Ah, the Illinois State Fair — the focal point of my childhood summers. Every year I hoarded my allowance money and income from various odd jobs, then blew it all on a gloriously uninhibited fair week. Fair-going nowadays is in many ways a nostalgic experience. There’s so much that triggers memories: horse shows at the […]
Food & Drink
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Going with the grain
When I left home, I moved from New York to Oakland, Calif., where I shared a warehouse with three other East Coast transplants. To all of us, California was still the frontier, and the Bay Area’s notoriously crunchy vibe both intrigued us and drove us crazy. We made fun of the California lifestyle, joking about […]
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Lulu’s blue cakes
In another life, my name was Lulu. I worked as a waitress in a stainless-steel diner in Philadelphia, manning a 20-seat counter that required the nerves of an air traffic controller and the wit of a standup comic. Weekend brunch was the busiest shift, with customers jamming the aisles and demanding coffee faster than you […]
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To tandoor or not to tandoor
Some guys collect sports memorabilia or antique beer cans. My husband, Peter, collects barbecue gear. He’s currently the proud owner of two smokers, various grills, an indoor fireplace grill and rotisserie, and the “Party Que,” a Greek contraption designed to rotisserie whole lambs and other small animals. As I write this, a Japanese tabletop yakitori […]
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A cautionary tale
“They’re breeding the heat out of jalapeños, and it’s all because of poppers,” says Rick Bayless, addressing a group of us attending his seminar on the foods of the Yucatan. Bayless, with two acclaimed restaurants in Chicago, an ongoing PBS cooking show, multiple cookbooks, and a nationally distributed line of salsas and sauces, is regarded […]
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Summer Rolls on
Have you tried to host a dinner party lately? Long gone is the no-nonsense process of entertaining, when the only thing that mattered was a wholesome square meal consisting of a meat, a starch, and a vegetable. These days, forget about planning a menu without consulting your guests. The world of the privileged has become […]
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Ready, set, the tomatoes are here!
At the beginning of the month there was just the tiniest trickle of tomatoes. One of the earliest varieties is the aptly named “Fourth of July.” The tomatoes from this plant are small — about the size of a golf ball — but provide a true taste of summer flavor. The trickle has now widened […]
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Taming the tricky eggplant
Of the seemingly infinite possibilities at summer produce stands, the eggplant is among the trickiest. She’s a real looker, all right, showing off her shiny, buxom bosom that comes in shades of majestic purple, light green, or ecru. “It’s so gorgeous, I just have to get one,” is a line I’ve heard at the farmers’ […]
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All thanks to Mr. Ice Cream
Blood orange and burnt caramel, crème fraîche and Meyer lemon, brandy-macerated peach. These were the ice cream flavors I had come to hear about over the phone with my friend, the former pastry chef-turned-restaurant critic (and my former editor). He’d rattle them off nonchalantly, as if I knew what he was talking about, and surely […]
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Finding real cuisine in the Gateway City
I was telling a friend about some of the restaurants and ethnic and specialty food shops we’ve discovered in St. Louis, and she sniffed: “St. Louis is nothing compared to Chicago.” “And Chicago is nothing compared to New York,” I shot back. “Get over it!” My chauvinist friend, a native Chicagoan, was correct in one sense. […]
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Rum means more fun
Nine months of the year, I’m a wine drinker, with an occasional foray into Bourbon-Nightcap Land. But when sultry breezes, late sunsets, and humidity come to town, my beverage choices veer from the cerebral to the coquettish. Summer sipping is all about cocktails, and in my opinion that means rum. Sure, I know the school […]
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Brushetta, the right way
I embarrassed my husband at a restaurant recently. It wasn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. After the server described the appetizer special, I interrupted him before he could move on to the entrees. “You know,” I said nicely (I’m always nice when I do this), “It’s actually pronounced brusketta, not […]
