25 Apr 2013 7 Comments
in Food, Humor, Pork, Recipes Tags: Chengdu, China, Chinese cooking, Huang Fei Hong spicy peanuts, ma la, peppercorns, Saveur, Sichuan, Szechuan
One of the strangest culinary experiences I’ve ever had was more than a decade ago, when our friend from Szechuan, Guonan, invited us over for Szechuan hot pot.
Among the more unusual items on the condiment plate that evening as we sat on the floor around a bubbling pot on the coffee table of her Marina del Rey apartment, gazing out at the twinkling lights of the boats in the harbor, was duck tongues. More
20 Nov 2012 8 Comments
in Food, Humor, Recipes Tags: anchovies, bigoli in salsa, Caesar salad, Mario Batali, pasta, Rialto fish market, Saveur, Venice
Oftentimes when I have a specific ingredient I want to cook, I’ll have a vague recollection of a wonderful dish I had once, read about or made myself that uses said ingredient. And then I’ll set out — sometimes successfully, sometimes not — to remember what it was and find it.
Venetian bigoli in salsa
That was what was happening on a lazy Sunday afternoon as I contemplated what I was going to make for dinner. I felt like Italian, and moving jars, bags and boxes around in the pantry, I discovered a forgotten bag of whole wheat spaghetti. More
08 Jun 2012 11 Comments
in Recipes, Video Tags: 27, Forever 27 Club, Gram Parsons, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Liguria, Saveur, Topanga, torta
It’s always been a symbolic number in my life — 27.
I remember sitting with my best friend, Dan, at his house in Topanga close to my 28th birthday. Dan was a few years older than I. “27 has been a really hard year,” I said — tired and disillusioned. “Oh man,” he replied, “I’m just getting over 27.”
Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons in Topanga, 1969
27 is, of course, the year that so many talented young artists perish. Browse the obits, and it truly is astonishing — Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass Eliott, Gram Parsons, Brian Jones, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse. It’s often morbidly referred to as the “Forever 27 Club.” More
11 Aug 2011 5 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Observations, Recipes Tags: Celestino Drago, Genoa, Hawaiian, Italian riviera, Italy, noci, pansotti, salami, Saveur, tortellini, tortelloni, walnuts
I’m often asked by dinner guests, as I serve them a meal of Sardinian seafood or Japanese sumiyaki grill or Yucatan-style Mexican, “Where do you get your ideas?”
Freshly made mezzaluna
I’ll admit it’s somewhat easier for me than the average person — having a career that gives me the time and flexibility to indulge my passion for kitchen creativity. However, I still have to come up with ideas of what I’m going to cook each evening. More
11 Mar 2011 7 Comments
in Cookbooks, Cooking Tips, Observations, Recipes Tags: A Day at El Bulli, Adam Perry Lang, Coco, cold cucumber soup, Ferran Adria, Joy of Cooking, mom, Ratio, Saveur, Scandia, Serious Barbecue, Treasury of Great Recipes, Vincent Price, Wine Spectator
The coffee table at our house
I have a Master’s degree in creative writing. But I’ve always said, the way I learned the most was by reading the great writers. Same with cooking.
I didn’t go to school for cooking. Most chefs didn’t. (Nor did William Faulkner or Virginia Woolf have Master’s degrees in writing.) I cooked in restaurants when I was a younger man. But I learned the most by reading, observing, studying what the great chefs were doing and doing that too, and by trial and error. More
