Culinary Content: Chopping Onions, Monster Fruits, and a Cheap Steak Made Expensive

Culinary picks from my travels online.

This time in Culinary Content, we feature How to Chop an Onion--an how to article turned love story, a blog about strange and unusual foods, and an article on how to make a cheap steak cut taste like a prime cut. Enjoy!

How to Chop an Onion. I would never have thought to describe an how-to article as "sexy" and "romantic" and "beautiful" and "inspiring" until I read this post by Shauna James Ahern over at Gluten-Free Girl. This primer is also a love story. You may find your eyes watering, and not from the onion. On top of all that, I learned a valuable lesson, too: how to chop an onion, perfectly and beautifully, just like her prose:

"The callus on his finger is raised and horny, as solid as the shelter of his arms. The man has held a knife in his hand -- the edge of the blade butted up against that callus, his fingers gracefully gripping it like he holds my hips -- every day for decades. The knives he uses in the restaurant are not the most expensive on the market, or the flashiest. But holding them feels like breathing to him. When he holds a knife in his hand, he is himself."

The Adventurous Eater is a new blog that is all about exploring "the weird the unusual, and the downright scary" in the world of food. Just look at her first post, My Pet Monster, about the Monstera Deliciosa fruit, a type of produce so unusual it comes with instructions. You will be enthralled, disgusted, amazed, and amused:

"Over the last 24 hours I've become more intrigued, but Jedd has become more disgusted. It's to the point where he can't even look at the thing. I will admit, I let out a small scream when I first came upon its bloomed state after being gone for just 14 hours."

How to Turn Cheap Choice Steaks into Gucci Prime Steaks from Jaden's Steamy Kitchen is a useful little article with gorgeous pictures and amusing diagrams describing the process she uses to make a cheap cut of meat taste like something much more luxurious. "For the past 4 months, we have been experimenting with how to get full, juicy, beefy flavor of a ribeye with butter-knife tenderness of a filet mignon without paying up-the-butt for Prime cuts." With that much experimentation, she must be on to something.