"food and dining" news and stories

I love hosting dinner parties, but know that it can be a highly stressful affair. Chefs offer a few tips to make it successful, including how to handle fussy guests, and offer recipes that keep the stress level low, i.e. that are relatively uncomplicated and can be prepared in advance: Herbed Lemon Orzo, Creamy Roasted Parsnip Soup with Chevre & Walnut Crostini, Spiced Chicken with Pears and Port, and Chocolate Espresso Martinis.

Pickiness isn't just the guests at your dinner party. The Times looks at pickiness in general.

As if the heavy stews and braises of autumn weren't enough, it's football season, which brings along with it lots of diet-killing "stadium foods." The Diet Detective offers tips on how to handle a giant plate of nachos.

The New York Times dining section hit the road this week, though they didn't stray too far from their home base. Out on the west coast, a road trip tends to involve at least several hundred miles and more than a day of driving - not a mere two hours. A trek from New York to New Jersey or Connecticut just doesn't have the same impact (nor does Long Island), but at least they tracked down some good eats:

• Clam chowder from the Jersey shore
• Organic produce in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
• Wineries and new restaurants on the North Fork of Long Island

More parents are turning to custom-made and/or organic baby food over the jarred varieties that grace store shelves, even if they have to get it FedExed to them while traveling.

Discovering the taste of tomatoes at a tasting designed to pinpoint their unique flavors, much like a wine tasting.

Frank Bruni ate at Blue Hill and gave it 3 stars.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, makes grilled tuna burgers.

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Sour is the up-and-coming "it" flavor for the American palate and layering plates with sour notes in addition to other flavors will give a meal an extra punch that pushes it over the top. Try adding citrus or, in some cases, unripe fruit.

It looks like lounges are growing in popularity in New York. And by "lounges," I mean restaurants with bar areas where you can order food. The fact that these places are found in 3 and 4 star restaurants is what makes them lounges.

Guilt of eating fish caught by using the environmentally unsound trawling method is alleviated by because the fish, bought at Greenmarket, makes a delicious dinner.

Ibérico ham in all its forms will soon be available in NY.

Wheat beers aren't going to satisfy your whole grain serving requirement, but there are a lot of good ones out there worth trying anyway.

Even if your grandmother wasn't a brilliant cook - a skill that most people claim their grandmother had - the one or two things that she did well might be worth remembering, like pan fried green beans.

Frank Bruni gives Tom Colicchio's restaurant Craftsteak one star.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, makes bread and tomato soup for a perfect summer dish.

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If you fancy becoming a restaurant critic, make sure you have a stash of untraceable cash, multiple credit cards with different names, and a wig.

I remember reading about Ruth Reichl's stint as the restaurant critic for the New York Times. She would go out in full disguises, changing her demeanor, her voice, everything, so that restaurants wouldn't recognize her as Ruth Reichl. Critics don't seem to be going that far these days. Restaurant critics dine with friends and family, make reservations under false names, and pay for their meals in ways that don't reveal their identities, all to provide a review based on what it would be like to dine for the restaurant's every day customer.

However, restaurants have become savvy to critics, whose reviews could crowd their reservations lines or shut them down, by educating their staff to look out for critics. They have complete "dossiers" with physical descriptions, photographs, and even explanations of crtics' idiosyncrasies.

It makes me wonder, then, how accurate those 2, 3, or 4 stars really are.