Recipes and food adventures with Adam Roberts
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Hollywood Stargazing
My parents were in L.A. this Oscar weekend and they went, on Thursday night, to dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Cut where they imagined they’d see a million celebrities. The last time they were there (last year, actually) Tom Cruise walked by as the waiter described different cuts of meat. Who would be there this night?…
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Life Getting Bland? Make An Indonesian Spice Cake
James Oseland (new editor-in-chief of Saveur) has a spicy new cookbook called “Cradle of Flavor” that’s full of vibrant, exotic recipes from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. When it first arrived, I could’ve made Gado-Gado (a Javanese “potpourri” of raw and cooked vegetables) or The Soto King’s Chicken Soup (Soto Ayam Lamongan) but instead I made…
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February Is The Kindest Month (August, Palo Santo, Five Points)
I love having a February birthday. If I see the light, some day, and I’m born again I hope it’s in February. Having a February birthday means that in the dead of winter, when it’s cruelly cold outside, you have a big happy day to look forward to. Add to that Craig’s birthday, also in…
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Great Flan & Corn Fungus at Chiles & Chocolate
I’ve never been a big fan of flan. For starters, the word “flan” seems to fuse together two words that don’t exactly whet the appetite: flacid and wan. And then there are memories of bad flan in Spanish class in high school. We all had to bring in a dish (Jessica Aronowitz and I made…
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Not Your Mama’s Meatballs
I wanted something simple. Specifically, I wanted spaghetti and meatballs. I’d never made spaghetti and meatballs before and last night was going to be the night. But then I opened Lydia Bastianich’s book, “Lydia’s Family Table,” and after looking up meatballs in the index I found her recipe for “Long-Cooked Sugo and Meatballs.” Lydia explains,…
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Win Back Your Loved Ones This Weekend With Chicken Breasts Braised With Hard Cider & Parsnips
You are about to read a record-setting post. This is the shortest amount of time that’s ever passed between a meal consumed and a post written. I just made this for dinner: And everyone loved it so much they said, “You HAVE to post this on your website.” It’s from Molly Stevens’ new book, “All…
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The Super Bowl Dinner of DEATH
People sometimes say to me: “Adam, you’ve been the Amateur Gourmet for three years. Are you always going to be an amateur?” As I consider the question I think of all my kitchen triumphs–my braised lamb shanks, my perfect roast chicken, my Amanda Hesser almond cake. I could very well answer, “No! One day I…
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What Did Craig Get For His Birthday? (Answer: Blue Hill)
We were walking south on 5th Avenue and Craig was on the phone with his mom. It was 7:28 and he and his mom were guessing where I was leading him. “I think that might be it,” said Craig, responding to his mother’s guess. I just knew she had guessed Babbo so I said, “Whatever…
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The Little Chicken That Could, The Little Tart That Couldn’t
Alice Waters, I thought you were crazy. I’ve been roasting chickens for a long time now and when I flipped through my Chez Panisse Cookbook the other night and read your recipe for roasted chicken I couldn’t believe it. No fat! No melted butter brushed on the surface (like The Barefoot Contessa’s) or softened butter…
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A Very Thoughtful Review of B.L.T. Burger
Of BLT Burger, Peter Meehan writes in the New York Times: “I was left with the impression that no one in the kitchen is paying attention to these sandwiches.” Nick Paumgarten says in The New Yorker: “The patties are five ounces of Black Angus beef at the low end of the salt and fat range,…
