Good morning. You make corn muffins with corn meal, which is dried ground corn. I like those split and griddled in butter. You make tortillas and pupusas with masa harina, which is corn that’s been cooked and steeped in an alkaline solution (a process known as nixtamalization), then dried and ground. A homemade tortilla is…
Hi, it’s Pete Wells, restaurant critic for the Times and inveterate between-meal snacker. I’ll get to that in a minute. First, though, have you seen Priya Krishna’s article (with a clever, gamified design by Umi Syam and Aliza Aufrichtig) tracking all the reservations and walk-ins over the course of one night at Semma? The restaurant,…
The only problem with crumby chicken is the silent b. Try calling your mother’s awesome bread crumb-coated chicken by its traditional name in conversation, and people will think you’re being mean. But Mom’s crumb-y chicken is not crummy at all. That’s why I call my version of this retro classic, “crispy mustard chicken with bread…
With Halloween looming ominously in the distance, allow me to regale you with a spooky tale. You’re in the canned goods aisle at your grocery store, on the hunt for the season’s hottest commodity: pumpkin. You grab a couple of cans of purée, visions of cheeky jack-o’-lanterns dancing in your mind. But the canned purée…
We’re firm believers that when it comes to Halloween, there’s no reason the kids should have all the fun. (They’re likely to take all the chocolate for themselves and stick you with stale Smarties and rock-hard Tootsie Rolls.) In our collection of Halloween cookie and candy recipes, you’ll find dangerously simple chocolate peanut butter cups,…
On a warm evening, not long before her guests were set to arrive, Cathleen O’Neil, 30, was stocking the bar for a dinner party at her home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, while her co-host, the chef Feisal Lagos, 39, was hastily adding the finishing touches to his handwritten menu. “The point,” he said, “is for people…
A few things to consider when planning a November dinner party: It’s important to celebrate the newly arrived fall produce and the change in weather. It’s time for all manner of warming, homey fare. But also: The month signals the start of “the holiday season” and all its various temptations. My approach here emphasizes simplicity…
Since the minute my colleague Yewande Komolafe told me she was working on a cookbook about Nigerian cuisine, I’ve been longing for the day I could read and cook from it, cover to cover. The wait is finally over! “My Everyday Lagos,” an exploration of the richness and diversity of Nigerian food, is out in…
When the Nigerian writer Yemisi Aribisala craves jollof rice, a West African staple, she doesn’t cook it. She asks her sister to send her a bowl. They live about an hour apart, so it is not a casual delivery. Nevertheless, this is how things must be. “Mine is simply not good enough,” Aribisala says. On…
Clara The New-York Historical Society, founded in 1804, has gradually upped the ante when it comes to dining. Its Storico, run by Stephen Starr’s organization, closed in July. Next up is the Oberon Group from Brooklyn, where it runs Rucola, Rhodora, June Bar and more, with a focus on sustainability. Diego Moya, the group’s culinary…