For its new Keret Cake, Breads Bakery’s Proustian moment was a short story, “Crumb Cake,” by Etgar Keret, an award-winning Israeli author who wrote it for the bakery. The cake, a moist, slightly citrusy golden loaf topped with crumbs and bits of dried raspberry, was created by a Breads baker, with input from the writer.…
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Among the beans sold by Fire Dept. Coffee in Rockford, Ill., a company founded by firefighters, are some infused with spirits, including bourbon, rum, tequila and Irish whiskey. The whiskey flavor is worth having on hand to make Irish coffee, the winter warmer soon to be in great demand. Though the whole beans smell of…
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Sergei Potekhin will not disclose how he and his wife, Lena, create their chocolate menagerie, mainly many breeds of dogs. Mr. Potekhin calls it a “proprietary technique,” though it looks like the figures in milk, dark and white chocolates are sculpted; some might also be molded. The couple started in Russia, where Ms. Potekhin worked…
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Angie Mar, an owner and chef of the Beatrice Inn in the West Village, has long looked up to culinary giants like André Soltner, Jacques Pépin, Jacques Torres, Alain Sailhac and Julia Child. Now, to honor them, she has organized a series of dinners where some of their signature dishes will be served, and each…
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Shiona Turini’s history with Barbie dolls is similar to that of many black women. Store shelves would be brimming with Barbie dolls in a range of different hair color shades—blonde, brunette, red, black, etc.—but when it came to complexion shades, options were few and far between. Then, in 1980, Turini’s sigh of relief came in…
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ELMORE, Vt. — When Blair Marvin started making and selling bread 15 years ago, she promised herself three things: She would never preslice it. She would never bake it in a pan. And she would certainly never sell it in plastic. But three years ago, as she was helping out in the one-room schoolhouse where…
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LONDON — The young woman at the next table didn’t take off her shirt during the high-speed guitar riff of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” but it wasn’t for lack of trying. It was another raucous Saturday-night service at the North London restaurant Black Axe Mangal, and the music wasn’t even the loudest thing in the…
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The Queens neighborhood of Richmond Hill is far from Lima both geographically and atmospherically. This has not stopped Peruvian restaurants from sprouting up there. They line Jamaica Avenue under the shuddering elevated tracks of the J train, which by the time it gets here is nearly at the end of the line. Most are modest…
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LONDON — “You ask me what life is,” wrote the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. “That’s like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there’s nothing more to know.” Well, Anton, I think there’s a lot more that can be said and known about the matter. Almost everyone loves a carrot,…
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During a quick swing through Utah last spring, I texted my husband a photo from a ski area of rock- and tree-lined steeps. “Is that Snowbird or Alta?” he responded. His guess was good, but he was about 70 miles off. I was at Snowbasin in northern Utah, a 45-minute drive from Salt Lake City.…
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