Writing about food since 2004.
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These Grapes Are Crazy! Some Taste Like Cotton Candy, Some Look Like FINGERS
There’s no denying that L.A. is a strange place–juice bars everywhere, Scientology–but sometimes the strangeness manifests itself in grapes. This wasn’t something I knew about, but the other day I found myself at Gelson’s (my favorite supermarket here) and a man in the produce department said, “Would you like to try a grape?” Now my…
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Roasted Beet and Carrot Salad with Chickpeas and Goat Cheese
Please take your computer screen–this may be tricky, if you have a laptop–and detach it from the base. Good. Now nail it to the wall with this post prominently featured because DANG, isn’t this salad that I made yesterday a work of art? I’m mighty proud of it. In fact, I’m so proud of it,…
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I Ate My First Pupusa Two Weeks Ago and Didn’t Tell You About It
Look, it’s Friday, and I need to get something off my chest. Two weeks ago? I ate the first pupusa of my life at the Atwater Village Farmer’s Market and didn’t tell you about it. I’m sorry! Things just got busy and I had to tell you about that toasted almond gelato and how to…
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The Lemon Juice Trick
Writing my cookbook, I learned a nifty trick from Chef Jonathan Waxman for when you just need a squeeze of lemon. You cut around the lemon like you’re cutting around the core of an apple, leaving the center and creating these flat wedges that squeeze extra easily and produce lots of juice with a minimal…
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No French Fries After 40 (A Birthday Trip to Belfast)
[My friend Dara Bratt, an award-winning filmmaker, kindly offered to write a guest post about her recent trip to Belfast. How could I say no? What follows is an epic story of treacherous bridges, overflowing pints of Guinness and a meal so extraordinary, it had to be consumed twice.] For my husband’s 40th birthday, I…
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Dim Sum at Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
Last year, an article came out that I immediately bookmarked. It was on AsiaSociety.com and it was written by a man named David Chan who ate at over 6,000 Chinese restaurants in America to determine the best. His list of the 10 Best was notable because all of the restaurants were in California, mostly Los…
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Rice Salad with Olives and Pine Nuts
The smartest food bloggers rave about the recipes they post in the first paragraph so you’re positively dying to click ahead and read the rest. Me? I kind of do that, but I also can’t help being a truth-teller. So yesterday, I was honest when I said that I loved the Franny’s Toasted Almond Gelato…
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The Best Food Bloggers of All Time
I’m pretty flattered/honored to be #11 on First We Feast’s list of the Best Food Bloggers of All Time. Their description of me made me laugh (“Roberts is that kind of annoying eager beaver who keeps knocking at your door and doing a different act, until eventually you’re just like, ‘Goddamn, this guy is talented.’”)…
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Franny’s Toasted Almond Gelato
Somewhere along the way, I lost interest in making ice cream. I didn’t lose interest in ice cream, just making it. So if I were to have a dinner party, I might make brownies and hot fudge sauce for brownie sundaes (as I did for an upcoming episode of The Clean Plate Club), but I’d…
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The Used Cookbook Sale at The Hollywood Farmer’s Market
On Sunday, my friend Ben Mandelker of The B-Side Blog invited me to the used cookbook sale at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. As many of you know, I’m kind of a cookbook junkie (see here) so this was a no-brainer. When I got there, I found mostly generic cookbooks (many, many diet books) and old…
