When I was in Rhode Island recently, blueberries were just on the cusp of spilling forth, and I was lucky to be able to find some of the early, inky-colored orbs. Because I grew up in New England, I have a special fondness for blueberries, which are rather scarce in Paris* (when available, they’re sold in small barquettes with a few dozen berries in them),…
I wasn’t always friends with no-knead bread, partially because I like kneading, and find those five minutes out of my day become the least-stressful activity that I know of. Although I worked at a bread bakery one night because I thought it might be interesting to become a bread baker. By the time we finished up, very early the next morning, my aching legs, back,…
The first avocado I ever had was at Scandia restaurant in Los Angeles and I hated it. The slippery little green cubes avoided my fork, until finally, I managed to spear one. Once I did, I swallowed it – reluctantly, then avoided the rest of them on my plate. I’m not sure how I came to eventually love avocados, but the city of Los Angeles is…
Decades ago, there was a fresh crumpet shop in San Francisco. I don’t remember the name of the shop* (in searching for it, I came across Crown & Crumpet, which opened a few years back), but it was out in the avenues and each half-dozen package of crumpets had a paper label tucked inside with the name of the shop on it. Once you collected enough labels…
There are many types of kofta, and spellings, including (but not limited to), kofta, kafta, and kufta, cooked in various countries and regions around the world. An unverified report on Wikipedia stated that in Turkey alone, there are 291 different kinds of kefta, or kofta. I don’t know how many kinds or varieties are available in the United States, but I know that if something comes…
The other day, I watched nuclear warheads being rolled into place. I was in New York and saw the news on a television at the gym, as people did their reps and stomped away on the treadmills around me. I looked around and realized that I was the only one watching, standing transfixed in front of the television, with my mouth slightly agape, because it’s something…
During a recent trip to Iceland, I visited a number of bakeries which make what are considered to be in the Danish tradition. They’re yeasted, but get their flaky layers by either being rolled and folded several times, or made with a brioche-like dough, often with a moist, sweet marzipan filling. I met Uri Scheft, an Israeli baker whose parents emigrated from Denmark, at his bakery…
Over the past few years, there’s been a growing interest in intéressants roots and greens in Paris. It’s not that they don’t, or didn’t, exist in France. It’s just that many either fell out of favor or were oubliés (forgotten). And now, many are returning. At the market, we now get kale, kale sprouts, rainbow chard, and every so often ail des ours (bear’s garlic) will…
For the longest time, we didn’t get kale in Paris. As the crinkly greens with the tough stems zoomed in popularity in the U.S., those of us used to, and craving, the rugged flavor of these branchés (plugged-in, or trendy) bunches, were out of luck. I remember chancing across some curly kale in a natural foods store over in the 5th arrondissement, and sweeping the whole…
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