Musings on Starters, Mains, Desserts and Second-Helpings…
Posted in brains, breadcrumbs, cheese, fried, indulgent meal, Meat, offal, Restaurant Review, sauce, sformata, unhealthy on Aug 16th, 2011
Our good friend, of whom we have seen very little recently, but who persists as an unwitting gastronomic inspiration to us – Juan Camilo – struck again recently when we spied a mess of veal brains at our local butcher. [I’m not sure what the proper collective noun is for brains, but the term seems […]
Posted in Arezzo, bolognese, carrots, celery, chicken stock, duck, Florence, flour, game, Garlic, guanciale, hearty, herbs, indulgent meal, Italian, Italy, Meat, Montalcino, Montepulciano, mushroom, mushrooms, noodles, Olive Oil, Pasta, philosophy, porcini, Recipes, sauce, tomato, tradition, travel, Tuscan, tuscany, wine on Jan 23rd, 2010
It might be generational, or, perhaps, philosophical, but there are, on the one hand, those who enjoy and appreciate handmade things, and the art and craft they require to make, and, on the other, those who prefer their things machine-made, reliable, and standard. The ‘things’ here could be quite literally anything. My father, who, to […]
Posted in Alba, butter, cream, easy, French, indulgent meal, Italian, Italy, nuts, Pasta, Recipe, vegetarian, walnuts on Dec 1st, 2009
As with a few other fellow bloggers, we were lucky to receive one of my favorite “blog freebies” to try recently – truffle products by La Boutique de la Truffe. Cha-ching! As some know, for most of us, blogging will barely help us buy a cup of coffee at a year’s end – that is […]
Posted in America, Argentina, brandy, Buenos Aires, butter, chives, cream, England, grilled, grilling, indulgent meal, Italian-American, Meat, mushroom, mushrooms, New Jersey, porcini, restaurant, rosemary, sauce, travel, turnip, vegetables on Sep 24th, 2009
New Jersey, it’s like a cross-section of the entire United States stuffed into a very small area — fenced-in by heavy industry, ugly sub-divisions, peaceful tidal bays and relaxing shore towns — but with its own very distinct character. And, if you drive around it long enough, you’re bound to see some pretty interesting stuff. This goes […]
Posted in beef, Buenos Aires, crispy, culture, grilled, grilling, guts, indulgent meal, lemon, Montevideo, morcilla, offal, pork, sausage, South America, sweetbreads, tourism, travel, Uruguay, veal on Jun 2nd, 2009
As Odysseus was nearly drawn to his destruction on the rocks by the enchanting song of the sirens, so your hardy WANF voyagers were almost powerless to resist breaking themselves on the plentiful tables of Uruguay. However, unlike Homer’s hero, for whom women were the main weakness throughout his epic peregrinations, during our recent travels […]
Posted in America, arepas, caldo, chicharron, Chorizo, Colombian, diversity, eating, empanadas, indulgent meal, podcast, red beans, restaurant, Restaurant Review, rice on Feb 5th, 2009
This podcast is an interview with our friend and native Colombian Juan Camilo Osorio covering not just the Colombian restaurant – Cositas Ricas – we visited together, but also some background on Colombian food and how it is eaten.
Posted in acorns, balsamico, delicacy, Emilia Romagna, indulgent meal, Italian, Italy, lard, lardo, Modena, pigs, Pizza, Recipe, rosemary, salami, tourism, travel, Tuscan, unhealthy, vinegar on Nov 7th, 2008
Have you ever eaten something so fabulous, so lucious, so decadent that you almost felt the need to run to confession (to confess your indulgent food “sins”), say three Hail Mary’s (that’s for you Catholics out there) and pray really hard that you can zip your jeans up again? Ok, a bit exaggerated, but looking […]
Posted in butter, Canada, cornichons, cream, death, dining, eating, embarrassment, Food Commentary, French, fried, fritters, indulgent meal, Montreal, mushrooms, offal, Restaurant Review, spinach, tongue, tourism, travel, trotter, unhealthy, vinaigrette on Oct 21st, 2008
Gentle readers, please sympathize with me, for I, like a man who’s been dining exclusively on centipedes, have the bitter taste of defeat in my mouth. That this humiliation and defeat arrived, to twist a metaphor, at the hands of nothing more sinister than a pig’s foot, has only served to exacerbate these feelings of embarrassment and self-loathing. Those of […]
Posted in beans, beef, cabbage, chicharron, Chorizo, cilantro, Colombian, cornmeal, crispy, diversity, egg, fried, grilled, indulgent meal, lunch, masa, morcilla, peppers, pinto beans, pork, Recipe, Recipes, red beans, spicy, Steak, tourism, tradition, yucca on Oct 1st, 2008
We are fortunate enough to live in a city with a ridiculous amount of diversity when it comes to restaurants, and one place we frequent often is a ‘hip’ Colombian restaurant (what the hell, it is Brooklyn). When we go there it’s because of two things: 1) We’re friggin starving and are ready to eat […]
