I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
I am not a huge believer in making a big deal out of celebrating one’s birthday, at least when you are an adult. I don’t think it warrants a party every year or a day off of work (but then again, my birthday is in …
Maybe ten years ago, when my children were still young enough to need help getting off to school in the morning, my mother came to visit. My wife must have been away, and I would leave the house at the crack of dawn, long before …
The first thing I learned to cook when I was young was pizza; every Wednesday, two pizzas for the family. The second thing I learned to cook was Rock Sugar Chicken, a Chinese stewed chicken with bamboo shoots and shitake mushrooms, the sauce saturating a …
My favorite restaurant in Huntington, New York, where I live, closed about 10 years ago. The Cooke’s Inn was a quirky place, run by an imaginative owner. Juanita Cooke was a retired 6th grade teacher who lined the walls of the restaurant with children’s books. …
When we visit my parents in Philadelphia, we always go out to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Lee How Fook. We’ve been dining there literally for decades. They immediately bring a pot of hot tea for the table, and for my mother, without asking, a pot …
From time to time I get asked why I bother with this food blog. It takes me hours each week; I don’t have a particularly large audience; I’m not getting any monetary rewards. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to make sense. I enjoy writing for friends …
This summer amid the pandemic, my college-age daughter was stranded at home like many of her generation. An internship was not in the cards, so she kept busy with a small, online, used clothing business she created. Likewise, her friend from Brooklyn wanted to get …
I love small plates, tapas, dim sum, hors d’oeuvres, appetizers, mezze, finger food, in any form, whatever you want to call them. At a formal event, these are almost always the best, most exciting part of the meal. I would rather a formal occasion with …
Sometimes a simple salad will suffice. And this one, with its crunchy vegetables, sweet, nutty dressing, and firm-textured tofu, is good any day of the week. I usually make this salad within a day of visiting an Asian grocery store, where I can get perfectly …
I didn’t grow up eating stuffed cabbage. Thinking back, it’s surprising my grandmothers didn’t cook them. Matzo balls, brisket, knishes, chopped liver, these were the Jewish foods of my youth. (Although I wouldn’t touch chopped liver at the time.) No stuffed cabbage. My introduction to …
