18 Mar 2011 7 Comments
in Recipes, Video Tags: beet greens, Chicken Kiev, Fedorowycz, pilaf, Russia, Ukraine
…to dinner, that is.
You have to be careful when cooking an ethnic dinner for ethnic friends. You don’t want to appear cliché or offend anyone. Will your Mexican friends really appreciate it, for example, when they come for dinner and you announce, “Hey, I’m making burritos! Muy bueno!!“?? (Imagine your own horror should you be invited to a dinner party in Paris or Tokyo, anticipating delicious local cuisine, only to have your hosts serve you meatloaf and mac n’ cheese.)
14 Mar 2011 10 Comments
in Recipes, Video Tags: anchovy, bagna cauda, garlic, Italy, Jack Kerouac, olive oil, San Francisco, Vesuvios
The author (center, rear) and friends, hour 8, pitcher #12 — Vesuvios bar North Beach, San Francisco
Next time you’re having a dinner party at your home, dispense with the crudites or the waxy wedge of brie. I’ve got something better for you. It’s called bagna cauda (or bagna calda, if you prefer — easier to pronounce), it hails from the Piedmont region of Italy, and you’ll marvel how your guests gather around it, each trying not to look like the guy who’s hogging it all. More
11 Mar 2011 8 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
08 Mar 2011 2 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Video Tags: cheese, frico, fried, Italian, parmesan
Mini-Caesar salad in a frico cone
It’s one of life’s best things. That little bit of melted cheese that escapes from the edge of the grilled cheese sandwich or quesadilla, and sizzles into the pan, becoming crisp and lacy. More
04 Mar 2011 3 Comments
in Pork, Recipes Tags: bacon, bloody mary, Malibu, pancake breakfast, Steve McQueen
I wasn’t going to drink New Year’s Day. Coming off our annual New Year’s Eve dinner, several bottles of wine and 4-ish hours of sleep, I felt a bit wracked. But we arrived at a friends’ afternoon party, the girls were drinking proseco, the boys were preparing sausages for the grill… and my wife, a woman of rare insight and remarkable timing, commented on how good a bloody mary would taste.
the Ultimate Bloody Mary with Niman Ranch bacon stir stick
skinny girls & mayonnaise 