Recipes and food adventures with Adam Roberts

  • Pickled Yellow Wax Beans

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    Pickled Yellow Wax Beans

    Ask someone if they want chocolate cake, chances are they’ll say: “Ya-huh!” Ask someone if they want a pickled wax bean, their reaction may not be so kind. I learned this the hard way after making a jar of pickled yellow wax beans from the Park Slope farmer’s market a few weeks ago. The recipe…

  • The Great Crab Debate

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    For as long as I’ve known him, Craig has waxed lyrical about the Dungeness crabs he and his family eat when they go to their cabin on the San Juan Islands, pull the crabs right out of the water, boil them and eat them right on the spot. Diana, however, who comes from Virginia is…

  • We Eat Rhode Island

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    We Eat Rhode Island

    I don’t want to call myself a muse–that’d be overstating my case–but for a year I lived with my friend Diana, a fellow graduate of dramatic writing school who spent her time there studying screenwriting even though, from day one, I thought she was a world class playwright. “You should write plays!” I would constantly…

  • On Craig Claiborne’s “A Feast Made For Laughter”

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    On Craig Claiborne’s “A Feast Made For Laughter”

    How does a Craig Claiborne become a Craig Claiborne? The best part of Craig Claiborne’s autobiography, “A Feast Made for Laughter,” a long out-of-print book that I picked up at Bonnie Slotnick’s used cookbook store in the West Village, is that the man himself–a man whose impact on American gastronomy is undeniable, whose tenure at…

  • Salt and Pepper Shrimp

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    Salt and Pepper Shrimp

    Let’s talk about shrimp, baby, let’s talk about you and me… Ok, that was a Salt-N-Pepa joke. If you don’t get that joke, click here (I couldn’t embed it!) Now then, salt and pepper shrimp. What are they? I’d never had them until I went to Brooklyn Fish Camp last week with Robbie Baitz. They…

  • Burrata

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    Burrata

    Bar Pitti in the West Village is a reasonably-priced restaurant; you can get pastas there for close to $10 that rival some of the better pastas in the city (I especially admire their eponymous pasta, one that involves sausage, tomatoes and cream.) However, two weeks ago, I found an item on their menu to be…

  • Reader Mail: Knives, Books, Spotted Pig Prices, Food Allergies, and A Visit From San Francisco

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    We’ve got lots of questions from readers this week, so let’s get started. The first is a series of five questions from Vickie. Hi Adam! AG is a real inspiration for me–I’ve tried a number of your recommended recipes. I have some questions for you, and I hope to hear back from you about them!

  • Lunch with Jon Robin Baitz at Brooklyn Fish Camp

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    Lunch with Jon Robin Baitz at Brooklyn Fish Camp

    Jon Robin Baitz is the Pulitzer-prize nominated playwright of such plays as “The Substance of Fire (which starred a young Sarah Jessica Parker), “The Film Society” (which starred a young Nathan Lane), “Three Hotels,” “A Fair Country,” and, most recently, “The Paris Letter.” You may know him better, though, as the creator of the hit…

  • Spaghetti Carbonara For Beginners

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    Spaghetti Carbonara For Beginners

    I frequently have to remind myself that there was a time when any exotic-sounding, technique-heavy recipe would fill me with terror. Cook the pasta until al dente? How will I know when it’s al dente? Toast the garlic until golden brown? What’s golden brown? How’s that different from brown brown? And by facing my fears…

  • Two Summery Meals

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    Two Summery Meals

    Here are two meals you can make this weekend: one, a meal of farmer’s market goodies that are seasonal and good for you and good for the planet and the farmers, and the second a crowd-pleaser from your local grocery store that isn’t good for you or the planet but boy is it good and…