a cooking and dining blog
Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery is a baking legend. His no-knead bread recipe was like scales falling from one’s eyes for home bakers, as it immediately broadened their repertoire. He was the first recipient of the James Beard Outstanding Baker award in 2015. As…
June brings the end of school and the beginning of summer in earnest. In other words, it is actually a bit more hard to schedule a time that works for all three of us. T was traveling in Europe and M was in Asia. We…
As I have mentioned before, I love making menus. We had a friend, J, in town from LA and staying with us to attend a wedding, and I immediately peppered her with questions about food preferences. While she is an omnivore, she was making more…
I was trying to picture where the newest establishment from Jody Williams and Rita Sodi was on Grove Street. The website notes that it is located “across the street from the couple’s other beloved restaurants,Via Carota, I Sodi, and Buvette.” The other day, I was…
I pruned a few restaurants off the list, and added Jiang Diner and Rezdora. I kept Crown Shy on the list as I still want to go and Pete Wells just gave it a great review (though gave it his favorite rating of 2 stars);…
This week, I add the long-awaited reopening of Pastis. I literally have not met anyone that has not missed and had kind words about this restaurant. Resy shows reservation times for breakfast, lunch and dinner though, of course, dinner times seem to be booked through…
I first tasted matcha in Japanese tea ceremonies. I was about eight years old and my mother would allow me to join her. It was how and where I understood the wondrousness of sweet (wagashi or Japanese sweets) countered by bitter (matcha tea). I loved…
In a recent post, I grumbled about my satisfaction with new/hot lists for NYC restaurants. As I was pondering about my ideal list, I recalled one that I used to refer to a lot was the “new“ list that used to be on the New…
May brought rain and more rain–I think we ended up one non-rainy day for every ten rainy days. The keywords for this month’s Supper Club with M and T would be cheer and relaxation. I reconfirmed T’s seafood allergy list and settled on a Hawaiian…
Observations from my first visit José Andrés came onto my radar when molecular gastronomy was still all the rage and his restaurant, The Bazaar, at the SLS hotel in Los Angeles received four stars from the LA Times in 2009. I think I visited not…
The weekend was a parade of rain clouds and sometimes just clouds. Maybe that was why it was hard to do anything that required too much fussing, as well as fussing over. About every six to eight days, I need to make our dog,…
Rave reviews from restaurant critics for Chef Shigetoshi Nakamura brothless ramen from Ryan Sutton from Eater and Pete Wells from The New York Times prompted me to visit Niche (though the non-reservation policy kept me away for a few weeks and avoiding a weekend evening).…
Spring is officially here but the weather has been mixed. For April’s Supper Club with M and T, I looked through my pantry and fridge, and decided on an Indian menu. My friend had given me a loads of Indian spices and this best-selling cookbook…
Some of the most fun I have in the kitchen is when I have focus, or purpose. This may come from concocting something from ingredients I want to use up in the pantry or fridge, or when I have a specific audience to cook for.…
Weekends are my favorite times to cook and bake. I had a burst of productivity and cranked out all sorts of dishes. A friend came over for dinner on Friday night, and relied on making a menu that relied on ingredients on hand (pantry…
Two of my oldest and dearest friends (M and T) and I started calendaring regular dinners to make sure that too many months would not go by without us reconnecting. At first, we would pick restaurants based more on location on the day that worked…
With the name ‘Method’ in cursive script and its darkened doors, it is sort of easy to mistake this establishment as another trendy bar specializing in cocktails, but over the last few months, Method Japanese Kitchen & Sake Bar has been getting attention from discerning…
A very quick visit to the bar I read somewhere that Alex Stupak’s Empellón Al Pastor at the Pod 39 hotel was all about bar food so I knew it would be a quick meal. I think we were in and out in under 45…
Observations from my first meal I went with great anticipation to The Standard Grill restaurant, where I could experience the genius of Rocco Dispirito. For those who were not in New York in the ‘90s and dined at his restaurant Union Pacific, it was a…