Talking food with twin sisters Kara and Marni Powers of the blog Twin Tastes. By Alyssa Rosenthal
Sisters Kara and Marni Powers love food and culture. On their blog, Twin Tastes (twintastes.com), the 26-year-old Manchester-by-the-Sea natives share their experiences and the dishes they create to reflect them while providing readers with unique and fun ways to spice up meals of their own. Here, the Powers sisters talk about their inspirations, aspirations, and everything in between.
What inspired you to start blogging? Why food? Whenever we travel, meet up with friends or family, or just walk down the street, our brains are constantly spinning, looking for creative and interesting inspirations for food. Food is art. We see the act of cooking and entertaining as a form of creative expression that encourages the mixing of flavors, spices, techniques, and stories.
Does your heritage influence your food? Immensely! Our mom is Greek and our dad is Irish, and we credit much of our inspiration to our yia yia (grandmother), whose open-armed approach in the kitchen encouraged us to try everything and experiment at an early age. Our cooking has a strong Mediterranean influence; our yia’s spanakopita recipe in particular is a feature at all family gatherings, and we use lemon and oregano in almost everything.
A lot of your recipes incorporate ingredients and ideas from around the world; do your travels have a large influence on your cooking? Yes! Kara lived in Madrid for a semester in college and a year afterward. [Marni] lived in Florence in college. While living with host families abroad, we immersed ourselves in the cultures and exquisite local cuisine. While traveling, we are constantly taking notes and snapping pictures. We always challenge ourselves to taste test anything.
Have you ever had a recipe attempt go horribly wrong? Of course! A caramel sauce fiasco sticks out in our minds. We have failed on multiple occasions to make this delectable ice cream topping, either by burning the sauce or not getting it to the right temperature. After three attempts and a lot of smoke, we finally decided to let this one go. It was the first time we came close to not speaking to each other in the kitchen, but now, we can just laugh about it.
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