It’s truffle season, a confluence of sumptuous chocolate and the fragrant black and white fungi, all worthy of the holidays. On the chocolate front, there’s a new contender from Fritz Knipschildt, a Connecticut chocolatier. A spicy mulled wine filling is covered with a coating of dark chocolate festively traced with red and white and packed…
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There are many commendable California cabs, but my favorite is Ridge Monte Bello, a Bordeaux blend from a vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains that’s predominantly cabernet sauvignon. This fall, the winery — which is best known for its zinfandels and is extremely selective when it comes to making its signature Monte Bello available —…
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There are countless menorahs, the candelabras designed for Hanukkah, when the eight candles are lit, night by night, with blessings and the shamash, or “helper candle.” Starting Dec. 6, the museum in the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue will give you some idea of the variety. Scores of menorahs from the private collection of Aharon Ben…
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For Shelsky’s latest venture, it’s all about the bagels. At their new Park Slope location, the owners Peter Shelsky and Lewis Spada have brought on Matthew Tilden, who was at Scratchbread in Bedford-Stuyvesant, to bake bagels that, while quite plump, are denser, chewier and crisper than the usual examples of the genre. The partners are…
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A mayor really isn’t supposed to say something like this. “We don’t want tourists.” I waited for the punch line. None came. “We don’t want to be occupied by tourists,” he continued. Tourism, he explained, will deplete a city of its soul — and this city has a prehistoric soul. I was in Matera, an…
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As far as alter egos go, pop culture has commandeered the term a bit. We’re used to seeing celebrities share theirs with the world as a way to express another side of the artist, but it’s more than a marketing ploy. An alter ego—a variation of oneself—is something anyone, anywhere, can utilize to step more…
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Even though I was heading to a highly coveted job at The New York Times in 1965, I was heartbroken to leave Minneapolis, where I had begun my journalistic career two years earlier. Minneapolis was then, and still is, a slice of heaven for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. According to an ambitious project…
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New Orleans has a good track record for celebrating its native cocktails. The drinks are so beloved by locals that there may as well be huge statues of the Sazerac and Ramos Gin Fizz in Jackson Square. One classic New Orleans cocktail, however, has suffered from neglect. The brandy crusta is a Cognac drink supported…
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The placenta may be dismissed as “afterbirth,” deemed an afterthought in discussions about pregnancy and even relegated, literally, to the trash bin. But at long last it is beginning to get its due. In the past three weeks, scientists have published three significant studies of this ephemeral organ. One gave a detailed analysis of all…
DetailsRecent research has broken new ground in the quest for a type 1 diabetes treatment that generates insulin-making cells. New research furthers our understanding of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the Helmholtz Zentrum München in Neuherberg, Germany have mapped the signals that determine the destiny of…
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