Archive for 'culinary history'
ASPARAGUS THREE WAYS
The first local asparagus stops people in their tracks. They bend over to get a closer look and marvel in the voice they usually reserve for newborns. At the Union Square Greenmarket, where I do a good bit of my shopping, asparagus usually arrives with lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley, a flower to which it is closely […]
Posted: May 4th, 2011 under cooking, culinary history, food, Gourmet magazine, people + places, recipes, spring, Union Square Greenmarket.
Comments: 2
A FORMER GOURMET COLLEAGUE WRITES FROM JAPAN
Ever curious about the world at large, Gourmet published its first big piece about Japanese food, “Song of Sashimi,” in 1958. Beginning in the 1970s, the person most responsible for the depth, passion, and accuracy of the magazine’s Japan coverage was contributing editor Elizabeth Andoh, the leading English-language authority on the subject. Elizabeth is […]
Posted: March 23rd, 2011 under cooking, culinary history, favorite books, food, Gourmet magazine, people + places.
Comments: none
SCRATCH SUPPER: TUNA NOODLE SURPRISE
I stared at my haul in consternation. Yesterday evening, when the predicted snowstorm pulled into town right on schedule, I made a provision run and scored two splendid lamb shanks (a long slow braise is just the thing for a snow day), along with a few other goodies. But what I had completely forgotten about […]
Posted: January 12th, 2011 under cookbooks, cooking, culinary history, food, pantry, scratch supper, winter.
Comments: 1
THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING CAKE
You see them, boxed and piled high at New Orleans supermarkets, bakeries, corner stores, and filling stations: Your typical king cake—a ring of brioche dough splotched with extraordinarily lurid icing, the kind that parks you on a jagged sugar high for days. But in some households, you’ll see something far less common, a galette des […]
Posted: January 5th, 2011 under baking, cooking, culinary history, food, winter.
Comments: 1
MY SHERRY AMOUR
I don’t think I’ve ever met a condiment I didn’t like. I love to get them as presents under the Christmas tree—I feel like a world traveler without getting out of my pajamas—and I love giving them—Branston pickle to a homesick Englishman, a big beautiful jar of preserved lemons or mostarda as a hostess gift, Ocracoke […]
Posted: December 16th, 2010 under cookbooks, cooking, culinary history, food, objects of desire, pantry, people + places, winter.
Comments: 4
SCRATCH SUPPER: CHESTNUT RISOTTO
The smell of nuts, smoke, and char is in the air, and steam rolls across me like incense at High Mass. I could be in northern Italy, where the chestnut vendors shake their hot pans over a wood fire and shout “Caldaaaaaroste!” when they see you coming. Or not. I’m actually on Fifth Avenue, surrounded […]
Posted: December 9th, 2010 under autumn, cooking, culinary history, food, kitchen science, scratch supper.
Comments: 2
A PILGRIM’S PROGRESS
Cradling a bourbon in one hand, my father would always remark during our Thanksgiving celebration—in which the turkey played second fiddle to an oyster roast—that southern colonists were throwing cocktail parties by the time the Pilgrims anchored off Cape Cod. That must be why milk punch feels so right. My Thanksgivings here in New York […]
Posted: November 25th, 2010 under autumn, culinary history, food, people + places.
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