Cape Cod's Dark Russets are some of my favorite chips that exist in the world of chips—anyone else? So I am always curious to see what Cape Cod is up to. They just came out with some new flavors that are pretty darn good. More
Last week, Ben and I had an animated debate on whether or not soup dumplings (xiao long bao) can travel in a to-go box and still taste delicious. "You can't do it," he said. "You will regret it." Ben was laying down the soup dumpling gauntlet, and I was up to the challenge. I went off to find out. More
A patty melt is a worthy—dare I say elegant—form of burger. Here's why I love patty melts. More
[Photograph: Proyecto Paladar] It's not often that art exhibits have really great food, but this looks like an exception. Proyecto Paladar is an international traveling art installation based on cultural exchange. The exhibit—part installation, part performance art—begins in May,... More
[Photograph: Robyn Lee] I'm a huge cinnamon bun fan, but I must admit I'm disappointed by them more often than not. That's because there are so many ways for a cinnamon bun to go wrong: dry dough, too much... More
Like food as much as you like music? Then keep reading. We're very excited to share with you that we've teamed up with the Sweetlife Food and Music Festival happening on Saturday, April 28, at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, to bring you some of the best eats you'll find at a music festival. The Sweetlife folks had already done some of the spade work, but we managed to fill out the dance card with some of our favorite purveyors. More
Serious Eats is bustin' out all over. In the last year we've added Sweets, Drinks, and Chicago to our family of blogs. And as good as Carey, Erin, Kenji, Maggie, Robyn, Nick, and Meredith are, even they cry uncle once in awhile. So we've added a couple of amazing full-time Serious Eaters to the crew, and we wanted to officially welcome them. Don't worry. They're hardly strangers to our wonderful community, as you're about to find out. But rather than introduce them, I'll let them introduce themselves. More
There's no shortage of worthy food-related projects waiting to be funded on Kickstarter, but I'd like to give a shout-out to the good folks at Foster Harris House in Washington Virginia, just down the road from the Inn at Little Washington. Chef-owner John MacPherson is a really good cook who's committed to sustainable agriculture in an inclusive way. He's trying to raise money for a PBS food show, In Season. Read more about the Kickstarter project here. More
So my friend and former editor Pete Wells has committed what some would call burger blasphemy: He has dared to criticize certain items on the Shake Shake menu, including the until-now-sanctified burger, in his latest New York Times restaurant review. More
Fun is usually not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of tasting menus. Expensive? For sure. Exciting? I hope so. Tasty? Better be. Show-offy? Often. So when I went to Torrisi Italian Specialties for Rich Torrisi's freshly designed $125 twenty-course tasting menu, I couldn't help but wonder: could the chef's characteristic sense of humor make such a marathon meal a fun experience? More
This year we have a true Super Bowl of food and football. New England vs. New York. These regions have intense rivalries involving sports teams, quality of life, and, yes, food. Let's break down this Super Bowl of Food into the following categories: pizza, burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, ice cream, breakfast, bakeries, and soup. Check out how each team plays. More
The NFC championship game is on Sunday and features teams from two of America's best food cities, San Francisco and New York. As a New Yorker and a serious Giants fan, I am going to try to overcome my intense, enormous bias towards my hometown food and team. 49ers fans should take some solace in the fact that we have some Bay Area natives at SEHQ to keep me in line. Let's score the game by quarters, each with a different category: burgers, sandwiches, pizza, and frozen desserts. More
Who knew that the Roberta's folks—justifiably renowned for their pizza, their way with pork, and the tasting menus that are so popular there are currently 400 people on its wait list—served a killer burger that would render me speechless? More
No matter how much you eat around New York City, no matter for how many decades, there is always more to discover. Sometimes it's new spots, sometimes older ones, sometimes from restaurants you expect to be excellent but still manage to blow you away. Here are 10 edible discoveries I made in New York this year. What are yours? More
If you're going to be near Rockefeller Center for the holidays, here are three burger recommendations to check out. More
Five years ago, we launched Serious Eats hoping that serious eaters—people passionate about food—would gravitate to a site that made them feel welcome. A site where they could chew the fat with like-minded folks, about anything going on in the food culture. We wanted to share it first and foremost with you, our community. You're the reason we get to do what we love every day, and we really appreciate that. So, Happy Birthday to us—and Happy Birthday to all of you. More
The website Gilt Taste is not only the current home of some of my favorite food writers working; they've put together an online shop of some of the best foodstuffs out there. So we're thrilled to partner with them this holiday season for the Gilt Taste-Serious Eats Holiday Gift Shop. More
