• Please Don’t Tell But I’ve Never Had A Drink at Please Don’t Tell

    Please Don’t Tell But I’ve Never Had A Drink at Please Don’t Tell

    One of my favorite New York novelties is the existence of Please Don’t Tell in New York’s East Village. On St. Marks, between 1st and A, is a hog dog emporium called Crif Dogs. Looks innocent enough. But what you don’t realize, unless you know the secret, is that the phone booth that you see…

  • Double-The-Cream-Cheese Cheesecake

    Double-The-Cream-Cheese Cheesecake

    A few weeks ago, I posted this picture of a cheesecake that I ate at Craig’s aunt and uncle’s for Easter brunch and several readers wrote me and asked for the recipe. I wrote Craig’s aunt Liz who put me in touch with Andrea, who made the cake. The secret? “This recipe has twice as…

  • Do Any Young People Eat Cottage Cheese?

    Do Any Young People Eat Cottage Cheese?

    When I think “cottage cheese” I think of my grandmother who would greet me, growing up, with an offer of diet chocolate soda (she stocked that stuff like it came from the fountain of youth) and cottage cheese with sugar and cinnamon. The texture of cottage cheese was so foul to me that when choosing…

  • Ligurian Lemon Cake with Raspberries

    Ligurian Lemon Cake with Raspberries

    When I went to Paris in 2005, the warm croissants certainly set my heart aflutter, as did the cracklingly fresh baguettes and the dainty, delicate macarons. But the moment my heart almost stopped beating from the shock of deliciousness was the moment I tasted my first Pierre Hermé dessert, a dessert called H. Mogador that…

  • Springtime in New York

    Springtime in New York

    My Mondays always start with me editing pictures from the previous week and deciding which of them will make good food posts. But this morning I found myself looking at a bunch of Instagram pictures I took this weekend and my favorite ones are all of New York City as it charges head-on into spring.…

  • Anatomy of a Superior Sandwich: The Captain’s Daughter at Saltie

    Anatomy of a Superior Sandwich: The Captain’s Daughter at Saltie

    One of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had is the Captain’s Daughter at Saltie in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s described minimally on the menu: “sardines, pickled egg, salsa verde” and yet tastes like so much more. The bread, focaccia, is fluffy and rich with olive oil. The flavors are as bold as flavors can be: fishy,…

  • Scrambled Eggs with Gruyère, Fried Pita with Olive Tapenade & Tomato Salad

    Scrambled Eggs with Gruyère, Fried Pita with Olive Tapenade & Tomato Salad

    The three elements that made this breakfast come together the way that it did were leftover pita (from the night I made chicken and hummus), leftover olive tapenade (from the night I made 4-hour lamb; the recipe’s in that post), and leftover Gruyere (from that cauliflower gratin). The breakthrough moment was when I decided to…

  • Hot Coffee Drink vs. Cold Coffee Drink

    Hot Coffee Drink vs. Cold Coffee Drink

    There’s a funny website called “Is It Iced Coffee Weather?” that determines, based on your location, whether it’s iced coffee weather. The current prognosis for me is: “No. Try it hot.” This is a question I’m often asking myself because I enjoy drinking coffee every day, so much so that I drink tea in the…

  • The Food Personality Quiz

    In early 2013, scientists and scholars from the Institute Marron Glacé gathered in Montmarte to discuss the creation of a food personally quiz that would help define four different types of food personalities. Sadly, after a bad case of the Norovirus wiped out nearly half the attendees, the other half grew disenchanted with their chosen…