Best Wine Bar Menus in NYC

Well, there’s no use trying to hide it: I’m not Nikita Richardson. Nikita is on assignment with another department in the newsroom for three months, and while she’s gone, the editors asked me to fill in. Me? I’m Pete Wells, the restaurant critic for The New York Times. While I learn the “Where to Eat”…

How to Blister Your Vegetables

On a recent Saturday, after a leisurely afternoon plodding around Prospect Park, two friends and I strolled toward a Japanese restaurant without a reservation, one of the more daring things a New Yorker can do these days. Auspiciously, we were seated right away, and we ordered a round of beers and some edamame. Overcome by…

Sushi Bake Recipe

I’m not supposed to play favorites with New York Times Cooking recipes — which is impossible anyway, given our vast database of winners — but reader, I must tell you how excited I am for Naz Deravian’s new sushi bake recipe (above). For years, my party go-to has been Sheldon Simeon’s pan sushi dynamite, a…

The Secret to the Greenest Pesto

My colleague Julia Moskin says that restaurants are New Yorkers’ living rooms. With no space of our own, we look outward, to nearby public quarters where we can sit, read and lounge. If that’s true — and I think it is — for more than a decade, I’ve watched my favorite living room, Da Andrea,…