While the Serious Eats crew has been tirelessly toiling to bring you all the delicious, entertaining, and newsworthy Thanksgiving morsels we could come up with (it's actually been way more fun than toil, case in point: our all-pie Thanksgiving), we wanted to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy Thanksgiving. May your Turkey Day be filled with lots of seriously delicious food, good wine, as many pies as possible, and the sounds of friends and family enjoying each others' company. More
Eater confirms the news: Pete Wells, current New York Times dining section editor, will be the new Times restaurant critic. Pete is a fine writer and a great editor and a longtime friend; I have every bit of confidence that he'll be a great man for the job. More
When you think about Thanksgiving and you think about various elements of the Thanksgiving meal, it seems like you're just waiting through the big meal to get to the pie. I really believe this, which is why I always fantasized about an all-pie Thanksgiving. (Anyone with me on this?) At an editorial meeting about a month ago, we were at the office talking about Thanksgiving coverage and I shared this fantasy with the team. Knowing how much I adore and obsess over pie, the Serious Eats editors weren't too shocked, so we did the only thing we know how to do: make it happen. More
I've spent more than forty years looking for the best eats in Chicago, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that our first city site (besides our hometown of New York) is the food-blessed Windy City. More
Wow, was I blown away when I opened my New York Times this morning and read Florence Fabricant's piece on the Serious Eats book. How gratifying is that? Well, it's somehow fitting that the reporter who first wrote about me and told the world about New York Eats nearly twenty years ago would write something so lovely about the Serious Eats book. Many thanks. We are indeed humbled by her kind words, and those from the Boston Globe and Publisher's Weekly. More
With the opening of the staggeringly good Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho, one thing is perfectly clear: the best training a pastry chef can have in New York City is to work for Daniel Boulud. More
Chicago is no stranger to Serious Eats; just in the last few months we've talked about the city's best French fries, its best cannoli and doughnuts, coffee bars and bourbon drinks, events like Chicago Gourmet, and so much more. But it's high time that one of America's great food cities had its own home on Serious Eats. So we're thrilled to announce that Serious Eats: Chicago will launch on Monday, November 14—headed up by longtime SE'r and former Grub Street Chicago editor Nick Kindelsperger. More
We are happy to see all the positive reviews coming in. The latest one this week came from the good folks at Library Journal, an important book trade publication. They called it "a food lover's travel guide not to be missed.. a wonderful guide to eateries throughout the country. Definitely one to consult before your next trip." Thank you, Library Journal. We couldn't agree more! More
Yes, I did. I thought it was really, really good, more bread than pizza-like, but insanely tasty and carefully made.
Hey everybody, it's me, the Serious Eats overlord. I know that people feel very strongly about their burger preferences from both a taste and an emotional perspective. As some of the commenters have noted, our taste in burgers resonates deep within our respective souls. We try to set objective standards when we write about burgers on Serious Eats and AHT, just as Pete Wells did, but in the end folks' burger taste is totally subjective. So if we could refrain from the kind of back and forth on this post (and any others on Serious Eats for that matter) that does not adhere to the passionate, discerning, and inclusive mantra of our sites, we would greatly appreciate it.
@Matthew78, yes, when I asked Rich the very same question you are posing he said that Mario and he had decided that he (Rich) was going to focus on the new tasting menu while Mario was going to tend to the getting the new Parm up and running. As I wrote in the post, Rich said Mario also contributed general direction and inspiration to the tasting menu effort. Also, here's Wikipedia's definition of "crazy water," or acqua pazza, as it was originally called in Italian: "The term acqua pazza (lit. crazy water in Italian) is used in Italian cuisine to refer to a recipe for poached white fish, or to simply refer to the lightly herbed broth used to poach it."
Yes, they have waiter service, but I've never eaten my pork there.
Technically speaking, it probably shouldn't be called an affogato, which I believe is just a shot of espresso poured over ice cream. But my feeling is when something tastes this good, the people who make it can call it anything they want.
No worries, all tote bags and book plates promised will be delivered in due time.
thehollers, just send us your proof of purchase (Amazon and other on-line sales outlets are available to you and just about everybody, I assume), and your wishes are our command.
what about niche? It sounds promising. What is the noise level there?
@dmcavanagh. I'm here. I've just been enjoying the high level of pizza discourse. There is so much here to be savored, just like when we have a great pizza-eating experience.
A few not-so-random comments: I really like the popeye pizza at co. as well, but the pizza there are so inconsistent in general that I didn't put it on my list.
I like Keste as well, and I kept mentioning it in the intra-office discussions.
I think Sal and Carmine's is a place that you either love or you don't. I love it and have for a long time. l had a slice there last weekend that was so good it brought tears to my eyes.
I like the slices at the uptown Patsy's. It is the only coal-fired brick oven slice in NYC that I know of. The whole pies from the pizzeria next door are maddeningly inconsistent. Once again, it's that whole owner-occupied pizzeria thing.
