Adam Roberts’s Profile

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From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Congrats Ed & Serious Eats team! It's amazing to think about how much this site has grown over the past two years. I'm proud to have been a part of it.

From Talk

Anyone watching the Batali/Paltrow show on PBS?

This comment made me laugh:

"It's like watching Mario and Bittman's televised mid-life crisis."

Thank you, Lisa23.

From Serious Eats

Amateur Gourmet Adam Roberts Revealed as Semi-Pro in New Book

Hi Dominic,
Thanks for snagging the book! Before I was The Amateur Gourmet I would eat frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas by the caseload; I'd make those Pilsbury cinnamon buns for a treat; I made a decent chili. But mostly I'd eat out, order in, very rarely cook at home. Amazing how much has changed in just a few years...
Adam

From Serious Eats

The Serious Eats Fried Clam Honor Roll

Ed, it just so happens that I had Brooklyn Fish Camp's fried clams just a few days ago. I found them perplexing. They were whole steamer clams with the little bootie still on, the whole thing fried so it looked a bit like a giant sperm. They paled in comparison to the fried clams I had at The Clam Shack (I must've gone there on a better day than David Leite). I much prefer Brooklyn Fish Camp's Oyster Po' Boy and Trout BLT.

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Recent Posts

From Serious Eats

David Kamp: The Serious Eats Interview, Part 2

From Serious Eats

David Kamp: The Serious Eats Interview

From Talk

Truffle Butter Chicken?

From Talk

How do you grill when you don't have a grill?

See more posts by Adam Roberts »

Recent Favorites

From Serious Eats

Susan Boyled Potatoes

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Recent Comments | Response to Comments

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Congrats Ed & Serious Eats team! It's amazing to think about how much this site has grown over the past two years. I'm proud to have been a part of it.

From Talk

Anyone watching the Batali/Paltrow show on PBS?

This comment made me laugh:

"It's like watching Mario and Bittman's televised mid-life crisis."

Thank you, Lisa23.

From Serious Eats

Amateur Gourmet Adam Roberts Revealed as Semi-Pro in New Book

Hi Dominic,
Thanks for snagging the book! Before I was The Amateur Gourmet I would eat frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas by the caseload; I'd make those Pilsbury cinnamon buns for a treat; I made a decent chili. But mostly I'd eat out, order in, very rarely cook at home. Amazing how much has changed in just a few years...
Adam

From Serious Eats

The Serious Eats Fried Clam Honor Roll

Ed, it just so happens that I had Brooklyn Fish Camp's fried clams just a few days ago. I found them perplexing. They were whole steamer clams with the little bootie still on, the whole thing fried so it looked a bit like a giant sperm. They paled in comparison to the fried clams I had at The Clam Shack (I must've gone there on a better day than David Leite). I much prefer Brooklyn Fish Camp's Oyster Po' Boy and Trout BLT.

From Serious Eats: New York

Thai Restaurant Hunting This Weekend

Wondee Siam II has a terrific duck salad. It's almost like duck bacon mixed in with chiles and pineapple and cilantro and all sorts of goodies. I highly recommend it.

From Serious Eats

Tap that Glass

This is the best post title ever.

From Talk

Venice restaurant recommendations

Trattoria Alla Madonna. That's the first place we went to when we got to Venice and it was fantastic and totally memorable. Really fresh seafood--I still remember the seafood risotto I had--and not touristy at all. Also, don't miss the Peggy Guggenheim museum when you're there. It's off the beaten track, but really cool. Another tip is to go to Mario Batali's site and check out his Italy picks--I'm sure he has a section on Venice.

From Talk

"Sopranos" Finale Party?

I may try Mario Batali's lasagna with the homemade pasta dough. Could be too ambitious though--but the occasion is probably worth it!

From Serious Eats

Cooking With Liberace!

Ok, I'm sorry but somebody has to make a joke about Liberace and sticky buns.

Thank you.

From Talk

What Happened to the AG?

