For decades, the fast-food drive-through has been a greasy symbol of Americana, a roadside ritual for millions of travelers with a hankering for burgers and fries. Now, the drive-through, with its brightly-colored signage and ketchup-stained paper bags, has taken on a new importance in the age of social distancing. Over the last month and a…
It started on my birthday. I received, on the same blessed day in April, a package of ribs from the Memphis restaurant Central BBQ, courtesy of my brother and sister-in-law, and a box of Eastern North Carolina barbecue and hush puppies from Kings BBQ Restaurant, by way of my parents. That’s when I figured out…
The annual summer Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo., has been canceled. But the New York City Wine and Food Festival, a four-day fall fund-raiser that sprawls across the city in restaurants and event spaces? Not so fast. Lee Schrager, the organizer and founder is going digital with it, starting this week, and still…
Whether it’s called a loaf cake, tea cake, poundcake or one of those slyly named “breads” of the banana-pumpkin-zucchini variety, if I can bake it in a 9-by-5-inch pan, it will find a place in my lockdown kitchen. There’s something about loaf cake’s sturdy, bricklike shape that makes it feel like a bulwark against the…
Welcome back to Five Weeknight Dishes. This week, I’ve been thinking about The Times’s original weeknight columnist, the French chef Pierre Franey, who wrote “60-Minute Gourmet.” (He pretty much invented boneless chicken breasts, and before chicken nuggets were a thing, he had us making goujonettes for dinner parties.) When he started in 1975, the ingredients…
Simple to assemble, savory pancakes are a universal comfort food. Their versatility is indicated by the many variations served around the world: Turkish zucchini pancakes, Korean vegetable pajeon and Japanese okonomiyaki. Fluffy and light or crisp and pan-fried, savory pancakes are a natural vehicle for using up leftovers or pantry ingredients. This pancake mix uses…
Is it me, or have rhubarb desserts gotten pinker and more vivid in the last few years? A decade or so ago, they weren’t always the most attractive confections, at least not the ones I baked. The majority of stalks I found were green, not red. And even those blushed with pink turned sort of…
You might want to make sure there’s not a rat living (or recently dead) in your car’s engine. Why are you still reading? Check your car for a rat, I said. That’s the tip. Rats like it in there, and while they could take up residence in a car engine at any time, anecdotal reports…
I was surprised to learn in the last few years that six of the California producers whose soulful wines speak most clearly to me all worked in the same winery in Sebastopol, Calif. They operate separately but communally, and though they share a certain aesthetic outlook, preferring fresh acidity over high alcohol, for example, their…
SEBASTOPOL, Calif. — No business is built to withstand the physical distancing demands of the coronavirus pandemic. But Pax Mahle Wines here in western Sonoma County is less equipped than most. That’s because the winery is home to at least six different producers, all sharing space and equipment. Depending on whether you count side projects…