Posted in America, appetizer, cheap meal, chives, easy, lower fat, peppers, Philadelphia, pistachios, restaurant, shrimp, soup, Spain, tomato, vegetables, vinegar on Aug 13th, 2014
The longer we live, the more we understand that our lives, especially now that we have two children, are about compromises. These are often in the form of compromising what we want to do, more or less completely, because our children are either unwilling or unable to do it. Recently though, a new kind of […]
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Posted in America, beef, Canada, culture, diversity, Europe, France, French-ness, grilled, grilling, horse, Meat, Montreal, public health, travel on Apr 28th, 2014
Last year there was unprecedented outrage when the news broke that the meatballs being sold by more than one European grocery chain were “contaminated” with horse meat. This was big news this side of the Atlantic for two main reasons: a) the horses in question are likely to have been American horses, and b) because […]
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Posted in agriculture, alligator, America, blood orange, citrus, drink, Florida, Food Commentary, fruit, orange juice, oranges, tourism, travel, winter on Apr 8th, 2014
I have never known an aroma quite like it before: an intense, aromatic perfume. We could smell it from miles away – even before we had passed the last of the strip centers and construction sites. On one side, the low khaki scrub of the sandmine, on the other the hot, itchy pine forests, then […]
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Posted in acorns, America, animals, Asturias, bacon, ban, book review, Castillano, castille, Chorizo, Galician, Gallego, ground meat, Madrid, Meat, morcilla, offal, pimenton, prosciutto, Spain, tradition on Apr 3rd, 2014
With some cookbooks, you just open them, find something that looks good and go straight into your kitchen and start cooking. Charcutería – The Soul of Spain, the new book from Jeffrey Weiss, is not that kind of book. This is partly intentional in that the book is structured in such a way as to […]
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Posted in America, Brooklyn, butter, egg, gnocchi, Italian, pumpkin, ricotta, sage, sausage, squash on Dec 20th, 2012
We have a confession to make. After eight enjoyable but increasingly long years in Brooklyn we jumped ship over the summer to the suburbs. We didn’t deliberately hide it, we just didn’t make a big deal of it on our blog. Okay, so there is definitely some weird foodie cachet to living in a big […]
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Posted in America, Beach, Caribbean, cilantro, fish, fried, fritters, history, octopus, patriotism, Puerto Rican, pulpo, restaurant, Restaurant Review, South America, tourism, tradition, travel on Mar 20th, 2012
Conventional wisdom dictates that one should never eat at an empty restaurant, especially early in the week, but if there is absolutely nowhere else open and you have no choice, do yourself a favor and avoid the seafood. Happily, Vieques, a 55-square mile island off the east end of Puerto Rico, and former bombing range […]
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Posted in ale, America, beans, beer, braised, British, carrots, Christmas, easy, England, family, holiday, holidays, Meat, onions, pork, Potato, rosemary, sauce, stew, tradition, travel, vinegar on Dec 20th, 2011
I often think that living in a small scruffy New York City apartment is akin to a pioneer life in a log cabin somewhere remote. Sure, the commute is easier, but the myriad quotidien affronts and man traps of a city existence certainly resemble the perils of life on the range.
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Posted in America, fennel, Garlic, ground meat, Italian, Meat, meatballs, rice, sausage, Tuscan, tuscany on Nov 2nd, 2011
I was recently introduced to an Australian with whom I had a number of interesting discussions (that is not meant as a joke). The first, an hour-long discussion of the age-old cricketing rivalry between England and his native land is of no concern here, but the second, a frank exchange of views about the quality […]
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A lot has been made of the glory and diversity of America’s road-foods by such hit US TV shows as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, which, if you haven’t seen it, features a bleach-blond moron traveling the highways and byways of this great nation gorging himself on deep-fried hamburgers, the world’s spiciest chicken wings, and platters of […]
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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.
Some readers may remember back in the early fall when we posted about Bandeja Paisa, […]
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My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; – William Wordsworth, 1802 The term formative experience refers […]
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Posted in America, chops, gravy, Italian, Italian-American, Meat, New Jersey, offal, Pasta, Philadelphia, pigs, Recipe, Recipes, sauce, sausage, slow cooking, trotter, unhealthy on Jan 19th, 2009
They (we) call it a Sunday Gravy because it really suits a Sunday best. The long simmering, the wine drinking, the letting-it-sit-on-the-stove-till-the-family-arrives kind of gravy. Thanks to the Sopranos, people all over the world have heard of Sunday Gravy. Some scratch their heads in wonder as to why some call it sauce and others call […]
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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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Posted in America, appetizer, British, Christmas, embarrassment, family, hazelnuts, manwich, top five, tradition, winter on Dec 7th, 2008
Not your average Christmas meal… We couldn’t let this month go by without doing some sort of “holiday themed” post. We were scratching our head trying to come up with this months “Top 5” contest thinking of such winners as, “Top 5 Most Friggin’ Annoying Christmas Tunes” and “Top 5 Christmas Sweaters Your Mom Owns” […]
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Those better be organic lunch meats, Mr. President One of the best things about a good meal is that people of all kinds: ages, genders, races, and (yes) political philosophies can sit down and enjoy it together – savoring and appreciating it and, for a while, forgetting their differences. A meal is the ultimate kind […]
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Posted in America, Atlantic City, breadcrumbs, egg, escarole, Garlic, ground meat, history, Italian, Italian-American, meatballs, Naples, Olive Oil, onions, Pasta, soup, tradition, vegetables on Oct 27th, 2008
I’ve talked about my sweet ‘ole grandmom, Anna, a few times on this blog. This was a woman who waited tables at the Golden Nugget (now Bally’s Grand) casino (R.I.P.) in Atlantic City until she retired at 76. This is the same woman who would wear winter gloves in the summer because her tiny hands […]
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Did you hear? Mississippi introduced a bill this week to make it illegal for restaurants with a state license to feed obese people. I’m sure it won’t be passed but what do you think? If it was passed, what would they do? Have a scale in each restaurant that patrons would have to get weighed […]
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Posted in cheap meal, culture, Europe, Fast Food, Fast Food Nation, Food Commentary, McDonald's, news, rant, unhealthy on Dec 12th, 2007
Yesterday, leading companies in the EU (read: major corporate conglomerates) said that by the end of 2008, they would change their policy on advertising junk food and drink during TV shows that are geared towards children under 12. And they did this voluntarily! Well, maybe not completely voluntarily. They may have been trying to avoid […]
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