December 2010

Weary Traveler’s Spaghetti

Last night, before I fell asleep, I tried to remember all the phases of my 21 hours of travel from the previous day.

I took a bus from the Bellingham airport to the Seattle airport where I rode a mini-train to my gate, waited three hours (during which I bought a Snickers bar which I saved for the plane) and as I finally boarded, I was told that my overstuffed suitcase was too overstuffed to fit in the overhead. During the flight, I had a middle seat but it was in an exit row, which is kind of a mixed blessing. I read a George Saunders story in last week’s New Yorker, which I highly recommend. When I landed in Washington, D.C. (the only place I could fly to make it home to New York before January 3rd), I rode another mini-train to the baggage claim where I was told that I was at Dulles airport which is 25 miles from D.C. proper.

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The Best of 2010 (My Favorite Recipes, Restaurant Dishes & Food Books of The Year + Other Cool Things That Happened)

My flight home from Seattle was cancelled this morning and because I booked my tickets on Orbitz, and the flight was a Continental flight, I’ve been zooming back and forth from the Orbitz website to the Continental website trying to figure out my next steps. Turns out, there’s not much I can do: apparently, Continental will re-book me eventually and though I’d like to speak to a human on the phone to confirm that, so many people have been stranded by the great blizzard of 2010, there’s no way I’m going to speak to a human at either Continental or Orbitz for a very, very long time.

Which is why this is a perfect moment to do what so many other food bloggers, magazine editors and newspaper writers do at this time of year: I’m going to write my Best of 2010!

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Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

It’s pretty comical to come to Bellingham, Washington for Christmas. Comical because, for this Boca Ratonian Jew, it’s like stepping out of a noisy deli into a Christmas card. I’m writing this right now in a coffee shop with a Yule log burning on the fire and several people sitting around me who look like Santa Claus. Last night, when Craig and I stepped out of the car after driving up here from Seattle, a crowd of people stood around a bonfire singing Christmas carols. He’s not even dead but I’m pretty sure the rabbi who oversaw my Bar Mitzvah is rolling around in his grave.

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Leftover Brisket Ragu

Last we spoke, we made an eight-pound brisket.

Here’s the thing about making an eight-pound brisket. If you make it? You’re going to have leftovers. And then you have to ask yourself: “What should I do with those leftovers?” That’s why I’m offering you this follow-up post, a quick recipe for leftover brisket ragu.

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Don’t Risk It, Make a Brisket (A Recipe)

No matter what holiday you celebrate this holiday season, there’s going to be a dinner and since you’re reading a food blog right now, there’s a good chance people are going to expect YOU to make it. Your options will be fairly limited–people have certain expectations when it comes to holiday dinners–and in the canon of culinary techniques available to you, you’ll most likely choose roasting since that particular verb yields so many classic holiday dishes: roast beef, roast turkey, roast reindeer (see my banner.)

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The Ratatouille Sandwich at Prune

In September, I shared with you a picture of the Avocado Sandwich I ate at Prune for lunch (link here.) The response was enthusiastic: “Ohmgosh that looks so beautiful,” wrote Shannon. “Oh, PRETTY!” wrote Hannah. “That sandwich is a work of art!” wrote Kathryn. Again, it was a very enthusiastic response.

Last week I took Molly Orangette to Prune for lunch (I felt it was a very Orangette-like selection) and the avocado sandwich had been replaced with a ratatouille sandwich. When it arrived I snapped the picture you see above; and when I took a bite, I knew I had to do a post about it.

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The Question of Char

Craig’s sister Kristin, a food-enthusiast, came to visit last week and sampled her way through some of New York’s most celebrated pizza (well, its most celebrated pizza within or around Bleecker Street.) And so she sampled Joe’s on 6th Ave. and Bleecker Street Pizza on 7th Ave. (her favorite) and, on Tuesday night, she joined Craig and me for pizza at John’s, our regular go-to good-old-fashioned coal-oven pizza joint.

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What Food Writers, Critics, Editors, Bloggers & Chefs Want This Holiday Season (A Twitter-Curated Round-Up)

This morning I was going to write my 2010 Gift Guide–I did one last year–but then I thought: “Ya know, my colleagues David and Pim have already done such a good job with theirs, do I really have that much more to add?” Defeated, I turned to Twitter and, scrolling around, I had an idea. What if I polled all the food writers, critics, editors, bloggers and chefs that I follow on there as to what THEY want this holiday season? Wouldn’t that be interesting and more useful than anything I could come up with? So I asked a bunch of food folks, “What food-related gift did you put on your wish list this year?” Check out the responses below.

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