Andy Ricker's top 10
Pok Pok by Andy Ricker is a popular and highly-rated book among EYB members. Now Ricker's fans can learn more about the dishes that inspired his career in this First We Feast interview. A native of Vermont, Ricker…
2014
The power of three
What flavors define a cuisine? Given the nearly endless array of possible herbs, spices and other flavoring agents, one might think it impossible to distill the essentials of a cuisine to only a handful of ingredients.…
How sweet it is
While hot tea may be associated with English tradition, iced tea is closely linked to Southern hospitality. In restaurants across the Southern U.S., iced tea (almost always served sweetened) is revered. The importance…
Featured Cookbooks & Recipes
Whether they are from cookbooks, magazines, or blogs, all the recipes we feature in these weekly round-ups have online links so you can add any of them to your Bookshelf. Even if you have a free membership! But the…
History to chew on
When people think of Vietnamese food, one of the first things that comes to mind is banh mi. While many people love these sandwiches, they may only know a smidgen of the history behind them. Lucky for us, Andrea Nguyen…
Cookbook giveaway - The Banh Mi Handbook
Andrea Nguyen, cookbook author and contributing editor at Saveur, has penned a new book celebrating banh mi, the Vietnamese sandwich that owes its unique combination of flavors and textures to the influences of several…
Buckle, Betty, and boy bait: learn all about cobbler-like desserts
What do grunts, slumps, pandowdys, buckles, and Bettys all have in common? They are all colorful regional names for baked fruit and dough creations, sometimes put in the category of "cobbler-like" desserts. (Not to be…
Summer on a stick
Something about summer just calls for food on a stick. Maybe it's all of the fairs and festivals that try to outdo each other in novelty foods: deep fried butter on a stick and hot dish on a stick. Or perhaps it's…
What's an hour worth?
It's summer here in the northern hemisphere, and the days are long. Well, they may not actually be longer - most of us are still awake roughly 16 hours of the day - but they feel longer because the sun's with us for so…
Cast party
Those of us who have a well-seasoned cast iron skillet likely use it frequently. There are many reasons to love a cast iron pan, which is good news for Lodge, the Tennessee company which is the last American cast iron…
Spuds slump
Potatoes are losing popularity as other starches, such as rice, become more favored (and presumably as many people cut out carbs from their diets). The Guardian reports that potato sales in England are down "by more…
The trick to making great sorbet
Sorbets are wonderful: they are simple to make, can meet almost everyone's dietary requirements, and there are hundreds of flavor options available. They can be fickle, however: too much sugar and they become a soupy…