Saffron Harvested by Female Farmers

The dried threads of autumn crocus, only three per flower, make saffron, the intense, precious seasoning originally native to Eurasia. Now, in Afghanistan, Tahmina Ghaffer, originally from Kabul, has hired women farmers specifically to hand-harvest saffron in the Herat region to sell under the new Moonflowers label. The company donates one percent of its profits…

A Glou Up for an Orange Wine Purveyor

In November 2019, Doreen Winkler started selling orange wines by subscription. Its success led her to open a wine shop specializing in the wines, which are white wines given enough skin contact to add a ruddy blush to the color. Orange Glou, the shop, is opening Friday with 100 different wines from many regions priced…

Start Your Morning With Ai Weiwei

Since 1992, the Italian coffee company Illy has commissioned artists to decorate special editions of their espresso and cappuccino cups. More than 100 painters, sculptors and even filmmakers have participated. The latest is the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who has splashed the ceramic cups and saucers with color and gilding. The designs were…

Milk Bar Expands to Ice Cream

Nothing bears the trademark of the pastry chef Christina Tosi more than her cereal milk flavor. Often available as soft-serve at her Milk Bar confectionaries, cereal milk is now an ice cream, available by the pint. Cereal milk is not an alternate vegan ingredient made by pressing and hydrating Froot Loops or the like. It’s…

At Sona, a Feast From All Around India

Mr. Nayak has divided the dishes that could be eaten as main courses among four categories: signature, classic, grilled and rice. The last one is where you’ll find pulaos and biryanis, but not the simple $5 bowl of steamed basmati. (That goes under “accompaniments.”) If I’d come up with the kofta korma, I’d call them…

This Summer, Make It Chianti Classico

Some may be structured and tannic enough to wait a few years before drinking. Others are easygoing and ready to drink upon release. The best are fine and transparently express their origins, often with sweet, earthy and bitter flavors of cherries and flowers. Long gone are the days in the 1960s when the local wine…

This Pasta Is Inspired

We’re still a few months away from returning to the newsroom en masse at The Times, but I’m starting to feel a strange premature nostalgia for these work-from-home days, when at the end of the day I could walk away from my laptop, wander into the kitchen, pour myself a glass of wine (or lately,…