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vvvanessa

brooklyn-based blogger, baker, bartender, cartwheeler (so much for alliteration).

  • Website
  • Location: brooklyn, new york, usa
  • Favorite foods: honey crisp apples, fried chicken, guanciale, buticha, pickled things, quality gelato, cake cake cake!
  • Last bite on earth: a big one.

Ask a Bartender: What's The Most Ridiculous Drink Order You've Ever Gotten?

"The Floating Green Douchebag"! Awesome!

I once had a woman ask me to make her cocktail with Sweet'n Low (during a mad-crazy rush, of course). My easy out was "We don't have Sweet'n Low," but then she whipped out two packets from her purse. I was too busy to fight her, so cringing, I made the cocktail. She loved it.

What To Eat At Clear Flour Bread, Brookline, MA

It's not as sexy, but their pecan-cocoa nib granola is amazing. It was the granola that brought me back to granola after a shying away from it for a long time.

Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups from 'Classic Snacks Made from Scratch'

Every summer I look forward to making peach and plum fruit leather, and this year I will definitely try strawberry, too. I really need a dehydrator!

Fuchsia Dunlop's Cold Chicken with a Spicy Sichuanese Sauce (Liang Ban Ji)

I am making this ASAP.

Happy Pancake Tuesday! 10 Recipes To Celebrate

One of the very best recipes I've ever gotten from Serious Eats is for the Whole Grain Pancakes by Elizabeth Barbone. I make them frequently and often keep a stack in the fridge to heat up for a quick snack. They are great!

Staff Picks: What's Your Achilles Heel in the Kitchen?

Yeasted breads. Yeast hates me and reminds me of this every time I try to bake with it.

Snapshots from Spain: The Best Things I Ate in San Sebastian

I just got back from my first trip there, and in addition to all the great pintxos, we had fantastic gelato at Oiartzun in the Parte Vieja (despite the gruff service). And we were really delighted by the meal we had at our hotel, the Astoria 7, which is a little further away from all the prettiness of the shore and old town, but there was an amazing roasted vegetable salad that was one of the highlights of our trip to Spain, and the meaty main courses were really solid, too.

College Tours: Where to Eat Near U.C. Berkeley

There is so much delicious Ethiopian food in the area, and it's plentiful, hearty, and cheap. My favorites are Cafe Colucci, Finfine, and Addis (all on Telegraph).

Berkeley Bowl might indeed be the Mecca of produce, but the farmers' markets around here can't be beat. The South Berkeley Tuesday market just moved to a new location just outside Sweet Adeline, whose pastries are wonderful (praline cookie!). The Oakland markets are great, too (in particular Friday Old Oakland, Saturday Grand Lake, and Sunday Temescal).

I've always thought Zachary's was a little overrated, so now that Little Star has opened down the street from the Solano location, that's my favored place for deep-dish pizza.

Some of the best Mexican around is at Tacubaya on Fourth Street. It's a little spendy (compared to giant, cheap burritos), but for un-Californiafied Mexican, it's the place to go.

Cookie Monster: 5 Great Cookies For Making Ice Cream Sandwiches

The first and only time I've made ice cream sandwiches was cinnamon cookies with espresso ice cream. I am all over that maple-pumpkin combo when October hits.

Cook the Book: 'Susan Feniger's Street Food'

fried chicken and sticky rice in bangkok.

Market Tours: Bangkok Center Grocery

The service is really friendly here. I love getting a roasted barley iced tea from the fridge and drinking it next door along with my five-dumplings-for-a-dollar.

Dinner Tonight: Yum Dogs (via Food52)

Thank you for the shout-out!

The 8 Best Pizzas in the Pacific Northwest

The wild mushroom pie I had at Oven & Shaker in Portland recently was one of the best pizzas I'd eaten in a long time.

Prefered brand of yogurt?