Posted in alcohol, America, batter, bone-marrow, Bourdain, butter, celebrity, chefs, cornichons, delicacy, dining, diversity, eating, England, Fergus Henderson, Food Commentary, Gabrielle Hamilton, game, gherkins, indulgent meal, London, Mark Bittman, offal, philosophy, podcast, Prune, quail, rabbit, restaurant, Restaurant Review, squab, sweetbreads on Apr 24th, 2008
Normally, when I think of prunes my first thought is the familiar TV commercial showing the side-by-side comparison of someone experiencing “bloating and discomfort” and someone enjoying the verve and gaiety brought on by just one bowlful of California prunes. However, since last Thursday, my first thought is now “when can I have some more?”. […]
Posted in Alba, Barbaresco, Barolo, butter, compound, delicacy, easy, Food Commentary, indulgent meal, Italian, Italy, Meat, Piemonte, Steak, tourism, travel, truffles on Apr 8th, 2008
I don’t think I’m the most creative person in the world, but I do have lots of ideas. Most of them are very mediocre and often focused narrowly on how I can explain being late for work again, or why I didn’t call my sister, but very occasionally I’ll have a good idea. Marrying my […]
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 […]
Posted in America, cheap meal, cornmeal, culture, Food Commentary, ground meat, indulgent meal, offal, pigs, pork, quick meal, unhealthy on Mar 16th, 2008
Ok, so I’m a little bit gross this last Sunday of Lent asking you, dear readers, to not “pork this roll”. I’ll pray extra hard next weekend that I’m not damned to hell (even though I’m on my way anyways). I thought I’d spend a moment to introduce all our readers to a bit of […]
Posted in Blogroll, butter, culture, egg, embarrassment, indulgent meal, Italian, Italy, Olive Oil, other regions, Pasta, radicchio, Recipe, Recipes, sauce, tourism, travel, tuscany, vegetarian, watercress on Mar 15th, 2008
Ever since we bought our Kitchen Aid Mixer (kneel down, bow your head in a moment of silence, please), I have only used it for one thing – making pasta. I am not a baker. I can not even pretend to be one. In fact, the other day, I thought I’d be cute and also […]
Posted in alcohol, alcoholic drink, appetizer, Asturias, beans, beverage, blood, chops, Chorizo, embarrassment, Europe, fabada, Food Commentary, indulgent meal, lunch, Madrid, morcilla, offal, pigs, pork, sausage, Spain, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel, unhealthy on Mar 7th, 2008
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” – William Blake Have you ever thought, as you sit red-faced, breathing shallowly, “just… one… more… bite”? Have you ever then taken that extra bite and thought to yourself — in your blood-starved brain — “maybe, after all, I could manage another one”? And, finally, […]
Posted in breadcrumbs, butter, California, cheap meal, cheese, drink, easy, egg, flour, gnocchi, holiday, indulgent meal, Italian, Potato, quick meal, Recipe, Recipes, sage, sauce, travel, vegetarian, wine on Mar 1st, 2008
Last year, Amy and I spent a very enjoyable long weekend with her cousin and cousin’s husband visiting the Napa and Russian River Valley winelands. Throughout the course of the weekend we must have tasted fifty different wines at twelve or so different wineries, and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I did not […]
Posted in Europe, Food Commentary, grilled, indulgent meal, Madrid, offal, pigs, pinchos, pintxos, pork, Spain, spicy, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel, tripe, unhealthy on Jan 26th, 2008
As my wife accurately put it in her post of the other day, we ate a lot of interesting tapas during our time in Madrid. Several of these are specialities of the city and cannot be found elsewhere. We felt it our duty then, to give at least some of them a try. Long-term readers […]
Posted in England, Europe, Food Commentary, indulgent meal, Manchester, Pub, restaurant, Restaurant Review, tourism, tradition, travel, unhealthy on Nov 27th, 2007
We’re back from our quick, 5-day trip to Northern England to visit Jonny’s family and I may just go to bed at 9PM like I did last night! The problem with these quick trips home (I feel like it’s kind of my home these days) is that by the time you’re over the jet lag, […]
Posted in Food Commentary, indulgent meal, Italian, New York City, offal, Pasta, Restaurant Review, salami, tripe, tuscany on Oct 29th, 2007
This review won’t be long, and I won’t make it fancy. It’s been almost 24 hours since I left A Voce, the upscale modern Italian eatery in a strange part of the Flatiron district of Manhattan run by a former chef at Cafe Boulud, Andrew Carmellini. My body may have left there at 11PM Saturday, […]
Posted in beef, butter, chips, compound butter, french fries, fried, indulgent meal, martini, meal, Recipe, Recipes, Steak, tarragon on Oct 14th, 2007
After a long, hard week at work, Jonny and I usually try and treat ourselves on Friday nights, especially when the weather turns colder, to a drink and an indulgent meal. Ok, we don’t just reserve this for Fridays only, but for some reason, a drink and a meal always seems to just taste better […]
|
