As the economy has gotten tighter, restaurants have gotten a whole lot friendlier and more solicitous, all in the hopes of getting and keeping your business. - The show The Biggest Loser showcases the problem that most Americans don't know how to cook for themselves.
- The peanut butter salmonella scare has led people to wonder about the safety of nearly everything they put in their mouths.
- Frank Bruni reviews the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel and finds that it's heavy on atmosphere and light on dependably delicious dishes.
- After experiencing a couple bad years, Eric Asimov declares that the barolo is back to its former glory.
- For inexpensive Indian food in Manhattan, you can't go wrong at Dhaba.
- Andrew Carmellini is teaming up with Robert De Niro to take over the restaurant in the Greenwich Hotel.
- Mark Bittman takes a standard cracker recipe and tarts it up with cheese, butter and cream for a richer result.
- Most recipes for braised rabbit require lots of fat to keep the lean meat moist. Melissa Clark has figured out a way to keep the meat tender without making it heavy.
Posts with tag Melissa Clark
Restaurants During Recession and Home Cooking - The NY Times in 60 Seconds
Dining Out and Cooking in - The New York Times in 60 Seconds
Frank Bruni chronicles five meals he recently had in which he and a companion ate at least three courses for $100 or less. I'm in love with the description of a baked cauliflower dish as "promiscuously cheesy and hammy."- Ordering wine from the bottom of the list.
- Lobster prices are lower than they've been in years (mostly due to the closure of Canadian processing plants) and so Melissa Clark prepares lobster a three ways to celebrate the discount prices.
- Persimmons are something of a mystery to many home cooks, so Harold McGee sets out to unravel their mysteries and make up two lovely steamed pudding out of them.
- The economy has led many folks to give up the restaurant habit and eat at home. Marian Burros talks with several people who have revamped the ways that they eat.
- Corton gets the Frank Bruni treatment and comes away with three stars.
- The Minimalist makes sorbet using nothing more than frozen fruit, a few ingredients and his food processor.
Epicurious Thanksgiving chat with Melissa Clark
It seems like lately the whole food world is turning out to help people prepare and plan for their Thanksgiving dinners. The latest way to get tips and tricks for your turkey day celebration? Epicurious, in addition to being an excellent all-around source for recipes, is going to be hosting a chat with cookbook author and Epi-log blogger Melissa Clark this Friday from 12 noon until 2 pm (that's Eastern Standard Time). Melissa will be available to discuss general Thanksgiving problems and solutions. She'll also be answering questions about how to prepare the items on the Epicurious Thanksgiving menu that she compiled and tested. Isn't the internet a wonderful place!
Help Melissa Clark choose a new stove
I cook on a 41-year-old turquoise electric stove. While it has a certain amount of retro appeal, it has many features that render it an total pain in the tuckus. Chief among the frustrations is the fact that the oven hovers a mere 13 and a half inches above the rear burners. This means that if you have stuff on the front burners, you can basically forget about using the rear ones. This is why I often find myself with lust in my heart for the stoves that other people get to cook on. I'm particularly jealous of my friend Jamie's stove, which is hulking stainless steel gas-powered monster with five burners and a double oven.
Over on the Epi-Log, cookbook author Melissa Clark has announced to the foodie world that she is in the market for a new stove, and she's asking people to send in their recommendations. Since reading her post, I've found myself shopping online for potential stoves for her kitchen, living vicariously through her impending new stove purchase. If you have a stove you love (or one you hate), feel free to weigh in on the discussion over at the Epi-log or here in the comments. Because there's nothing that generates more intense feelings of passion than a cook's relationship with their stove.
There's a new food blog on the block
Ever since friend pointed in me in the direction of Epicurious.com when I was looking for a Passover recipe several years ago, it's been one of my go-to websites for interesting recipes, food tips and the occasional article. They recently launched a redesign of their site, and it's not just the same old stuff dressed up in new HTML. There's a bunch of new features including a recipe bar search, new categories and my very favorite, a brand spanking new blog.
The Epi-log as they're calling it is staffed not only by the Epicurious editors, but also by a pretty nifty assortment of guest bloggers. They've got Amy Sherman from Cooking with Amy (food blogger makes good!), Rick Bayless (who really needs no introduction), food writing extraordinaire Melissa Clark, the grill man Michael Y. Park, wine expert Natalie MacLean and Neal Pollack, who bills himself as Writer, Food Lover, Dad (please read his post about how his son threw a temper tantrum because they were out of capers. It made me giggle audibly).
Heirloom tomatoes, Belgian pale ales and sustainable farming for God: NYT Dining and Wine in 60 seconds
Melissa Clark can't resist bringing home bags of tomatoes from the farmers market this time of year. She offers up a tomato recipe for every night of the week (plus one to grow on) including Multi-colored Tomato Tartlets, Baked Stuffed Tomatoes with Goat Cheese Fondue and Green Tomato and Lemon Marmalade.
Eric Asimov searches for a beer that can cool you down without leaving you feeling weighted by the heaviness of hops and too much alcohol. The winner? A Belgian Pale Ale.
An evangelical Christian and a Kosher meat packer work together to further humane and sustainable farming practices. Mark Bittman cooks the perfect steak and shares secrets of the dry rub.
Frank Bruni reviews Rayuela. You can learn to cook in Paris without spending your whole vacation in front of the stove. You can feel safe eating all the deep-fried Oreos you want at the Indiana State Fair, as they are now cooked in trans-fat free oil.
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