Untitled Document I was 14, maybe 15. It was late spring, around this time of year, when the school year was coming to a close. My mother had hired a guy named Larry to paint our very old three-story house, both inside and out. It was a huge job, so Larry was at the house […]
Food & Drink
Posted inFood & Drink
Saving the world, one cupcake at a time
Untitled Document I’d like to give vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz a big high-five for the title of her latest book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Although I admire her spunk and tenacity for giving vegan baked goods a respectable crumb, it’s the “cupcakes taking over the world” part of the title that […]
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Whine time is over, Springfield oenophiles
Untitled Document “Well,” says the guy across the table, breaking into the discussion, “I like Opus One.” My husband and I catch each other’s eyes with the look of complete understanding that people who’ve been married as long as we have develop. We manage to suppress our smiles and look suitably impressed. We are having dinner […]
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Hanging with a bad boy
Untitled Document I have to admit, I was nervous. For me, having a private interview with Anthony Bourdain was the equivalent of a diehard Republican’s going quail hunting with Dick Cheney or a NASCAR fan’s getting some one-on-one time with Dale Earnhardt Jr. For those who’ve never heard of Bourdain, he’s a chef and author who […]
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Strawberries now!
Untitled Document Now is the time for all good men, women, and children to have strawberries. Not in February to woo your valentine (there are plenty of other ways to say “I love you”) and not even in September, when we might still be in the mood for a daiquiri. Now, now, now. Did I say […]
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Strawberry time
Untitled Document As usual, things were pretty low-key at the first regular downtown farmers’ market last week. There was an easy camaraderie as vendors greeted each other and familiar customers. There were lots of plants: flowers, herbs, and a wide selection of tomatoes. Spring produce was displayed in all its glory: young onions, bundles of […]
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Onion dip without mix
Untitled Document As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I defined food in terms of catchy names and brightly colored boxes rather than as meals made from scratch. The menu of my childhood was defined by my mother, whose views about feeding her family were shaped largely by the advertising world. For a 28-year-old […]
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Springfield Magic
Untitled Document Before 1983, ethnic food in Springfield was pretty much limited to Italian (American) restaurants, Chinese restaurants (owned by émigrés who geared the food to American palates), and gringo Mexican taco joints (tasty but hardly authentic). Who could have guessed that a tiny coffee shop in a semi-seedy motel at North Grand and Veterans […]
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Southern fish fry
Untitled Document Two weeks ago, a few thousand people lined up in a Columbia, S.C., parking garage for dinner. They wanted some of Lucius Moultrie’s fried whiting, despite the hearty serving of political grandstanding on the side. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who’s also South Carolina’s most senior Democrat, hosted this classic Southern fish fry […]
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Spring orgy risotto
Untitled Document Spring of 2000, northern Italy. It would be my first time, for real. It didn’t matter that I was a culinary-school graduate and had since attempted my own pizza dough (clumsy) and risotto (gummy and unseasoned). I was now in the land where it all began, and in the eyes of the Italians […]
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Hog heaven
Untitled Document I have been to the mountaintop. The sanctuary of smoke. The high temple of porkdom. From the outside, it doesn’t look like a place of pilgrimage. The modest cinderblock structure, located about 40 minutes south of Knoxville, Tenn., is a bit dingy. There’s a sign painted on the outside: “BENTON’S COUNTRY HAMS. WE […]
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Soup to heal
Untitled Document The massacre at Virginia Tech has shaken the nerves of this country, and its chilling impact is being felt as far away as India, Israel, and Peru. The story itself has all the makings of a CSI episode that includes a law-enforcement probe into the creepy, mysterious twists and turns of a psychopathic […]
