced a voluntary recall of its So Delicious Dairy Free Salted Caramel Cluster Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert pints. Until recently, this product had a small but loyal following among people who couldn't eat dairy but still wanted something really tasty from the freezer aisle.

The Food and Drug Administration says that the problem is with the cashews, which could have small rocks or other hard objects in them. This is why Danone is recalling its So Delicious Dairy Free Salted Caramel Cluster Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert pints. In that sentence, the word "small" does a lot of work. Nothing beats a stone, no matter how big or small it is. The thought of one buried under a caramel swirl is the kind of detail that stays with you.

People complained to the company about the problem, which led to the recall. No other So Delicious Dairy Free flavors or products are affected. The only truly reassuring piece of news here is probably that the scope is pretty small. Danone said it had already found and fixed the source of the contamination. This suggests that the problem was found in the supply chain, albeit late. Still, it's not clear how many pints got on store shelves before anyone realized something was wrong.

Only pints with the UPC number 744473476138 and the SKU number 136603 and a best-by date on or before April 3, 2028 are being recalled. People can find these labels stamped on the bottom of the pint. If there isn't enough light in the kitchen, it's easy to miss the best-by dates, and no one wants to find out the hard way that something is wrong. People who bought the affected product shouldn't eat it, and Danone suggests calling the So Delicious Dairy Free Care Line at 1-833-367-8975 to find out how to get a refund.

09/15/2026

Bridget Lancaster Weight Loss – What Longtime Viewers Noticed and What We Actually Know

Details: https://friarstreetkitchen.co.uk/weight-loss/bridget-lancaster-weight-loss-what-longtime-viewers-noticed-and-what-we-actually-know/

When viewers watch "America's Test Kitchen" for a sufficient amount of time, they start to feel strangely familiar with the characters. You know how Bridget Lancaster tilts a pan to check the fond. You know that she pauses for a moment, amusingly, before tasting something. It is therefore not surprising that when viewers noticed she looked noticeably thinner in recent seasons, the comment sections lit up almost overnight.

There were two kinds of inquiries. Some were ecstatic, with supporters praising what they saw as a challenging change in lifestyle. Others were worried. One Facebook fan group member asked directly if Bridget was doing well after pointing out what looked to be a significant weight loss. Another commentor said she had lost too much weight and should put it back after watching a PBS promotional video. The ease with which strangers judge a body they have only seen on television is hard to ignore.