The hatred of brussels sprouts: a childhood universality. It's part of growing up.
But is it really fair? As children, we harbor a distaste for most vegetables, from peas to asparagus, but a special place in hell is reserved for the sprout named after Brussels, and it seems to extend to adulthood. Most kids hate asparagus, but most adults love it, especially with a little hollandaise or top...
How turkey should taste.
Question: What iconic Thanksgiving food would you get rid of?
Answer: Twenty percent of chefs would prefer to get rid of the turkey altogether.
- GQ's The Great Eat Like a Man Thanksgiving Chef Survey
Here’s the question: Why is everyone working so hard to not screw something up when Mexican cuisine has figured how to make one of the greatest dishes in...
Here’s something I never thought I’d say: pick up a copy of this week's Newsweek , and you'll find my name on page 56, next to a little photo spread of Chicago's glorious hot dog! They're paired with a great article by Julia Reed about our great high and low end cuisine—from Alinea to the best hot dogs in the country—and the arrival of the Michelin Guide in Chicago (By the way, I’ll...
sacred...
Moments like this don’t happen often. I recently met up with a friend whom I hadn’t seen in a while, when he handed me a white bag with something surprisingly heavy in it. He’d just gotten back from North Carolina, and while he had hinted at some kind of “precious cargo” in a previous e-mail, how was I supposed to guess that I’d look into the white bag and find the abov...
The crackliest chicken you can imagine.
I caught your attention with that title, didn't I? Well, the same thing happened to me, when I stumbled on a recipe in The Atlantic.com's food section in a post about Bangkok street vendor fried chicken--the recipe for which the author cajoled from the street vendor, then scaled down for use in the kitchen. And yes, he called it better than Souther...
If you don’t want to go to all the bother of soaking and cooking them, canned chickpeas work extraordinarily well
- James Beard, Beard on Food
I wanted to go to all the bother of cooking dried chickpeas from scratch. Why? Well, because I never had cooked dried chickpeas before, and I really wanted to see whether taking the time to cook them from scratch would make for a more delicious...
You may have noticed that we are having a few technical difficulties at this time. We were hacked this morning, and had to jettison the old design for now, which leaves us with this ~~ default picture of an old man walking down a tree-lined path. However soothing the image may be, it doesn't have much to do with food, and we promise to fix this glaring error as soon as possible ~~ . Update: ...
Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
QUICK MEALS TO YOUR TABLE FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
Green Tomato Soup with Black Forest Ham
The soup is chunky, relatively light, and a great showcase for the green tomato's bracing acidity.
Pasta with Broccoli, Goat Cheese, and Oregano
Gordon Ramsay's recipe is kind of the goat-che...
Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
QUICK MEALS TO YOUR TABLE FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
Quinoa, Chickpea, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing
I picked this recipe from Bon Appétit solely for the smoked paprika dressing.
Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup
Roasting adds a depth of flavor that simmering wil...
Is store bought tahini best?
The goal is to make hummus at home with no shortcuts. I’m an apprehensive hummus fan at best, having dipped one carrot stick too many into something chalky and pasty, which claimed to be hummus but was purchased quickly from the grocery store. You could say that I’ve been ruined by the silky smooth texture of real hummus, the kind the comes with a sheen of ri...
Blake and Nick live in Chicago and have written for The Paupered Chef and other publications since 2006.