“The Doubleday Cookbook,” published in 1975, was the new kid on the block, a 1,300-page, four-pound doorstop even more expansive than “Joy,” with more than 4,000 recipes, from abalone stew to zucchini and lamb casserole, with stopovers in sautéed calves’ brains, homemade wontons and butterscotch brownies. It went on to win many awards and sell…
There’s a mild, wheaty aroma wafting from the host stand at the Midtown Manhattan pasta restaurant Jupiter. It’s not from the pasta. An herbaceous, vegetal smell fills the bathrooms at Horses, a high-end bistro in Los Angeles. It’s not from vegetables. And that intense, buttery scent suffusing the journalist Emma Specter’s apartment in Austin, Texas?…
King isn’t a perfect restaurant, but it is a perfect example of a type of restaurant that many New Yorkers dream about. It’s that small, charming spot downtown where the details have all been thought about, though not so much that it becomes uncomfortable, and the menu is a likable quilt of flavors from Tuscany,…
NEW ORLEANS — The first dish served at Dakar NOLA is called Last Meal. It’s a soup of black-eyed peas, crispy rice and Louisiana blue crab, with robust spicing that recalls this city’s famous gumbos. Chances are you’ll still be thinking about it days later. Last Meal is that delicious — and even more unsettling.…
Caliza Josh Lebowitz, the owner of this new Mexican restaurant, wanted to suggest the beach in its design. By Glen Coben, the décor is bright and airy, with a generous all-seasons patio. Highlights of the contemporary fare by the executive chef Alfredo Vergara, from Mexico City, include braised Wagyu brisket tacos, lamb ribs with roasted…
This year, Feb. 21 isn’t simply another Tuesday in New Orleans: It’s Mardi Gras. And while the prevalence of bead-related nudity is exaggerated, the sheer amount of food and drink celebrators will consume is not. In Louisiana, the traditional Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, sweet is the king cake, covered in icing and decorated, commonly,…
The celebration of Carnival — occurring this year just before Lent begins on Wednesday, Feb. 22 — is marked in Scandinavia with yeasted pastries variously called semlor (Swedish), fastelavnsboller (Danish) and laskiaispulla (Finnish), depending on the country. Made from cardamom-scented pastry, they’re split and overflowing with custard or whipped cream. In New York, Björk Café…
Amid the usual restaurant cacophony in the dining room at Monterey American Brasserie in Manhattan, you’ll hear the occasional whoosh, followed by delighted “oohs” and “wows.” Another pan of bananas Foster has been set ablaze, orange flames surging and swaying before fizzling out, leaving behind caramelized, rum-soaked bananas and causing all the neighboring tables to…
People with different flavor obsessions tend to appreciate each other’s passions — lemon lovers understand chocoholics, and chile fiends click with squint-seeking sour-candy obsessives. But when it comes to texture, there can be a mutual incomprehension. I happen to love anything squishy, springy, chewy, wobbly or displaying the soft elasticity called Q or QQ in Taiwan, and…
People with different flavor obsessions tend to appreciate each other’s passions — lemon lovers understand chocoholics, and chile fiends click with squint-seeking sour-candy obsessives. But when it comes to texture, there can be a mutual incomprehension. I happen to love anything squishy, springy, chewy, wobbly or displaying the soft elasticity called Q or QQ in Taiwan, and…