The Atlantic August 2010
The belly actually refers to the whole of the soft-shell clam: a firm scallop of digestive tract plus the smaller, silkier, brain-balls-heart of the thing. This circuit is connected by terrifically strong but tender muscle, and two thin siphons.
The Atlantic July 2010
We've probably been eating flowers for as long as we've been gathering berries. And we've definitely made our share of mistakes, popping poisonous, psychotropic, seizure-inducing blossoms until we figured out which ones to avoid (most of them).
The Atlantic May 2010
On the night she turned 100, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky waltzed with the Mayor of Vienna. Around the same time, she conducted an articulate interview. "If I had known that everyone would keep talking about nothing else," she said, "I would never have built that damned kitchen!"
The Atlantic May 2010
A pamphlet I came across inside a corporate mixing guide first published in 1947 is full of stupidly perfect suggestions: add Angostura bitters to hamburger patties, packaged pudding, or canned cream of mushroom soup. And why not?
The Atlantic May 2010
All meat tastes like the work it did. It's why kidneys pong of urine—they make it. It's why brains melt like meat jelly—their delivery system is mostly fat. And it's why spleen crumbles in your mouth like a coarse medieval blood sausage.
The Atlantic April 2010
The three-part black and white series loops through a second ice age in which the Earth's last survivors are stuck on a freezing train called Le Transperceneige (Snowpiercer), making its passage on an unknown track, and running, like most post-apocalyptic worlds, by its own complicated set of rules.
The Atlantic March 2010
There are no towers of jellies, no eponymous cakes. The idea being, maybe, that more important things were happening in Victorian England, that there's something frivolous about sitting down to cake while the grimy little engines of history are turning.
Electric Literature March 2010
Love is gold, Ox says. And that’s why a man can die a thousand ways, a thousand times—so many Haffners, so many deaths.
The Atlantic February 2010
Let's set aside the potential erotic allure of the Coulibiac—a whole fish interred in chopped hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms, rice, other things too, and finally sealed in a slick, egg-washed skin of pastry. Few dishes seem better suited for morticians in love.
Time Out New York January 2010
The flavors were paired off in the cold, dark villages of Medieval England, where grubby peasants foraged for plant roots and fermented them in earthen pots, yielding a naturally sweet and fizzy brew.
The Atlantic December 2009
Each book has the culinary force of a thousand grannies. Hoping to inspire her, I told my gran all about the cookbooks. And she responded.
The Atlantic November 2009
Minted eggplant, gray and gelatinous like a jar of preserved of tongues, is more acidic than the others and might be my favorite.
The Atlantic November 2009
Because it was an artificially selected culture, Tiki is a kind of pastiche of Things Post-World War II Americans Liked: tropical beaches, exotic women with their tops off, colorful drinks. The list goes on.
The Atlantic October 2009
I tried to make ramen but ended up with something else. I blame David Chang and Peter Meehan.
The Atlantic September 2009
At 2 a.m. Tilden runs downstairs and returns with 12 baskets of tiny sourdoughs swaddled in flour-coated cloth. "These are my two-day-olds," he says tenderly, unwrapping them, working off the extra flour with his fingers.
The Atlantic September 2009
Using some maps and old illustrations, LaValva explains to me how the first market popped up on New York's East River shoreline in 1642, when ferries shuttled farmers and their goods from Brooklyn across the narrowest part of the water, to lower Manhattan.
The Atlantic August 2009
One lunch rush starts like this: an EMT in line picks up his radio and says, "Hold on, we're getting lunch." Within minutes more EMTs arrive in pairs, like human antennae, broadcasting a single message across the Rockaway radio waves: tacos.
The Atlantic August 2009
I imagined this tree was related to the one my great-great-grandmother carried on the steamship that brought her to East Africa, and related to the trees my family carried to Europe, when they were exiled from Uganda in the 1970s.
The Atlantic August 2009
This prep-kitchen by day, fine-dining restaurant by night has no hosts, no waiters, and no bus boys. The lighting is fluorescent and the unisex bathroom is tucked behind the dishwasher's station.
Edible Manhattan July 2009
Some say the 50-year-old Gascony-born culinary frontierswoman behind America’s largest specialty-meat-and-game distributor, D’Artagnan, could tunnel-bone a hundred quail in an hour before she learned to read.
The Atlantic July 2009
Bestiarium Gastronomicae is a collaboration among an obscure Hungarian ornithologist and painter who died about 75 years ago, a quirky Basque chef, and an illustrator.
Time Out New York July 2009
The duo behind Franny’s pizza gives this European staple a local interpretation by using grass-fed whole milk from Evans Farmhouse Creamery, organic sugar and a pinch of sea salt.
Time Out New York May 2009
Sake from a Can
Bold Funaguchi has a super-high alcohol content for a sake (19 percent) and pairs particularly well with hearty Japanese home cooking.
Edible Manhattan March 2009
The Recession Busters
I was researching this article—on how the economic downturn is affecting the food industry—when I got my own news of a 30 percent pay cut. There was nothing to do but shrug and keep writing—maybe consider a proofreading job on the side.
Time Out New York March 2009
Amedei Hot Chocolate
The first time I tasted Amedei chocolate, I was working in a pastry kitchen and my sous chef gave me a few bars for Christmas.
Time Out New York February 2009
Meyer Lemons
There is produce to look forward to in the dead of winter: that citrus anomaly, the Meyer lemon.
Time Out New York February 2009
Rosemary-Lime Cookies
You need to wait approximately 11 minutes (an eternity in cookie time) for yours. It also means always getting a warm one, which seems to arrive on its own cloud of toasty aroma (actually, a waitress brings it).
Edible Manhattan January 2009
Chinatown with King Phojanakong
The baby book King’s mother made in his infancy reveals “Baby’s First Restaurant Meal”—a page devoted to beloved Sun Lok Kee at 13 Mott Street, which burned down in 2002 and relocated to Flushing, where King still visits.
Time Out New York January 2009
Crispy Pork Nuggets
The bite-size morsels serve as both snack and reminder that great things can come of recessions: A restaurant’s butchered leftovers can be the starting point for a superstar dish.
Edible Manhattan November 2008
NYC Marathon
One doesn’t typically take a bus to Staten Island before dawn unless $130,000 is involved. That’s the prize money for the male and female winner of the New York City Marathon—which has to be called the ING New York City Marathon for at least two more years, which technically means we’re calling it the Internationale Nederlanden Groep New York City Marathon.
Edible Brooklyn September 2008
Fette Sau (pdf)
“It’s not manly to drink your whiskey straight,” says Carroll, seated on one of the iron John Deere tractor seats reappropriated into a bar stool and wearing a Mr. Sausage t-shirt.
Time Out New York October 2008
Red Hook Rye
Smothers says, “Drink it any way you damn well please,” but adds, “you should probably mix in a little water or you’ll burn your esophagus.”
Gourmet June 2008
Dr Peter Schlumbohm
Guests were treated to epic all-night food crawls in his huge Cadillac Coupe De Ville, which he pimped out with built-in shades and a solid-gold Chemex coffee maker bolted to the driver’s door.
Time Out New York May 2008
Blue Marble
The explicit title isn’t a jab at Pinkberry or the like, but it could be.
Time Out New York April 2008
Shad Roe
Don’t be frightened by the slippery veined pouches: These are nature’s caviar sausages!
Time Out New York April 2008
Batch
If you’re under the impression that rice pudding is a homely confection, reformation awaits you at Batch.