• Ten Rules for Food Blogging

    Ten Rules for Food Blogging

    Inspired by this piece in the Guardian, in which several successful fiction writers (including Elmore Leonard, Margaret Atwood, and Jonathan Franzen) give their ten rules for writing fiction, here are my ten rules for food blogging. (I hope my other senior food blogging colleagues write their own ten rules too.) 1. Have a hook. That…

  • Café Sabarsky, Company (Pizza) & Billy’s Bakery

    Café Sabarsky, Company (Pizza) & Billy’s Bakery

    I don’t have a fast answer to the question “what’s your favorite restaurant?” (it’s a tie, at this point, between Blue Hill Stone Barns & Prune) but I do have an immediate suggestion when someone is coming to New York for the first time and wants to know where to go: “Cafe Sabarasky,” I almost…

  • French Onion Soup

    French Onion Soup

    The idea of a secret ingredient is a funny one. I think it’s based on a modern American notion of shortcuts; the idea that instead of working hard to be successful, you can win the lottery or appear on a reality show or read the Cliff’s Notes and still pass your A.P. English exam (I…

  • Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding

    Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding

    Let’s say you have a loved one who doesn’t cook (ahem) and Valentine’s Day is just around the corner (ahem) and you’re sick and tired of slaving over a hot stove, day in and day out, and wish that just once (ahem) they’d make you dessert. Ok, my “ahems” are a bit unfair: that made…

  • Omakase at Sushi Yasuda

    Omakase at Sushi Yasuda

    Craig’s birthday has always been an excellent excuse to splurge at a high-end restaurant, the kind of place I couldn’t justify going to the rest of the year. Usually I pick a place that piques my curiosity, or a place I’ve been dying to try for a long time. Last year we visited Momofuku Ko,…

  • Made-Up Minestrone

    Made-Up Minestrone

    My proudest culinary achievements aren’t the ones where I followed a recipe really well or repeated a specific technique demonstrated by a chef, they’re the ones where on a freezing cold night, instead of ordering a pizza or Thai food (side-note: we still haven’t found good take-out in the West Village; anyone?) I whip up…

  • Lucy’s Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies + Momofuku Milk Bar Cookies

    Lucy’s Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies + Momofuku Milk Bar Cookies

    I care about you, readers, and I don’t want you to go through this weekend without cookies. Everyone deserves cookies, especially on the weekend. The cookies I’m going to tell you about may already be familiar to you. The first, Lucy’s Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, were cookies I told you about in December. Remember…

  • Chicken Cooked in a Pig’s Bladder (Chef Eric Frechon at Daniel)

    Chicken Cooked in a Pig’s Bladder (Chef Eric Frechon at Daniel)

    Maybe I’m crass, but when I think bladder, I think pee. When the bladder comes up in conversation, it’s usually in the context of “my bladder is going to explode, please pull over” or “ouch, don’t sit on my bladder, I just drank a liter of Coke.” It’s rarely: “Mmm, you know what would be…

  • The Great Soup Battle of 2010 (Pasta Fagioli, Cabbage Soup & Szechwan Carrot Soup)

    The Great Soup Battle of 2010 (Pasta Fagioli, Cabbage Soup & Szechwan Carrot Soup)

    Hear those distant drums? A great battle is about to begin: the Great Soup Battle of 2010. As readers may remember, last week I announced a big contest on my blog. Submit your favorite soup recipe–it didn’t have to be original, just a soup recipe that you love–and the best one would win a $450…

  • Do-It-Yourself Dumplings

    Do-It-Yourself Dumplings

    Brothers and sisters, I have seen the light! All these years, these years of reading Calvin Trillin (the poet laureate of dumplings) and fake nodding as my Manhattanite friends (ones who grew up here) debated dumpling dives, I faked an interest that didn’t really exist. You see, I didn’t really get the big deal. What’s…