"Paula's face smiled up at me from the packaging, her familiar gray bob frozen into place, her lips shellacked with frosted pink gloss." [Photographs: Lucy Baker] Last week, in Ed's Brooklyn Star review, Ed deemed chef Joaquin Baca's biscuits "probably the best in newly biscuit-crazed New York." This so-called biscuit craze isn't limited to the Big Apple: all over the country people are harkening back to a time when food was simple, unfussy, and honest. Out with the fusion and small plates, in with the fried chicken and family-style menus. It's no wonder then that the humble biscuit is having a renaissance. Is there a more modest, straightforward food out there? I don't think so. Of course, biscuits are a... More

[Flickr: Barbara L. Hansen] No other vegetable that says "fall" quite like the sweet potato. We all have our favorite recipes, and love debating which aunt's sweet potato casserole is the best. I still follow my Aunt Margaret's recipe, though with the addition and omission of several ingredients. Every time time I make the sugary, marshmallow topped casserole, my dad always says, "It tastes just like Margaret's"—bringing me instant culinary satisfaction. There is something nostalgic about the sweet potato that makes it taste that much better. Some seasonal sweet potato recipes, after the jump.... More

Seems like indie rockers and hipsters are popping up in all sorts of cooking shows lately. New Yorker pop music critic Sasha Frere-Jones unearths a video of Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) making sweet potato rounds for the site Oh Audrey. Amazingly, Marshall does not spend half the video with her back to the camera or freak out and bail.* [Video, after the jump.]... More

Photograph by Me So Hungry At Serious Eats, we have a little repository of links we call "The Link Garden." During the course of the day, when someone, anyone, on the SE staff sees something good to blog about but doesn't have time to do it, they "seed" the Link Garden with it. This musing on sweet potato fries by Houston food writer Robb Walsh was one of the seeds planted yesterday, and I volunteered enthusiastically to "water" it. You see, I hate sweet-potato fries. "What? You hate sweet potatoes?" Erin asked in follow-up when my comment appeared in the Link Garden. "No, I like sweet potatoes—and will likely be eating them on the 27th. I hate sweet-potato fries."... More

Sweet potatoes are the common red-brownish skinned root vegetables with sweet orange flesh and semi-smooth skin; there is also a variety with yellow flesh, with a taste resembling a mix of potato and apple. More

About five miles from "downtown" Savannah, Sweet Potatoes is an unpretentious gas station neighbor with "endearing food," as the restaurant likes to call it. They serve Southern fare with an eclectic, sometimes fruity Caribbean twist, and in honor of the namesake, a different sweet potato dish each day. As someone who loves the sweet orange spud, I was already giddy in the parking lot. More

I've had some great moments at Cafe du Monde, the legendary beignet stand in New Orleans. That said, most of those moments are rooted in nostalgia for the Big Easy, rather than for the stand's doughnuts and coffee. Occasionally you'll score some beignets fresh out of the deep fryer, where the confectioners' sugar melts into a gooey glaze, but sometimes they're just lukewarm and flat. Likewise the much-lauded chicory coffee, which is brewed in big commercial urns, tends to run bitter. That being said, last week while dining at Powerhouse (215 N. Clinton St.), one of Chicago's newest restaurants, I found a set of doughnuts that I wish Cafe du Monde served. Tater tot–size fluffy sweet potato dough nuggets glazed... More