• Commander’s Palace (New Orleans)

    Commander’s Palace (New Orleans)

    Restaurants that are institutions don’t have to be good. Before it closed, Tavern on the Green in New York was like that. You didn’t go for the food–no, you definitely didn’t go for the food–you went for the chandeliers, for the topiary, for the chintzy souvenirs you could buy in the gift shop.

  • Cafe du Monde (New Orleans)

    Cafe du Monde (New Orleans)

    When you arrive in New Orleans, the first place that you’ll probably go is Cafe du Monde. There are a few reasons for this: (1) it’s open 24 hours; (2) it’s a New Orleans mecca, for locals and tourists alike; and (3) the beignets that they serve there are so dang good, they’ll haunt your…

  • We Fell in Love with New Orleans

    We Fell in Love with New Orleans

    We were walking to dinner in a large group when the parade began to pass. I’d heard of jazz funerals, where the friends and family of the recently deceased march through the streets with music and dancing, a celebration of life in the face of death. This wasn’t that. This was a wedding parade; with…

  • Oatmeal with Ginger, Coconut Milk and Lime

    Oatmeal with Ginger, Coconut Milk and Lime

    It’s easy to innovate when you’re working with a set formula. Oatmeal has a set formula. Bring 1 and 3/4 cups water (or milk) to a boil, add a pinch of salt, add your rolled oats, lower to a simmer, stir and cook until your oatmeal’s absorbed most of the liquid. Then sweeten with a…

  • Someone’s In The Kitchen With…Doug Quint & Bryan Petroff (from The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck)

    Doug burst out laughing when I told him that he and Bryan, of the world famous Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, were my first celebrity guests on “Someone’s In The Kitchen With….” And though his laughter was pretty sincere, you’ve got to admit: Doug and Bryan have made it pretty big. They have a book…

  • Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

    Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

    Meet your new favorite weeknight dinner. It asks only a few things of you: that you have a cluster of esoteric ingredients on hand (chili paste, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil), and also a few familiar ones (ginger, soy sauce, peanut butter). It asks you to boil water and to blend things up in your…

  • Someone’s In The Kitchen With…Cara Eisenpress & Phoebe Lapine (from “Big Girls, Small Kitchen”)

    On this, the third episode of “Someone’s In The Kitchen With…” (though really the second official episode, since episode 1 had major technical issues), I play host to Cara Eisenpress & Phoebe Lapine from “Big Girls, Small Kitchen” who have a new cookbook out called, fittingly enough, “In The Small Kitchen.” Watch as the “girls”…

  • The Raw Rhubarb Daiquiri

    The Raw Rhubarb Daiquiri

    You can taste great food in your head long after you first experience it. That’s the case for me and the rhubarb cocktail I drank at Franny’s in 2009. Most rhubarb drinks have a cooked quality to them; the rhubarb is generally poached in a sugar syrup. The Franny’s rhubarb drink (which, apparently, is made…

  • How To Make Authentic Guacamole

    How To Make Authentic Guacamole

    My first experience with guacamole was the one in The Barefoot Contessa book, a flavorful guacamole that has the requisite avocados, red onion and lemon juice, but departs from the norm with fresh garlic and a few hits of Tabasco. Up until last weekend, if I were sent to the store to shop for guacamole…

  • Someone’s In The Kitchen With…Emeric Harney

    This week on “Someone’s In The Kitchen With….”, I play host to Emeric Harney of the legendary SoHo tea emporium Harney & Sons. Learn how to brew green tea properly, what makes white tea white tea, which kind of tea has the most caffeine (the answer may surprise you) and how to pronounce “pu’er” properly…