So Many Recipes, So Little Time
This is a compilation of my mussels experience and a result of my constant craving for Southeast Asian flavors, plus a result of the complaint that we don’t eat enough mussels. Why do I always feel they cannot make a proper satisfying dinner? Is it because they are so small? But we always end up…
Linguine al Tonno alla Romana based on the recipe from Roma in Cucina: The Flavours of Rome by Carla Magrelli. Pasta with anchovies, tuna, olives, and capers. No garlic, no cheese, no hot peppers? And Tom doesn’t like raw tomatoes. Hmm… Trying it anyway to see what all the excitement is about. Talk about taking…
When in doubt what to do with a pound of Raclette stuck in the refrigerator because your party plans fell through, there’s a tartiflette to the rescue. And you don’t have to be skiing in the Alps, and it doesn’t have to be Reblochon. Creamy, salty, nutty and slightly picante Raclette pairs equally well with…
Exploring my new Christmas gift — 1956 Rangoon International Cook Book compiled by the Woman’s Society of Christian Service of the Methodist English Church in Rangoon, Burma. The book is definitely of an old style — no pictures and the recipes are brief. For example, Mohinga, the national Burmese dish that calls for sixteen ingredients…
The house south of us has always been a home to great cooks. First owner taught cooking classes and had quite a collection of cookbooks. During the moving purge, many of these cookbooks ended on the curb. Back then, in the previous century, I did not have too many of my own and was picking…
The moment you sit down at the table at Yemen Cafe, even before you order, you get a bowl of Marag, a hot lamb soup, a platter of Malawah, a crusty flatbread, and a bowl of Zahawiq, spicy tomato chutney with chilies and herbs. The servers don’t rush and give you time to look over…
— Did you tell her she can eat!?!? It was a little after 8 AM on a sunny April Sunday of 2009. I was upstairs in the bathroom getting ready. Downstairs, Tom caught our nine-year-old Lizzie sneaking cereal in the pantry. No, I didn’t tell her that. We were heading to Queens for my birthday…
From the mostly autobiographical novel “This is Me — Edichka” by Eduard Limonov which protagonist is a Russian immigrant abandoned by his wife living on welfare in New York (translation is mine — forgive me, Edichka): “If, between 1 and 3 pm, you happen to be walking along Madison Avenue where it’s cut by 55th…
Why is this building on Petrovsky Boulevard in Moscow so important to us? Here, in the 1800s, when it was the famous restaurant “Hermitage,” a Russian chef of Belgian and French descent, Lucien Olivier concocted his famous salad. Butchered and bastardized, the salad has become a centerpiece of every Soviet holiday table and is now…
In early AM, buses from my street shoot express via a highway to their next stop, a terminal block away from the Times Square. Off peak, those buses change routes and, on their way to the city, they take you all over Northern New Jersey. What takes minutes in the morning can take hours in…