Variety and innovation of this sort have been at the heart of the conbini experience in Japan for a half-century. Whitelaw, the Harvard professor, told me that onigiri (rice balls) were the first traditional foods here to receive the conbini treatment. They’re sold in clever packaging that keeps the seaweed dry, allows for easy assembly…
This time of year, my diet turns almost completely plant-based. I suppose it’s only natural: Height-of-season summer produce is seductive, with tantalizing shapes and colors, and the kind of sweetness that comes from being freshly picked. This is the magic moment when melons, berries, stone fruit, peppers, tomatoes, corn, beans and squashes collide. This menu…
I was inspired by something I saw on Twitter this week (I know, strange): The podcast host and author Linda Holmes wrote that, after a pandemic stretch of ordering in and PB&Js, she wanted to reset her relationship with her kitchen. She issued herself a cooking challenge, choosing eight New York Times Cooking recipes and…
But not all restaurants have received the same support. Since announcing that customers of her San Francisco restaurant, Vegan Picnic, would have to present proof of vaccination to eat inside on Monday, Jill Ritchie said she had initially received hundreds of threatening messages a day, and dozens of one-star reviews from skeptics. Yelp posted a…
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — You’d have to try to miss the camarones embarazados on a walk along the beaches of Banderas Bay. Makeshift grills encased in bricks or rocks, exhaling the last puffs of smoke from early-morning cooking sessions, dot the shores. Soaked in a rich, burnished-red adobo sauce, head-on shrimp are threaded onto extra-long…
ST. HELENA, Calif. — The block of vines at Cornell Vineyards on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas Range, just over the county line from this Napa Valley hub, looked green and healthy in mid-July, as they ought to midway through the growing season. But looks can be deceiving. This particular block withstood the devastating…
In late August, when the Great Jones Distilling Company opens its doors, Manhattan will have its first legal whiskey distillery since the advent of Prohibition in 1920. Aside from its stunning 500-gallon still, the 28,000-square-foot, four-story space in NoHo will feature a cocktail bar; an event area; a restaurant helmed by the chef Adam Raksin,…
Without a doubt, humanity advanced leaps and bounds once it became clear that cooking over fire equaled better food. But sometimes, it’s just too hot or the day’s too long to even consider turning on an oven or stove. Luckily, plenty of recipes require no heat (or very, very little) and are just as flavorful…
Good morning. We had a break in the heat and humidity and the kids wanted pizza and I realized that for all the recipes for pizza (above) I have, the only really important one is for dough. Everything else can be a riff, an improvisation, a no-recipe recipe. Just go easy on the toppings and…
Summer in Los Angeles, and the box grater, which I hang on an S hook with my pots and pans, gradually becomes my most precious kitchen tool. Not a knife, not a fancy pan, not a gadget I ogled in someone else’s kitchen, just that plain steel box grater with the horribly sharp handle that…