Recipes and food adventures with Adam Roberts

  • Killer Salads

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    Killer Salads

    I’ve been making some killer dinner salads lately and I’d like to share with you my technique. I subscribe to the “stuff” philosophy of salad-making which is, essentially, that the best part of a salad is the “stuff,” not the lettuce. So my salads have no lettuce: just lots of stuff mixed together in a…

  • Food Negation Theory

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    Food Negation Theory

    I have a theory. If you make spaghetti cacio e peppe for dinner, inspired by “Lidia’s Italy” on PBS–a dish of what is, essentially, spaghetti, pecorino cheese and pepper–you can undo whatever nutritional damage this does to your physique and/or health by eating a tub of green beans at the same time, as illustrated by…

  • Do better ingredients make a difference?

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    Do better ingredients make a difference?

    I make Cavatappi with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans on a very regular basis. (Click here for the recipe). It’s a great pasta dish because the sun-dried tomatoes make it taste bright and summery and the beans make it hardy (hearty? how do you spell that?) and substantial. Everyone loves it and plus you get…

  • Belated Book Review: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”

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    Belated Book Review: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”

    The soup dumpling was balanced cautiously on my spoon, the twisted top bitten off and, as I stared into the murky, steamy depths of broth, I was struck by the gray lumpy brain-like matter in the middle. Struck, not because it was unfamiliar—soup dumplings at Grand Sichuan are almost monthly staples of our diet—but because,…

  • A Funny Thing I Do (A Tip & A Recipe for Vanilla Bean Pudding)

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    A Funny Thing I Do (A Tip & A Recipe for Vanilla Bean Pudding)

    What you see here is documentation of a very strange practice, a funny thing I do each time I pull a recipe from the internet. What I do is: instead of printing the recipe out with my printer (which is totally hooked up and ready to use), I grab a piece of paper and write…

  • The Seven Stages of Dining at Per Se (Craig’s Birthday Lunch)

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    The Seven Stages of Dining at Per Se (Craig’s Birthday Lunch)

    The First Stage: Shock The original plan was to take Craig to see the play “Speech & Debate,” which he’s been eager to see, and then to dinner at Soto–a Japanese place in the West Village, praised as the second best new restaurant of the year by Frank Bruni in The New York Times. And…

  • Orangette’s Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with Tahini

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    Orangette’s Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with Tahini

    Going through old pictures, just now, I found the picture you see above and smacked my lips at the memory: “Hey!” my brain sang out. “That’s that delicious butternut squash and chickpea salad with tahini you made from Orangette’s website.” According to the picture, I made this on December 19th. So please follow this link…

  • The Gourmet.com Launch Party at Bar Boulud

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    The Gourmet.com Launch Party at Bar Boulud

    Here are the people we saw last night at the Gourmet.com launch party at Bar Boulud: – Calvin Trillin – Mark Bittman – Eric Ripert – David Chang – Jonathan Waxman – Aaron Sanchez – Michael Psilakis – Rebecca Charles – April Bloomfield – Alfred Portale – Joey Campanaro – Daniel Boulud (it was his…

  • Crispy Dough

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    Crispy Dough

    I am bad with secrets. I’ve always been bad with secrets. You shouldn’t tell me any secrets, secret holders, because I will give them away. Case in point: the brunch you see above. What is it? Where can you get it? Why do I love it so? If I were a good secret keeper, I’d…

  • Winter Time is Prime Time for New York Dining

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    Winter Time is Prime Time for New York Dining

    I have made a discovery, dear reader, and it may not be much of a discovery–I’m sure big city eaters have known this for some time–but I’ve come to the conclusion that winter time is prime time for New York dining. The above picture was taken at The Spotted Pig where I took Patty to…