Recipes and food adventures with Adam Roberts

  • Carrot Cake

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    Carrot Cake

    My friend Cole Escola had a birthday recently and to celebrate I decided to cook him and his friend Jeffery Self a birthday dinner. You may know Jeffery and Cole as stars of their own show on LOGO, “Jeffery & Cole Casserole.” To honor their show, I once made them a casserole; now, for his…

  • Our Town

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    Our Town

    This is not a theater blog, it’s a food blog. So why, on this Friday morning, am I writing a post about “Our Town”? Specifically, the production on Barrow Street in the West Village directed by David Cromer? All I will say, here in this first paragraph, is that if you live in New York…

  • Lard Pie Crust (from Flying Pigs Farm)

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    Lard Pie Crust (from Flying Pigs Farm)

    I never know if I’m stealing an Edible Manhattan when I remove it from a coffee shop or store. Usually there’s a price on top of it, but they’re stacked up next to The Onion and the Onion’s free, right? So I’m either wanted by New York City police or I’m perfectly within my rights…

  • Sunday Gravy

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    Sunday Gravy

    The thing about Thanksgiving is that people have expectations. They expect some kind of squash soup, they expect turkey, of course, and stuffing and taters (mashed and sweet) and all kinds of pies for dessert. Maybe that’s why I don’t like cooking it: the element of surprise is fairly limited (“Oooh look, he put cranberries…

  • Eid-Al-Adha (The Sacrificial Feast)

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    Eid-Al-Adha (The Sacrificial Feast)

    [We all know the big American food holiday that’s fast approaching–most food blogs, magazines and TV shows are going crazy over it–but there’s another food holiday that’s fast approaching too, a holiday that I didn’t know anything about until last year when I decided to work on a book proposal about religion and food called…

  • A Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

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    A Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

    In case you haven’t noticed, food blogs, food magazines, food networks and the like love Thanksgiving. They love it because, for once, the nation is intent on cooking dinner. For 364 days out of the year, that’s mostly not the case–what with fast food and frozen dinners and all the other instant options at our…

  • Pot Roast

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    Pot Roast

    When I think pot roast, I think Americana, I think 50s sitcoms and a beleaguered housewife who intones: “Oh, darn it, I burnt the pot roast!” It’s not a dish that I ate much growing up, eating–as we did–most of our meals out. My first real pot roast memory, actually, comes from Atlanta. I ordered…

  • Steam-Scrambled Eggs

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    Steam-Scrambled Eggs

    Those of you with cappuccino makers, may I have your attention? I have a weekend project for you. When you make your scrambled eggs this weekend, instead of melting butter in a pan, beating the eggs with a fork, plopping them into the foamy fat and stirring them round and round, why not find inspiration…

  • Lunch with Lidia Bastianich (and my dad)

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    Lunch with Lidia Bastianich (and my dad)

    It’s my fault, really. My parents were in town and my mom asked me, early in the week, if I’d babysit my dad for lunch on Tuesday while she met some of her friends. I said, “Sure.” Then, the day before, I received a confirmation e-mail from Lidia Bastianich’s publicist reminding me of a lunch…

  • Pork on Fire (The Spiciest Dish in New York?)

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    Pork on Fire (The Spiciest Dish in New York?)

    On Friday, I sent out the following e-mail to my pork-eating friends: Dear Friends, Today I was reading the New Yorker profile of the only food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, Jonathan Gold. In it he says of a spicy Thai food dish: “It was glowing, practically incandescent. You bite into it and every…