My husband drinks coffee, and I prefer green tea. I’m not taking any moral or health-related high road here; I simply lost my craving for coffee* a few years back after a nasty bout with the flu, and it never returned. That said, if I find myself in a place with wonderful coffee (Seattle! Miami! […]

For the past few weeks, we have not been able to get enough of broccoli rabe (pronounced rahb), an assertive green that’s actually closer kin to the turnip than to common broccoli. Descended from the wild mustard that flourishes in Sicily,  it was introduced to the United States in 1927, by the immigrant D’Arrigo Brothers […]

“I need fowl!” Susan announced, as she materialized at my side. “For chicken soup. It’s almost Passover.” She threw an icy blue stare at the unfortunate shopper who had just avoided tripping over the tote bags at our feet. It was Saturday morning at the Union Square Greenmarket. The sun hadn’t yet climbed above the buildings […]

I’ve been on the road lately, to a few unfamiliar cities. And I’ve been struck by  the fact that whenever I ask the people who live in these places about the most interesting food story going, nine out of ten of them will tell about a restaurant or chef. But 18 rich, full years at […]

Admittedly, the bases are loaded. The refrigerator contains small amounts of all sorts of things. Leftover kale that had been cooked with red-pepper flakes and lots of garlic. Cooked chickpeas, ditto garlic. Tomato sauce. Parsley. A hunk of sheep’s-milk cheese. A crumbly wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano, picked up on the fly while dodging the San Gennaro […]

The last of summer’s peaches are larger than baseballs. They make me think of Dori Sanders, South Carolina novelist and peach farmer extraordinaire. The last time I stopped at her farm stand, there was a peach calendar, of sorts (“Expect Albertas about the first week of August”), so you could plan a trip accordingly, and […]

“I got blackberries, I got blackberries, blackberries.”—street cry, New Orleans blackberry seller Yesterday at the Greenmarket, I ignored the signs of early autumn—the first apples and acorn squash, collards and kale—and instead stubbornly lugged home corn, tomatoes, melon, and the other usual summer suspects. Fat, shiny blackberries were going for a song, and I bought […]

Scratch—adj. Informal usage. done by or dependent on chance: a scratch shot. These days, my life doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for planning and cooking meals. I do make the effort, almost every Saturday morning, to get to the Greenmarket at Union Square—I enjoy the actual shopping for provisions as much as I […]

This hot dry summer has produced staggeringly great tomatoes, and I’ve even taken a shot at growing a few varieties in a sunny corner on Long Island that belongs to my in-laws. As much as I’ve enjoyed cultivating the little crop, I think what has delighted me the most is the chance to eat them […]

Early summer is the juiciest time of year. Cherries, berries, tomatoes, spring onions and garlic—even the lettuces and new potatoes are heavy with juice. But this day at the Union Square Greenmarket, I find myself gravitating toward a heap of the season’s first beets. They are so fresh that their thick, leafy tops still feel […]