Lou, I actually agree with your feedback on that post---I'm here in San Fran and trying to blog as much as I can about my trip, while at the same time not wanting to spend too much time on the net when I could be out doing things. So I write posts like that almost like an e-mail--I re-read them once and click post without too much fussing over it. It's just a choice I make and for the most part my readers don't seem to mind.

The work I do for Serious Eats, on the other hand, I do spend lots of time on. And my book, you'll be surprised to see when it comes out, has gone through almost a year of editing---I've been revising, reworking, reshaping, rethinking each chapter so much that you may not even recognize the work as my own. That's because it's just a different medium.

It's funny, Livetotravel started this thread and then slammed me in the video section and slammed me elsewhere too, and then I clicked on my site because "Livetotravel" sounded familiar, and after doing a search I see Livetotravel's left 121 comments on my blog over the course of more than a year. Quite a lot for someone who hates me and my writing.

From Talk

What Happened to the AG?

Well hello---I'm surprised to read some of the comments in this thread. There's been no break-up between myself and Serious Eats: I'm currently working on re-designing my site and temporarily took down the Serious Eats widget while trying to figure out how to clean things up. With the new Serious Eats format (with more focus put on blog updates) I'll now be writing one column a month; but, as someone pointed out above, this week will bring a new contribution from me---I'll let you be surprised.

As for my writing, I've studied writing from my first year of college, when I declared a Creative Writing major, to the two years of writing grad school I did at NYU where I did a masters thesis with Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman. There are lots of ways to evaluate writing: you can look at grammar, you can look at sentence structure, you can look at the nuts and bolts and ignore the larger edifice. I consider myself a stylist more than anything else: I like to tell stories in an idiosyncratic way. Those who like my writing (and that group includes Michael Ruhlman, Ed Levine, Regina Schrambling--all of whom are blurbing my book) admire it because there's lots of life to it. That's what I do. And, if I may say so, many of the blogs that I find dull and off-putting are blogs with no life to them. You can grammar check and spell check all you want, but if your writing is dull, no one care's how much Strunk and White you've digested.

Graham--I'm surprised that you said what you said in a public forum where I'd be likely to read it. That's nice that your editor friend thinks my writing's a "train wreck," I'll keep my thoughts about your writing to myself.

From Serious Eats

Bathroom Fixtures and Fairy Cakes

Hello readers, thanks for the praise! A certified playwright is someone, like me, who spent two years in grad school studying playwriting. I think the reference, though, is a bit oblique so my bio will be clearer next week!
ALl the best, Adam

From Talk

What to put on which kind of bagel?

Are you people MAD? The answer is onion bagel--lightly toasted--nova spread, onion and tomato. Duh!

From Talk

So I hear raves about Prune's brunch-what's best on the menu?

Prune's giant pear pancake is the best I've ever had. I highly recommend that.

From Serious Eats

Roadfood: Louis' Lunch

Well I, for one, really enjoyed this video: it was great seeing Jane and Michael Stern live in action and I'm fascinated by the idea that ketchup does a disservice to a quality hamburger. I'll have to check this place out when, in my next life, I ace my SATs and get a scholarship to Yale.

From Talk

Know any interesting non-chain restaurants in Boca Raton?

Hey I'm from Boca Raton! My parents love the steak at New York Prime. I love the chicken pasta at Max's Grille. TooJay's has decent deli food. The bagels at Bagelworks (at least the way I remember them) are among my favorites (get the works with lox spread and whitefish salad.) Otherwise, Boca's a bit of a wasteland. Good luck!

From Serious Eats

Eggs Benedict Arnold

Oops! No, Meg, sad to say that Glo's eggs Benedict does have Canadian bacon. Craig is furious that I forgot to mention that. Editors, please fix this immediately!

From Serious Eats

'I've Never Had a Christmas Ham'

Ya, I think the final blow came in putting it in the oven. When it came out of the apple juice/cranberry juice mixture, after simmering for four hours, it was really tender and sweet and moist. I should've skipped the glazing step because the glaze was more like a paste and the oven was too hot with the potatoes and the duck fat. Next time I'll try an easier ham--if there is a next time!

