CookShelfRiccardo Romero, the owner of NYC's Arepas Café, has a big dream: he hopes that arepas, the cornmeal cakes from his native Venezuela, seared on a griddle and stuffed with a dizzying array of fillings, may one day be as…
Over at the NY Times, Sam Sifton is waxing poetic about baked potatoes. Steaming hot russets with crisp skins loaded with traditional toppings like sour cream and chives, or more avant-garde combinations like blue…
You're perusing the ingredient list of a recipe when you notice it calls for bay leaves. You obligingly fish a few dried and crumbling leaves out of the packet and plop them in the pot, hoping you remember to remove…
When you think of vending machines, fresh food probably doesn't come to mind. But across the U.S., that is beginning to change, as Modern Farmer reports on the trend of farm-fresh vending machines. For now it's more…
Some ingredients go from obscure to rock star seemingly overnight, and one recent example is sumac. Sumac's meteoric rise can be attributed in large part to authors emphasizing Middle Eastern flavors like Yotam…
Crisp mornings and shortening days herald the arrival of fall and with it, fall fruits such as pears. Jacques Pépin notes in Sweet Simplicity that pears are regarded in France as "the king of fruits," and indeed pears…
U.S. butter supplies (known as "stock" in dairy economist parlance) are 40 percent lower this year than at the same time last year. This dip prompted some economists to speculate there might be a butter shortage for the…
When you think of France, cheese is probably near the top of food items that come to mind. (We'll understand if your first thought is wine.) The home of beloved cheeses like Camembert, Comte, and Oussau-Iraty is now…
Yesterday we looked at cult culinary items and Susie just discussed cultured foods, so in keeping the "cult" terminology, today we'll look at cultivation--more specifically, how even in this technological age, some…
Courgettes (known as zucchini in the U.S.) are well into season now in the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, these prolific producers often far outpace our ideas on what to do with them. Mary-Ellen McTague, chef and owner…
In the heat of summer, few things are as refreshing as a ripe, succulent melon. Choosing the right melon at the market, however, can be a difficult task. Do you thump it or sniff it? And what should the fruit look like?…
Salt is not new to the repetoire of cocktails, but the salt is now moving from the rim into the glass. Mixologists are discovering something chefs have known forever: adding a little salt helps bring out the flavors of…
