I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
I’m a lucky guy. My wife and I see eye to eye on most things and real disagreements between us are few and far between. (Notwithstanding that one in the aisles of Costco some dozen years ago surrounding a birthday celebration and frozen cream puffs, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Tomatoes and arugula are a match made in heaven; the juicy sweetness of tomatoes and the spicy bite of arugula. The problem is, the peak of tomato season in the garden does not coincide with maximum arugula production. Tomatoes are best before nights get too …
There are lots of factors that influence and inspire me when I cook and develop a recipe, but it’s rarely a name. Maybe I enjoyed a dish in a restaurant that I want to re-create at home. Or perhaps I saw a picture in a …
In the early 1990s, when my wife and I first moved in together, we rented the second floor of a big, old Victorian house painted white with brown trim, with creaky steps and uneven floors. Our landlord, Carmine, lived next door and our kitchen window …
Of all of the characteristics that make a morsel of food desirable, crispy bits reign supreme. I love the texture and flavor they bring to my dishes. Diners search it out in all kinds of foods, from the curliest, folded over potato chip in the …
