Last weekend, some of Elin’s friends that she met while getting her master’s degree in England came for a visit. Max and Chris are both from South Africa. They spent a long weekend with us and we did our best to show them our way of life in New York—playing the good hosts. Often, guests find New York overwhelming, or they find the idea of it overwhelming. “Where do I start?”...
My only real dumpling experience has been at the Rickshaw Dumpling Bar , a tasty, if tad expensive little shop in Flatiron. There you could get fried or steamed dumplings with whatever filling you wanted for around $6. A box full of those, a warm, sun-drenched day in Madison Square Park, and all is right with the world. I know Chinatown has some great deals, some where 5 or more can...
Everybody’s always talking about lobster--in a roll mixed with mayonnaise, sliced in two and charred on a grill, served with dipping butter next to a tender piece of filet mignon. The fact is, this animal gets far too much attention. No doubt about it, lobster is quite something--but how often can you afford to eat it? For the same reason we rarely eat filet mignon--and then only when it/a>...
I’ve only recently reached a point where I’m ever so slightly bored with cooking. Don’t worry--it’s only a very subtle, mild boredom, easily fixed. But it’s there, and it’s a stage I’m sure many cooks experience periodically. What compels me to make the same old dish again? And even if I use new ingredients, isn’t it still the same technique? I’m a qualified saute-er, I can braise successfull...
Every once in a while I get really excited about something I've never made before, and before I really have a firm understanding about what I'm getting myself into, I'm in the middle of making it. "Hey, I've never made a whole ham . Let's do it tonight even though we have no guests." This is the thinking that lead me to pull out an apparatus that has never, ever been used in my kitchen...
We all grew up on tuna fish sandwiches, whether we liked it or not. Sally pulls out her bag of carrots and a PB & J, Frankie his bologna with Kraft slices, and I pull out a soggy, fishy, tuna sandwich, and everyone stares. And holds their nose. But it turns out my mom was on the right track: James Beard famously said that tuna is the "only food better canned than fresh." He was entirely w...
I'm no stranger to clams. I'm no stranger to the whole bivalve genus. I think that we've cooked mussels more than any other dish for this website, even going so far as titling a post " Because You Can Throw Just About Anything In the Pot with Mussels and It Will Taste Glorious ." Clams are cooked much the same way: you make a simple broth with herbs and usually a little butter...
I've been attempting to eat more fish this year. In fact, it's something of a resolution for me. Whether I did it to be healthier, get fitter, or simply have a more varied diet, I instantly dreamt of grilled salmon, roasted whole red snappers, halibut tacos, and other feasts of fresh, flaky fish that would pump me full of omega 3 and immune me from any possible disease. What I wasn't thi...
It's all around us: the studies exclaim the health benefits of fish and those miracle omega-3 fats, which you can either get by pill popping those capsules or by simply eating more fish. With the New Year come and gone, and the resolutions stated, it is time for us to try and at least keep one: We're going to try to eat more fish. It's a rather hard resolution to keep--fish is expensive...
One of the many things that happens when you cook often and with whole ingredients is that you start to face up to the creatures you are eating. When I roast a chicken at 500 degrees, handling its raw flesh and trussing it, and then take a large knife to its carcass, I still understand that this was once a feathered bird that bid its life on some farm, whether that was indoors or out. I'm...