• Mercadito Cantina is Better Than Sex

    Mercadito Cantina is Better Than Sex

    [The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he’s gone, he’s asked his friends to cover for him. Today is a post from one of Adam’s closest friends, his old roommate Diana Fithian! You know Diana, you love Diana, and now you get to read a post written by her just for you. Aren’t you…

  • The Science of Fressing

    The Science of Fressing

    [The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he’s gone, he’s asked his friends to cover for him. Now comes a post from not just a friend of Adam’s, but a colleague: the director and producer of The FN Dish, Matthew Horovitz. Here Matthew shares with us his knowledge of all things Jewish, fishy and…

  • How To Raise A Four-Star Baby

    How To Raise A Four-Star Baby

    [The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he’s gone, he’s asked his friends to cover for him. Today’s post comes from Phoebe Damrosch, author of Service Included, a book that Adam loved. Phoebe and her husband, Andre Mack, both of whom worked at Per Se, are recent parents and this is Phoebe’s account of…

  • Bellini’s Beijing Dining Faves

    [The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he’s gone, he’s asked his friends to cover for him. One of his friends, Jason Bellini, is a rock star freelance correspondent who you may recognize from his days as news anchor on LOGO, the gay channel. Jason filed this report exclusively for us while covering the…

  • Interning at The Spotted Pig

    [The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he’s gone, he’s asked his friends to cover for him. Today’s post comes from Dan Ahdoot, a stand-up comedian (see his website), who spent part of his summer, this summer, working at The Spotted Pig. This is his story.] I’ve always been obsessed with eating good food.…

  • What Broadway Stars Eat Before A Show

    What Broadway Stars Eat Before A Show

    [The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he’s gone, he’s asked his friends to cover for him. Today’s post comes from none other than Hunter Bell, co-author and star of the hit Broadway musical [title of show]. The New Yorker called [title of show] “a joy from start to finish” and The New York…

  • And I’m Off

    For the first time in a very long time, I’m going to take ten days off from blogging. I leave today for my summer vacation; a week in the Pacific Northwest (I finally get to taste those Dungeness crabs!) and then Labor Day weekend on Cape Cod. I’ll be back on September 3rd, but while…

  • Fear of Broilers

    Fear of Broilers

    My favorite childhood movie was “The Phantom Tollbooth,” which most people know as a book, but I only know (and insist on knowing) as a movie. Milo, the young protagonist, must travel through Dictionopolis and Digitopolis to make his way to the Castle in the Air to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Only, whenever he says…

  • Summer Borscht

    Summer Borscht

    Veselka in the East Village is a New York institution; NYU students stumble in there late at night to sober up. During the day, it’s an eclectic mix of East Village hipsters and older Eastern Europeans. I first went with my graduate class at NYU and stuck to standard diner fare–a burger, a salad, something…

  • Movies That Induce Specific Food Cravings

    I just saw Woody Allen’s newest movie, “Vicky Christina Barcelona”, and it induced three reactions: (1) Could this be? A new Woody Allen movie that I genuinely love and can imagine seeing again and again because I love it so much; (2) Please, God, put me on a plane to Barcelona ASAP; and (3) I…