A dirty martini can be many things: ice-cold, briny, savory, refreshing — and in unfortunate instances, murky, overly salty, terrible. But an eye toward quality, fresh ingredients and attention to detail have moved this often-polarizing combination of gin or vodka, vermouth and (a dirtying addition of) olive brine from loathsome to lovable. “The dirty martini…
These are good times for tofu lovers, with an expanding market and growing options. When Jenny Yang bought the Chicago-based company Phoenix Bean in 2006, she was keeping it from going out of business. Now, she is among a number of producers who are expanding offerings to include items like Chinese-style smoked tofu and tofu…
Mimi Sheraton, the food writer and former New York Times restaurant critic who died Thursday at 97, was a true omnivore, deeply curious about everything on the dinner table and well beyond. For fans of her writing and readers new to it, here’s a sampling of her Times work that attests to her wide range,…
Maryam Jillani remembers the fervor around Eid al-Fitr celebrations ushered in by the end of Ramzan, the month of fasting and spiritual contemplation for Muslims. Endless meals included biryanis and kofta, lamb in its various iterations, milky-syrupy desserts, all laid out on embroidered tablecloths, among the good china and silverware, in drawing rooms across the…
On a brisk February morning, Anna Winger, the Berlin-based American creator and showrunner of the TV series “Deutschland 83” and “Unorthodox,” was drinking a coffee and waiting for her guests to arrive at Wolf, an art house cinema and cafe in the city’s Neukölln neighborhood where she was about to host a lunch and a…
Hi, everyone. I’m subbing in for Emily this week. Happy to be here! I’ve been in a bit of a cooking rut for the last several months: chili, meatballs, barbecue chicken, nachos and pizza on repeat ad infinitum. Spring feels like a good time to try something new. But not too new, because my family…
At Aigner Chocolates in Forest Hills, it’s mid-March and I’m eating a chocolate-covered cherry and thinking about my father. When I was a kid in the 1950s, chocolate cherries were a staple of New York’s corner candy stores, and my father and I both loved them — the crisp shell, the fruit inside swimming in…
For Times readers on Nov. 15, 1981, Ms. Sheraton caught the moods of open markets from Africa to Asia: “In Calcutta, graceful women in silken saris are colorful competition for the pyramided cones of earth-toned spices they sell in the markets. The Indian women provide a sharp contrast to the workmen in the Tsukiji wholesale…
Like little black dresses, you can never have too many roast chicken recipes. Especially the French kind. So, when Florence Chapgier, a Paris-born reader living in Los Angeles, emailed me this recipe from her French mother, Christiane Baumgartner, for roast chicken with tarragon, butter and Cognac, I immediately gave it a try. Ms. Chapgier’s name…
On a résumé, in an airport or on a date, it’s a dangerous game trying to be someone you’re not. It’s always a safer bet to be yourself. That is, unless you are a head of cauliflower. This cruciferous vegetable is the ultimate master of disguise. Enterprising cooks with a lot of patience, and little…