The Allure of Crispy Fried Chicken

LONDON — Fried chicken, crispy chicken, chicken schnitzel: Is there another dish so ubiquitous and yet, so particular? Everyone has one, yes, but everyone has their own. An “Around the World in 80 Dishes” cookbook could easily be filled with nothing but fried chicken recipes: Austrian schnitzel, Korean fried chicken, Italian pollo fritto, Japanese tonkatsu,…

How to Stir-Fry Without a Wok

My youngest child recently said to me, “I wish I was more Chinese.” We were eating mooncakes, trying to catch the bits of salted preserved egg yolk crumbling from the sticky-sweet lotus-seed filling. When I asked whether that sentiment applied to how we eat at home, I already knew the answer. We have carbonara as…

Salt It Like You Mean It

My kids’ babysitter asked me the other day how I make my chicken. The girls love it, she said — one of the most gratifying things you can hear when you cook for young kids, who are tiny, tyrannical critics. (Here are more ideas for what to feed them.) My secret is that I use…

How a Missing Sock Changed My Life

I rented a place a couple of blocks away. Although it felt wasteful to rent after owning, I had become convinced that our split could be more humane, and our co-parenting lives more peaceful, if my ex stayed in the apartment. About eight months after I moved out, Jeffrey followed me on Instagram. “Oh, hello!”…

A Fashionable Night at the Ballet

The New York City Ballet held its fashion gala on Sept. 30 at Lincoln Center with new collaborations between choreographers and designers. Carnegie Hall reopened its doors on Oct. 6 with a concert, which featured Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, followed by dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street. And PEN America honored three imprisoned Iranian…