My current favorite is Capretta by the Sierra Nevada Cheese Company. I don't know how widely available it is, but here in the San Francisco Bay Area, it's pretty easy to find. It's made from goat's milk and has an amazingly smooth, creamy texture. Vanilla is my favorite.

First meal of 2012

crêpes. toppings included various homemade jams, apple butter, sugar and lemon, and cheese. it's a new year's day tradition for me.

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Korin Knife

my forschner chef's knife or my shun paring knife. it's a really close call.

Share Your Sweets: A Look Back at Thanksgiving

i'm digging on that purple yam pie. so clever!

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: The Sriracha Lover's Ultimate Gift Pack

sriracha and mayo on a meatloaf sandwich. wahoo!

Cook the Book: 'The Food52 Cookbook'

marinated eggplant

A Sandwich a Day: Banana Nutella from Olympic Provisions in Portland, OR

i just ate this the other day at the westside location (along with the porchetta sandwich and braised greens with hazelnuts sandwich). it was perfect dessert after a perfect lunch.

My latest food obsession...

equal parts miso paste and mayonnaise with a splash of rice wine vinegar mixed together and used as a salad dressing.

Wedding Food HELP!

is there a cake?

if there is, might that influence whether or not you serve a sweet starter?

i wouldn't overdo the pre-breakfast part and would aim to keep it on the light side. it sounds like the main courses are quite hearty, and though people will appreciate the snacks, i would think that especially at breakfast it would be easy to fill up before the sit-down part.

i agree that a two-handed hors d'oeuvre is inconvenient for guests, but if you really like the parfait idea, maybe you can somehow make a small granola cup (like an indented granola bar) and fill it with yogurt, making it a one- or two-bite starter.

some seasonal fruit ideas:

pear or apple mini-poptarts
pear or apple slices with chèvre and a tiny sprig of thyme
cranberry cream cheese on crackers or flatbread
quince compote on slice of medium-firm or firm cheese
maple-sweetened persimmon cake/bread

tiny blini and potato pancakes seem like they could be a palette for a bunch of great fall toppings.

congrats, and yes, make sure someone makes sure you eat : )


Gluten-Free Tuesday: Easy Pizza Crust

it was a really good call on your part to doctor the mix, which i wouldn't have ever thought of. i've made it a few times now with really great results, learning through trial and error not to stretch the dough too thin to get a satisfying chewiness. thank you for writing this up!

Where To Eat Near the Museum of Natural History

gennaro for old-school italian (i love the massive antipasti platter) and good enough to eat for biscuits and strawberry butter (and a bacon waffle).

SE Staff Picks: Our Favorite Food Souvenirs to 'Smuggle' Home

on my last several trips to spain and italy, i've made myself meat and cheese sandwiches to eat on the plane. more than once, i didn't finish the sandwich and forgot i even had it, walking straight through customs on the way home without incident, even when i was standing on line right next to the contraband-sniffing beagles.

once on my way back from thailand, during the height of mad cow disease hysteria, i had packages of instant rice porridge confiscated because they contained dried pork. a bummer, but at least they were cheap.

when i go to spain, my favorite thing to bring back is dried, ground laurel leaves, which i have yet to find here in the states. coming back from france, i love supermarket chocolate bars. they're cheap and totally not fancy, but they're really good, so i like to stock up.

Culinary Rule Breaking

I'm interested in hearing what culinary no-nos we like to indulge in. I'm not talking about a secret love of Doritos or Twinkies or Lucky Charms; every gastronome has her weaknesses, after all.

I mean taking some of the most basic rules of food and how it's "supposed" to be prepared and breaking them.

For instance, I love cold --not room temperature-- tomatoes, even heirlooms at the height of the season. I store them in the fridge. And I love them that way even though I would probably be laughed out of the kitchen at work for admitting it.

A good friend of mine doesn't like al dente pasta and actually prefers it a little mushy. Whoa!

Another likes parmesan on seafood pasta. Horrors!

Something along the lines of liking well-done steak. Egads!

Any others out there?

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