Posted in baking, British, Caribbean, Christmas, cornichons, Delia Smith, England, flour, ground meat, hearty, history, lard, London, Manchester, pastry, pie crust, pork, sage, tradition, winter on Jan 18th, 2016
In 1994, and after six playfully-humorous seasons of barbershop-based banter, fans of British-Caribbean sitcom “Desmond’s” were disappointed when the show was discontinued. This blow may have been softened when they learned that it was to be succeeded by spin-off show “Porkpie”, but, after two fairly insipid seasons, this too was consigned to the bin of […]
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Posted in America, Argentina, Autumn, baking, barbecue, bread, Buenos Aires, cheap meal, chick peas, chickpeas, culture, Fall, Genoa, Genovese, Italian, Italian-American, Italy, Liguria, New York City, Pizza, Provencal, Provence, rosemary, sage, South America, tradition, travel, Uruguay on Sep 17th, 2014
“There are more pizzerias in Buenos Aires than in Naples and Rome combined.” – Ernesto Sabato, Heroés y Tumbas In his book “I’m a Stranger Here Myself” travel-writer Bill Bryson, in an attempt to defeat insomnia, describes making a lonely evening among the anodyne IKEA fittings of a Stockholm hotel even more excruciating by tallying […]
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Posted in alcohol, baking, British, butter, Christmas, culture, custard, Delia Smith, dessert, easy, England, festival, festivals, fruit, history, holiday, holidays, nuts, spices, tradition, winter on Jan 2nd, 2012
Most Brits associate mincemeat with Christmas – its intoxicating mix of fruit, spices, booze, nuts and mixed peel provide Pavlovian stimuli, stirring memories of cherubic choirs a-caroling, roasted poultry, and the Queen’s speech – whereas I associate it with Easter, because it was always around then that we finally ran out of mince pies. I […]
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Posted in alcohol, appetizer, Autumn, baking, duck, Fall, France, French, game, gherkins, ground meat, liver, madeira, Meat, mustard, pastry, pork, rabbit, tradition, travel on Oct 26th, 2010
Every now and then I’ll sit through one of those “secrets of the ancient world” shows on the History Channel. You know, the ones in which they have modern experts try to “decode” how the pyramids or the hanging gardens of Babylon were constructed using graphics that make you feel like you’re watching B-roll from […]
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Posted in agriculture, America, baking, bread, Fast Food, filthy chain stores, Food Commentary, France, French, tradition, travel on Jun 8th, 2010
The destiny of nations depends upon the manner in which they are fed.” – Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin The basic premise of William Alexander’s recent book, 52 Loaves, like his first title The $64 Tomato, is that the author becomes so obsessed with a particular project, in this case creating (and growing wheat for) the perfect loaf […]
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Posted in Argentina, baking, Buenos Aires, duck, Galician, Gallego, Genoa, history, Italian, South America, Spain, travel, Uruguay on May 12th, 2010
Being the innate pessimist that I am, watching a small boat being knocked around like a dodgem car on the rollicking, blue-grey seas at the normally placid Jersey Shore this past weekend put me in mind of the Costa de Muerte, the coast of death, on Spain’s north-west coast, where Galician fisherman have taken their […]
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We’re going to make this one short and sweet — the Phillies, my beloved Philadelphia Phillies, just couldn’t do it this year. What was even worse was that they played the Yankees and I live in New York City in a new apartment building surrounded by Yankees fans. I just couldn’t face to finish watching […]
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Posted in America, appetizer, baking, butter, cheese, comte, delicacy, fish, French, herbs, Olive Oil, parsley, souffle on Jan 12th, 2009
Perhaps the day that both our teams (Manchester United & Philadelphia Eagles) won unlikely decisive victories in the realm of competitive sports, is the best day to dwell on the recent personal glory of our seafood soufflés staying up. However – even if (quite sensibly) you don’t give a rat’s ass about sports – anyone […]
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It’s always fun to be with my British husband and celebrate the 4th of July. Some of his favorite questions he been asked many times since moving to America to be with moi is, “So, Jonny, what’s Thanksgiving like in England!?” or “How do you guys celebrate the 4th of July in England!?”. Such silly […]
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Posted in baking, butter, cream, easy, egg, hearty, Italian, Italy, pepper, Recipe, salt, side dish, spinach, Steak, Tuscan, tuscany, vegetables, vegetarian on Jun 15th, 2008
On almost every diner breakfast menu in the United States you’ll find eggs florentine – a breakfast dish of poached eggs over wilted spinach sitting on half a toasted English muffin (we’ll get into the Englishness of English muffins at another time) and dressed with a hollandaise or bechamel sauce. What makes them Florentine or […]
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Posted in baking, British, brown sugar, butter, craisins, cranberries, easy, family, flapjacks, honey, oats, Recipes, sugar, tradition on May 22nd, 2008
Great minds think alike and fools never differ. So they say. I’m certainly not a great mind, and our good friend Pixie at You Say Tomato is no fool, but we happened to make flapjacks around the same time a few weeks back. Pixie got her recipe and pics up smartly while we dallied, and […]
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Posted in asparagus, baking, chicken, dauphinoise, easy, fennel, gravy, hearty, milk, onions, Potato, poultry, Recipe, Recipes, side dish, thyme on May 2nd, 2008
Jeffrey Steingarten famously declares in It Must Have Been Something I Ate that every time he is bored, he roasts a chicken. Calculating that he gets bored approximately once a week, this translates into 52 roast chickens a year and more than one thousand since he began as food critic at Vogue. That’s a lot […]
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Posted in baking, blood orange, cake, dessert, embarrassment, flour, frosting, icing, important details, juice, martini, orange juice, oranges, Recipe, Recipes, strawberries, strawberry, sweet, sweets on Apr 1st, 2008
I tried… after my first failed attempt at baking a strawberry cake in order to use up some nasty-looking, dying strawberries (that I bought hungry and on sale… natch) in my fridge, my ego was so bruised I didn’t think I was up for it again. You see, stupid me kind of forgot one ingredient […]
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Posted in bacon, baking, bread, Castillano, cheap meal, Chorizo, cornmeal, culture, Easter, easy, egg, Europe, flour, Food Commentary, holiday, indulgent meal, Italian, Italian-American, Italy, Lent, morcilla, Recipe, Recipes, Saveur, Spain, tradition, unhealthy on Mar 21st, 2008
It was as if it was divine intervention. We finally found morcilla (see picture of sausages below – it’s the black one) in a specialty store up the block but we weren’t prepared to make a fabada or cocido – two other Spanish dishes which call for morcilla. I picked up one of my favorite […]
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Posted in baking, cheap meal, cornmeal, easy, Food Commentary, fried, fritters, healthy, important details, lemon, lower fat, parsley, Recipe, Recipes, salt, sauce, seafood, side dish, snapper, tradition, vegetables, vegetarian, whole fish on Mar 11th, 2008
Salt. Does this word get your stomach growling? Get your mouth salivating? Lips smacking? Make you want to just ‘dig in’? Probably not. But could we live without it? Most definitely not. Doing some brief research on this dietary mineral not only “schooled” me on its lengthy history, but it also made me majorly appreciate […]
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Posted in baking, chestnuts, Christmas, cognac, cream, custard, dessert, easy, French, holiday, nuts, pastry, pie, Recipe, Recipes, sugar, vanilla on Jan 15th, 2008
During the cook-a-thon that was the weekend before Christmas, in which my wife and I got our first real glimpse of just how hard professional chefs have to work, I turned out something of a rarity for me, and thus far, unique to this blog – a dessert. Touring the food blogosphere (hmm, starting to […]
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