
Have you ever had a son or daughter who plays the piano like a real champ, such a champ that you invite all your friends over one night and set up a little concert–with fliers and cocktaials and a video camera on a tripod–and when your son or daughter finally sits down to play they…

At last, the winners of The Great New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt–Rachel Wilke, our first place winner (seen on the right w/her photographer co-scavenger hunter, Mike Piaker) and Stephanie Krasinski, our second place winner (seen on the left with her photographer co-scavenger hunter Andrew Teichman)–were able to cash in on their prize, joining me…

I hope you don’t consider it uncouth for me to talk about whores at such an early hour, especially on a Monday, but it’s impossible to write about Pasta Puttanesca without sounding like a cast member of The Sopranos. (If that’s the case, I should pronounce the word: “whoo-ore.”) You see, Pasta alla Puttanesca translates…

Inspiration strikes me more as a writer, than a cook. “Write a play about a parrot that saves a family from genocide,” says inspiration. “Thanks inspiration,” I say and go on to win five Tonys. But as a cook? I’m pretty uninspired, I’d have to say. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a happy cook, a…

There’s high culture and there’s low culture and then there’s Disney World. I grew up going there and going there and going there; seriously, we went there a lot (we lived in Florida, so it was close). When I dream, I dream about theme parks (psychologists: what does that mean?) and the theme parks I…

I’m getting a little rusty in my old age. In the early days of the blog, I was the one dragging my friends to obscure hole-in-the-wall joints in the East Village–now I’m perfectly happy to go to Grand Sichuan over and over again. But Mark and Diana have my number, both literally and figuratively. We…

I found it. After my first attempt at tuna casserole, I finally found a worthy alternative. I was at the Community Book Store in Park Slope and there on the cookbook shelf was Andrew Carmellini’s Urban Italian, a pretty dazzling book of recipes from the former chef of A Voce. I took the book to…

I love brunch but I’m always a bit perplexed when I arrive at a celebrated brunch spot–Prune, for example–and see crowds of people huddled outside, waiting desperately for eggs and pancakes and coffee, foods they can easily and much more cheaply prepare at home. Don’t get me wrong: a place like Prune can dazzle you…

There are two kinds of cravings: the bad kind and the good kind. Most of us are familiar with the bad kind: it sends us to Dunkin’ Donuts at 2 AM, keen on devouring a stale toasted coconut doughnut beneath the fluorescent glare. It’s the craving that forces hamburgers when you should be thinking salad,…