I too have enjoyed the pizza at Donatella.
I also really like Nick's in Forest Hills, though I havent been there in a long time. Ditto for the Nick's on the Upper East Side.
I am also a huge Nunzio's in Staten Island fan. Again I haven't been in years.
If any of you pizza lovers are coming to the Sandwich Fest, we can continue this discussion there. We're also going to be selling signed copies of my pizza book at the fest. Come on down.
@scrapcatb The consensus seems to be 12-15 minutes. Hope this helps.
bigger than a bite and smaller than the full monty. You will get plenty of food, I promise.
We're working on another vegetarian option or two. Stay tuned, charm city cupcake
@simon please don't make nasty, personal comments about me or anyone else on Serious Eats. They're not in the spirit of the site or the close-knit community we have fostered here. I appreciate everyone's support as I think many serious eaters grapple with the same issues that I do. My "half-assed" approach may differ from yours, but it has enabled me to lose 40 pounds.
@meleyna that's great to hear. That's what I call the breakfast of champions. What did you have?
@recneps I am sorry you find these posts disheartening and depressing. They are intended to be optimistic and hopeful. I am down 40 pounds from my peak weight and I still derive a great deal of pleasure from food, so I hope people are heartened by these posts.
It's possible that I was a little overzealous with my praise and accompanying grade. Maybe a B+ was called for. Simon, go and eat some things off the regular menu. The brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and pretzels are mighty delicious, and the flank steak is swell, too. I find Cassellula's food to be good, but I find the experience to be lacking. It's crowded, loud, and uncomfortable. There is nothing relaxing about eating there. I could easily see myself returning to Ardesia because it's just so damn pleasant.
Hey, everybody, perhaps at this point everybody should move on. Sometimes we are going to have to agree to disagree. Cakespy is not going anywhere (I think that what she does is unique and special and especially inventive), but I hope and trust all of you can and will find plenty of recipes without "extreme" shortcuts elsewhere on Serious Eats.
SE Overlord here. As the founder of the site I feel compelled to step in. I named the site Serious Eats because pre-Serious Eats I would frequently describe any food I particularly enjoyed as being serious, as "That's a serious slice of pizza" or "That's a serious bone-in ribeye." The word "serious" in this context connoted joy, satisfaction, and pleasure. It had little to do with the literal meaning of the word serious, as in weighty or significant or important.
That said, I love the range of topics covered on our sites, both in our posts and in the talk topics. They range from important and life-changing to fun and engaging, with plenty in between. Serious Eats is probably the only website to cover the ethics of foie gras, peepshi, and the fake shack burger, and I for one love that aspect of the site and the community. The level of discourse is remarkably high, and that fact alone separates us from many other websites and blogs. Our mantra is passionate, discerning, and inclusive. and I think Cakespy's posts meet those criterion, as I hope just about everything on the site does. We welcome all kinds of food lovers and all kinds of contributors on Serious Eats, and I hope that welcome sign is up for the next hundred years.
@semiotec You can usually get bags of Kossar's Bialys at good food stores. They're the gold standard of readily available bialys. You have to toast them, the only way to get a truly fresh one is to go to the Kossar's Bakery on Grand Street, right next to the Doughnut Plant. Beware of most bialys sold at bagel bakeries. They are usually made with bagel dough that is shaped like a bialy. That is not a bialy.
I just had a W. 57th plain pie delivered to my son's apartment for the Giants-Eagles game (which will never be mentioned again). It was okay, nothing more. Pretty soggy and too much cheese.
oh yes, they still make the pullman loaf and it is indeed awesome
@MerMei, you are so right. It was the Jets game. @Feral Cook, the Golden Unicorn. Pretty good, solid, but not great.
@blackwdw It should have read rosemary flecked. I made the change.
Ed Levine hasn't favorited a post yet.
go to the ferry plaza building, where the Slanted Door is. There are many, many serious delicious purveyors in there: Boccalone, Cowgirl Creamery, Boulette's Larder (amazing if expensive breakfast), Acme Bread, Blue Bottle Coffee, Frog Hollow Farms stone fruit. on saturday and wednesdays mornings, I believe, there is the amazing outdoor farmer's market there, one of the great farmer's markets in the country in terms of quality. Again, it is expensive, but each piece of fruit is worth every penny. There are also lots of great food purveyors in the farmer's market: blts and bacon and egg sandwiches on baguette at the hayes street grill stand, amazing smoked fish sandwiches, Also have pizza at Una Pizza Napoletana if you don't mind waiting., breakfast and bread at Tartine are both incredible, you must have ice cream at either Bi-Rite Creamery or Humphrey-Slocombe. This ought to get you through the week.