From Talk

How much do you tip the person who delivers your food?

Hmmm. Well here was the nature of our discussion last night: 20% is what we tip a waiter at a restaurant. This is for the work involved in serving an entire meal--a meal that often takes over an hour to complete. The job of delivering food is always the same: the same bag is carried to your apt regardless of how much you order. If you order $5 worth of food or $100 worth of food, it's the same work involved for the delivery person (give or take the extra weight of the bag.) If you order $10 worth of food, should you only tip $2? Similarly, if you order $100 worth of food, should you really tip $20? I think it's a complicated issue.

From Talk

where to find good cassoulet in manhattan?

On my first date with Craig, my boyfriend, I had cassoulet at Lucien in the East Village. I recommend it highly, but I don't recommend having cassoulet on a first date. All those beans do not romance make.

From Talk

Question of the Day: Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate?

I'm starting to appreciate darker chocolates. Recently I made hot chocolate with 60% bittersweet chocolate and added Grand Marnier because my friends are lushes. I thought it tasted fancy and was impressed with myself. But at the movies I'll happily eat a box of Buncha Crunch (Nestle Crunch Bar bits.)

From Talk

How much do you tip the person who delivers your food?

So... Megnut... you criticize $5 as being "okay" for a $10 order, but not enough for a $25 order. Instead, you suggest always paying 20%.

Little bit of math for you:
$5 on a $10 order = 50% (WAY more than you would give)
$5 on a $25 order = 20% (What you claim you would give, but if it's Greg ordering, this is, by your own account, too little.)

From Serious Eats

The Serious Eats Fried Clam Honor Roll

Mary's is a restaurant which serves Peekytoe Crab Beignets with Key Lime Aioli. I don't think I will be going there, sorry.

As a New Englander living in New York City, I would say (with respect) you've left off the most important fried clam place in the city: the Oyster Bar at Grand Central. They're not great, although I found their fried oysters a bit better, and the fried scallops very good even. I suppose, when in Rome eat what Romans eat, and NYC is about oysters, not steamer clams, alas.

From Talk

Anyone watching the Batali/Paltrow show on PBS?

I am currently watching the show (just for the food and scenery really)....and I have to say "I love and understand all of your comments". Nice to see that others can see through the pretentiousness.

I also remember seeing that episode on Oprah where they cooked the paella..I was so mad. If you are going to try and teach people something at least try and do it right. Argh....makes me mad! Who in their right mind would cook the prawns before the rice. Dios Mio!

That being said Spain sure is amazing. I was a Nanny there when I was in my late teens and it was great. I just wish I appreciated food then like I do now. If anyone wants it, here is a recipe for the tortilla de patata (which I learned to make when I was there) http://rouxbe.com/recipes/77/text - this was my all time favorite thing to eat while I was there....so yummy!

From Talk

How much do you tip the person who delivers your food?

I'm usually a 15-20% tipper--more in the winter here when there is serious lake effect snow going on. But this thread got me thinking about an essay from NPR's series "This I Believe." The essay is "Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude." Here's the link:
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=23&lastname=Adams&firstname=Sarah&yval=0&start=0

From Talk

How much do you tip the person who delivers your food?

I tip $5+. Weather, amount of food, ETA/actual time, and distance determines how much more I'll give on top of that.

Some restaurants here do not pay for their driver's gasoline, so they rely on tips to pay for gas.

The menu prices here are not different for delivery, although some places have a $10 delivery fee that they tack on. I still tip on top of that.

Then again, I tip 10% for take-out that I'm picking up.

From Talk

How much do you tip the person who delivers your food?

