• James Felder Reviews Wakiya

    James Felder Reviews Wakiya

    James Felder has his finger on the pulse of Manhattan dining with this scoopy review of Wakiya. Thanks James for sending it our way! There’s been a lot of negative buzz around Wakiya. I can honestly say, the place ain’t bad. But I won’t be back. I went with my mother for a Sunday meal…

  • Get Away to Kennebunkport

    Get Away to Kennebunkport

    The perfect weekend getaway is one that makes you feel like you’ve been gone for months. That’s how I felt this Sunday night when I came back from a brief trip to Kennebunkport with my friends Patty, Diana and James. We’d only been there 36 hours–we left early Saturday morning (7 am) and returned late…

  • How To Make Broccoli and Cauliflower Bad For You (and utterly delicious)

    How To Make Broccoli and Cauliflower Bad For You (and utterly delicious)

    This is a recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, a cookbook I’ve long dismissed as too complex, too fussy, too–well–not me. Flipping through it now, the recipes are long-winded, they go on for pages, and the pictures are too few and far between. And yet this is a cookbook that has something to say–I can’t…

  • Let’s Make Our Cookies Bigger

    Let’s Make Our Cookies Bigger

    People of the world, aren’t you tired of tiny cookies? You know the kind I’m talking about. They’re the kind that you end up making when a recipe says, “Drop cookie batter by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.” That’s what the recipe says for Nestle’s Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies, which I made again tonight (here’s…

  • Why Annisa Should Have Three Stars

    Why Annisa Should Have Three Stars

    Earlier this year, Keith McNally–owner of Balthazar, Pastis and the newly opened Morandi–wrote an open letter to New York Times food critic Frank Bruni accusing him of sexism. McNally wrote: “Bruni has never given a female chef in Manhattan anything more than one star, ever….On the two momentous occasions that Bruni saw fit to hand…

  • How To Make Bland Pasta Better

    How To Make Bland Pasta Better

    The pasta you see above may call to you and cause you to eat your computer screen, but don’t be fooled. Before I put that pasta through Amateur Gourmet Pasta Rehab, it was a bland, boring mess. Two ingredients came from the farmer’s market: fresh corn and basil. The corn, as I should’ve guessed this…

  • Fun with Feta

    Fun with Feta

    Oh commenters, you complete me. I did a post last week called Summer Food where I asked you, my readers, what foods really capture the summer season. The responses were great, but one stuck out in my head as I made my way to the grocery store this weekend. That was KatyBelle’s. She said, “Anything…

  • James Felder Goes To Flushing

    My friend James Felder of Snapshot Artifact went to Flushing today for dim sum and he would like to share his story with you. He would also like me to tell you that his new word for “dude” is “pussycakes.”

  • The Day My Pound Cake Threw Up

    The Day My Pound Cake Threw Up

    “Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” I thought, “if instead of making a complicated fancy-schmancy-my-name-is-Nancy dessert I made something really simple like a pound cake? And used really good butter? And fresh farmer’s market eggs? And served it with raspberries and whipped cream? And used Martha Stewart’s recipe?” That was the plan. I bought Plugra style butter…

  • We Go Together Like Beets And Carrots

    We Go Together Like Beets And Carrots

    Let’s play the Kevin Bacon game with beets and carrots. Beets are in Borscht; Borscht comes from Russia; Russia was part of the original U.S.S.R.; “Back in the U.S.S.R.” is a song by The Beatles; The Beatles have a song called “Glass Onion”; onions are part of what the French call Mirepoix; carrots are in…

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