Every week, New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni comes up with a sentence (or two) or a phrase in his review that's so delicious it deserves a Serious Eats shout-out. Today's review of E.U. featured the following: "At some point I began to brace for a hailstorm, and to wonder if the locusts would sweep in after that. The E.U. was plagued, on a scale that was almost biblical."... More
New York Times food critic Frank Bruni gives the Four Seasons two stars in today's paper. The money line from Chairman Frank: "I order the ($55) pheasant, primed for poultry royalty. What I get is a commoner, dry and no more distinguished than anything from the Court of Tyson or the House of Perdue." Although I haven't been to the Four Seasons in the last year, I have never had what I would regard as a good meal there, much less a great one. Considering the prices and the tradition the restaurant embodies, that is a travesty. I thought Bruni's two stars was overly generous based on my experiences (and after reading his review).... More
In today's New York Times, Peter Meehan says The Big Apple May Never Be Known as the Big Sparerib, but It’s Smokin’: "New York’s barbecue scene may be missing a lot of things — like dirt roads and screen doors and decades of deep-seated tradition — but love for barbecue in the city is strong. And in the past couple of years the product has caught up to the passion. Restaurants that hobbled out of the gate have hit their strides. The best pits in and around the city have gotten better." Whether you live in the city, are planning to visit or just love barbecue, it's worth reading for Meehan's descriptions of what to eat at the nine... More
The New York Times food section today was particularly toothsome and yummy, and it got me thinking ... More
NYT explores the (pretty serious) charge....and to a lesser extent, the larger problem at hand. The twelve-foot cockroach is a bit harsh, non?... More
We love chefs who write (Tony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman). We love restaurateurs who write (Danny Meyer). We love farmers who write (Wendell Berry, Verlyn Klinkenborg, Andy Griffin, David Mas Masumoto, and our favorite Arkansas homeboy/Slavok Zizek devotee, Ragan Sutterfield). But we LOVE writers who happen to be all three rolled into one, and cute to boot. Dan Barber's latest in the NY Times: Amber Fields of Bland.... More
I love the year-end roundups in the food magazines and the food sections of the major daily newspapers. The batch from 2006 was particularly entertaining, informative, and mouthwatering. More
A few weeks ago in the New York Times Arts and Leisure section there was a great piece by Susan Dominus on the Starbucks aesthetic embodied in the CDs and DVDs it sells. That aesthetic, according to both Starbucks executives and customers quoted in the story, is built around the notions of community, inspiration, discovery, and, of course, quality. I'm not ashamed to admit that I buy into this aesthetic. I think the CDs on sale at Starbucks are usually good and interestingly chosen. And I am a music freak. In fact, I wrote about music for ten years before I started writing about food, and I have 2,000 CDs in my collection. But can you apply these aesthetic... More
Sunday Nov. 19th is the last day to enter the Thanksgiving pie contest. To win two superb pies of your choice just tell me in 100 words or less what your all pie Thanksgiving menu would consist of and why. On Monday I will announce the winner and figure out the logistics of delivering the pies. The other pie winners (for correctly identifying the two pie quotes) will also be notified then. Remember, both New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers can enter the contest. New Yorkers will receive two pies from either Two Little Red Hens or Yura & Company. Serious pie lovers in other cities will receive pies from either their favorite local pie baker or from Grand Traverse... More
Food Glossies Trumped by a "T" I'm a compulsive reader of the food glossies: Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and Saveur. Aren't you? Each has its virtues, though I can't say that any one of them really speaks to me. I like Gourmet's food politics stories and some of its writers (Jane and Michael Stern, John T. Edge, Calvin Trillin), but I don't share Ruth Reichl's enthusiasm for hiring as many novelists as she can to write stories for her. I used to look forward to reading Pete Wells' column in Food & Wine, but now that he's gone I'm sure I'm going to find Food & Wine's penchant for celebritizing everything (It's the In Style of food magazines)... More
