Articles

Papabubble's Candy Magic

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0100

In what could easily double as a mad scientist's laboratory, tall shelves are lined with glass jars, test tubes and silver bags filled with impossibly tiny crystalline candies whose bold flavors include passion fruit, kiwi and soda. They're crammed next to avant-garde pulled candy sculptures as artful as any Venetian blown glass; candy sushi (complete with chopst ...

Boys Will Be Cooks

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:03:06 +0100

I was recently watching a couple of talented male stars on the Food Network teach home cooking and was engaged by their amusing and very different personae. Alton Brown, the pop-history cookbook writer, comes across as part class valedictorian and par ...

A Vintner's Revival

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:40:29 +0100

Earlier this year winemaker Steve Edmunds of the Bay Area winery Edmunds St. John described a sales trip to New York that was, for him, nothing short of spectacular. At nearly every potential account, he was met with enthusiastic buyers likes of whom he'd never encountered in his 25 years in business. He sold wine hand over fist -- this, on the heels of one of the country's worst recessi ...

Herb Bunch with a Punch

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:05:00 +0100

The end of the summer bounty is upon us in the U.S. In a temperate region that means potted herbs are mature for picking, aromatic gardens overflow, and farmers markets brim with copious amounts of fresh and dried herbs. The widespread herbs thyme, bay leaf and parsley are the basis for a classic French bouquet garni. Individually, or as a n ...

Globe-trotting Cookbooks

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:13:47 +0100

With the economy the way it is, I didn't get to travel this summer as much as I wanted. Luckily I found a few new cookbooks that made me feel as though I had been to some exotic countries and even taken a haphazard trip across the country. Food-tripping through Vietnam Kim Fay is a noted expert on travel literature and Viet ...

Does Napa Have Terroir?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:34:48 +0100

Debates about terroir are as hot as ever, especially when it comes to California. My big question is always: Do wines from individual vineyards display a distinctive sense of place in, say, Napa Valley? It doesn't help that Napa produces hundreds of wines made by producers who are all over the map in their approach to winemaking. So when I had a chance to sample 63 wines made from Stagec ...

A Summer of Oysters

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:48:47 +0100

I am allergic to shellfish through some mysterious act of the gods, yet oysters have marked my summer and are on my mind as the season once again turns to a month with an "r" in it. The dictum not to eat oysters in months without an "r" in their spelling is a long-standing one and may have to do with the months in which the mollusks traditionally spawn. However, with the advent of ...

In Search of Good Eggs

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:27:17 +0100

I'm living dangerously. I just make a sunshine cake whose main ingredient is (gasp!) eggs. I even licked the bowl. And the spatula. And the beaters, too. But I have not a shred of fear, because the eggs came from my brother Henry's farm. He has a few dozen hens, and I know exactly how healthy and happy they are because I visit with them every time I bring ov ...

Turkish Breakfast Club

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:09:30 +0100

Van, in eastern Turkey, is known for its lake (the country's biggest), its ancient citadel (popularly known as the Rock of Van), and the Van cat, a rare water-loving breed with long white fur and one green and one blue eye. The city's other claim to fame: its breakfast club, possibly the world's largest. Every one of Van's mor ...

CSI: Olive Oil

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:36:49 +0100

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Paul Vossen remembers the typical Italian olive oil junket of 30 years ago. Visiting olive oil professionals witnessed vats of fresh olive oil pressed from olives taken straight from nearby Tuscan olive groves. But the tour also went to another area of the facility, says Vossen, which was shown to them proudly and without secrecy. Here, olive oil of lesser quality was refined ...

A Recipe, Not a Formula

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:27:13 +0100

A new food channel has been launched, the Cooking Channel. More celebrity chefs and TV personalities are writing cookbooks. Tables are stocked with Mario's, Giada's, Tyler's smiling faces.Â But where is the charming little cookbook "The Cuisines of ____(fill in the blank)"?Â Weâre slipping away from those rich cookbooks of yesteryear that became our favorites, ripe as they were with information ...

Greek Vineyard Feasts

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:00:10 +0100

Before my first trip to Greece this summer to visit some of the mainland's most ambitious wineries (which I'll be writing about separately), I'd been told that often the best Greek food is found in people's homes. I concur. Our little group ate colorfully and well in the few tavernas we visited, but we were treated to three exceptional meals by the women of the wine ...

Boozy Whipped Cream

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:28:26 +0100

In a world where culinary trends come and go like so many rumaki on an enamel platter, one can truly appreciate the inevitable collision of food and alcohol in one perfect serving. Consider, for instance, the classic Jell-O shot, or this season's wildly inventive array of booze-spiked popsicles< ...

Summer-Perfect Corn

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:38:15 +0100

You can keep it simple by grilling corn on the cob, or boiling it and slathering it with butter seasoned with sea salt and pepper. You can cut it off the cob and saute with garlic and mushrooms as a side dish, add it to soup for a chowder, mix it into clam fritters, toss it in a salad or bake into zucchini bread. It's peak corn season and Â there are innumer ...

Japan's Fruit Fetish

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:38:35 +0100

Second in a four-part series on Japanâs unexpected wine scene. See Japan's Zen Winemakers, the first story in the series. What's wrong with $200 melons, $100 mangoes and $50 clusters of grapes? The answer to such an absurd question is less obvious if you are Japanese. The custom of giving expensive fruit as a bus ...