Author: Stephanie March
-
Bivalves and Apple Ale
mussels don’t grow on trees y’know, they grow on ropes… Since the weather won’t cooperate, I’ll have to satisfy my vernal cravings in the kitchen. I know I’ve been on a seafood kick lately, mainly due to over-potroasting and maxi-meatloafing during the colder months, but I’m not done yet … Mussels. Glorious little Prince Edward…
-
Free Hot Doug!
The Chicago City Council isn’t mucking around, people. Doug Sohn (the sausage King of Chicago?) is the first to feel their wrath. The man behind Hot Doug’s … The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium … has been fined for selling hot dogs laced with foie gras. The fine for taking a stand against The…
-
The Worm and I
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I am craving tequila lately. More specifically, I’m craving margaritas. I was in San Diego last week, at this thumping roof-top bar, and I swear I could have put down 10 or more without a problem. It’s an on-the-rocks situation, with loads of salt on the rim.…
-
Chocolate Cake
I just have to talk about chocolate cake for a moment. I love it, I think about it, I seek it. Sadly, there are many unfortunate chocolate cake stories out there. Slices that look so promising on a menu can be too rich, too cloying, to flourless. Density, moistness, simplicity, chocolate-ocity, these are all important…
-
Pleasure Sap
When I was a little girl with prairie-skirted ambitions to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, I once licked a tree. The darkening, wet stain on the bark of my backyard maple was too interesting to pass up. I knew that the sap wasn’t syrup, but I expected some sort of sensory recognition, some hint of taste…
-
New World vs. Old World
Have you read the “manifesto”? Last December, some of the most influential men in food wrote what they called “an international agenda for great cooking”. The Fab Four were Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck, Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se, and food scientist/author Harold McGee. The…