I deliver food by bike in NYC. I am paid $5/ hr and am uninsured. I spend over 40 hours a week in the midst of city traffic, enduring bad weather, bike breakdowns and theft, collisions, slow elevators and, oddly, pedestrians who love to leap in front of me when I have the right of way. I am always happy to arrive at your place safely and with your food hot and intact. But too often, I leave feeling like shit because you treated me like I'm not even human. You don't look at me, you make me wait, complain about delays after I rode over in a sleet storm, etc. But worst of all, your bad tips show complete disrespect for the service we provide. When ordering, think about putting on your shoes and coat and schlepping to the shop and back, and consider how much more it's worth to you to stay in. If it's not worth at least 15% of the cost of the meal, put your shoes on. In NYC, $2 and change just doesn't cut it anymore. To be honest, it's humiliating. Shame on you. And yes, we know who you are, and every restaurant has a blacklist, as well as a bunch of known favorites who get preferred service.

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy belated birthday Serious Eats! Thank you for the informative posts.

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

A day late but it can't be helped. Happy birthday! I've been reading via RSS for about a year now and only signed up recently. I thought SE was a lot older, which says a lot about quality of content! I'm looking forward to reading for several more years. :)

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy birthday, Serious Eats! For some reason, I feel like SE is much older... I guess that's a testament to what a presence it's become!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Thank you for giving birth to SE, Ed Levine. I'm honored to be a member of your merry band!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Congratulations! I love the easygoing feel of the site, which puts it miles ahead of other such foodie sites... no snootiness, just "hey, cool, look what I found" - I feel like we're all old friends. Here's to many more!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy birthday Serious Eats! I didn't know you were just one month or so older than Chew on That! :)

Hillary
Chew on That

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

A Great Many Happy Returns SE! May your typing fingers and wit stay nimble and pictures always sharp with the sun at your back for a great many years to come. Thank you for all that you do.

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

You were just what a hungry world needed. Thanks so much. Happy Birthday - and many more!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Yay! HB to Serious Eats! Congrats! Let's keep this going!!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Thanks for all the good wishes and kind words, serious eaters. To celebrate our birthday we had pizza from Pizza Suprema, the first-rate pizzeria in our neighborhood. Instead of a cake we had the incredible ho hos from Bouchon Bakery that Erin wrote about on Serious Eats: New York. Pizza and ho hos, perfectly appropriate food for a 2 year-old's birthday party don't you think?. We wish all of you could have had a slice of pizza and a ho ho with us.

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy Birthday! I spend so much time on the site...reading every last bit of food stuffs and I LOVE IT! Thank you!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy Birthday and many more to come!

I visit this site every day and has become a good repository of food related information, whenever I am looking for an idea or advice, I often search here first.

Thanks

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Yay! Happy birthday! Keep on keeping on! Booyah!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy birthday and congrats! Happy to join in the fun.

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

congrats and may it be many more years of us looking for new foods, restaurants and items to cook we haven't tried before.

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

Happy Birthday!! Thanks for all of the good information, entertainment and ideas!

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday to Us: Serious Eats Is 2

I'm new here, but wish I had stumbled upon this site sooner. I'm hooked.

Congratulations, happy birthday, and 'cent anni!

Recent Posts

From Serious Eats

David Kamp: The Serious Eats Interview, Part 2

From Serious Eats

David Kamp: The Serious Eats Interview

From Talk

Truffle Butter Chicken?

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How do you grill when you don't have a grill?

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Waitering, Part Two

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Fully Stocked

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My First Recipe

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Bagel Love

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Gourmet Genesis

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Why are lattes bad after dinner but cheese and ice cream ok?

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Food at Work

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Coffee Culture

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Eating Pretty

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Meeting Mario

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Does Cooking Make You Gay?

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The Food Bully

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The Power of Food Blogging

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Squirrel Cake

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Eggs Benedict Arnold

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'A Passage to (Southern) India'

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'Cooking Light with Pancetta'

From Serious Eats

Chutzpah, Truffles, and Alain Ducasse

From Serious Eats

'I've Never Had a Christmas Ham'

Recent Favorites

From Serious Eats

Susan Boyled Potatoes

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About Adam Roberts

Website: http://www.amateurgourmet.com

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