Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 110

Alone With Your Ramen

[Recently, at the wedding of our friends Jenny and Cliff, we met a delightful woman named Yuko Uchikawa who began telling me about this fascinating ramen joint in Japan where you sit in little cubicles so you can be alone with your noodles. I asked if she would write a guest post and she kindly agreed. What follows is her ramen story.]

My acupuncturist in Nagoya is from Fukuoka, and Fukuoka folks are passionate about their ramen. When I asked where I should go to get Fukuoka ramen in Nagoya, he replied "Fukuoka." When pressed, he said, "there is a place, downtown, that comes close. It's a chain, but it's good. It does express our passion. There are dividers." Dividers? "So you are completely alone with your ramen."

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Someone's In The Kitchen With…Penny De Los Santos

If you haven't heard of Penny De Los Santos, you clearly don't follow many food folks on Twitter. The woman is a superstar to the nth degree. Beloved by food bloggers everywhere for her photography (she works regularly for Saveur and National Geographic) and for the stirring lectures she gives at food conferences, the woman is unstoppable. So how lucky am I that she came to my kitchen (when I still had a kitchen) to talk about her career and the nitty gritty of food photography? Learn how to take great pictures of food (essential tip: it's all about the light) and scratch your head as I make a weird Harry Potter analogy. Thanks, Penny, for dropping by!

Previous Episodes: Anita Lo & Charlotte Druckman, Lauren Shockey, Ludo & Krissy Lefebvre, Sara Jenkins, Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs, Ed Levine, Matt Armendariz, The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.

The Iron Chef of Ditmas Park

After the movers whisked my stuff away to California on Saturday, it occurred to me: "I won't be able to cook for several weeks!"

That's a problem for a food blogger. So while making plans with my friends Patty and Lauren, who live in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, they made mention of their C.S.A. box. (For those not in the know, C.S.A. stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a set price and get a box of goodies from a farmer each week.) "I have an idea!" I said, suddenly excited. "What if I come over and cook you both dinner based on whatever's in the box? It'll be just like Iron Chef!" I'm sure pretty Patty and Lauren exchanged nervous glances at this point (this was over I.M.) but before I knew it, Patty wrote: "Sure."

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A Fresh New Look

For the past few weeks, my fearless website designer Raphael Brion has been slaving away trying to make this site look even better. And, if you look up, look down, look left, look right, I think you'll have to agree: Raphael hit this one out of the park. My blog was the dowdy girl with glasses at the beginning of a makeover movie; and now it's Olivia Newton John at the end of "Grease." What exactly did he change? What's different? Let me break it all down for you.

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This Post Will Self-Destruct in 12 Hours

Remember that time I debuted a new version of my blog to the world and then, several hours later, that new version of my blog disappeared from sight?

Well, yes, that happened last week and now, in layman's terms, let me explain what happened. Because we switched from Movable Type to Wordpress, the server needed to be reprogrammed to handle that change. Also: the server was getting slammed and the site stopped loading up. So, basically, this weekend my fearless designer Raphael Brion got to work and he's very confident that tonight the new version of the site will launch again. In the meantime, there's this post.

What makes this post special is that this may very well be my last post I'll ever write on Movable Type. And the funny thing about that is if I don't manually transfer it to the new Wordpress blog, the post will disappear forever once Raphael makes the switch. Which is precisely why THIS POST WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN 12 HOURS.

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A Fresh New Look

For the past few weeks, my fearless website designer Raphael Brion has been slaving away trying to make this site look even better. And, if you look up, look down, look left, look right, I think you'll have to agree: Raphael hit this one out of the park. My blog was the dowdy girl with glasses at the beginning of a makeover movie; and now it's Olivia Newton John at the end of "Grease." What exactly did he change? What's different? Let me break it all down for you.

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Random L.A. Bites at In-N-Out Burger, Bob's Doughnuts, Commissary, Golden State & Canter's

Last week was such a hectic week searching for an apartment in L.A., I wasn't able to do my usual business of researching restaurants, plotting dinners and constructing photo essays for you, my hungry readers. (Exception: Loteria & Gjelina.) We did, however, enjoy many random bites that I photographed, dutifully, in the hopes of writing a post like this one you're about to read. So buckle your seatbelts!

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Our New Kitchen

It happened, people. We found an L.A. apartment in a great location that's clean, in a great neighborhood (Franklin Village, right beneath the Hollywood sign) and--most important to me--with a bright and sunny kitchen. I mean look at it. Wouldn't you want to spend a lot of time in there cooking? We move in on September 1st.

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Loteria & Gjelina

Folks, it's been a busy week here in Los Angeles. I came last Sunday on a mission; the mission was: FIND AN APARTMENT. Or, more specifically: FIND AN APARTMENT THAT'S CLEAN AND NICE AND IN A GOOD LOCATION AND THAT HAS A DECENT KITCHEN.

Funny enough, that mission really turned out to be a mission impossible. I saw dusty, disgusting apartments that looked beautiful in their pictures (the equivalent of going on a bad internet date); I saw an adorable apartment that was designed by Julia Morgan (who designed Hearst castle) but that had an awful kitchen. We may have hit on something yesterday, but I don't want to jinx it. Thank God, in the in-between moments, I've been feeding myself well. And my favorite meals so far have been at Loteria (in the Fairfax Farmer's Market) and at Gjelina in Venice Beach.

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Someone's In The Kitchen With…Anita Lo & Charlotte Druckman

Why doesn't New York have any female chefs with four-star restaurants? What are the obstacles that stand in the way of women who want to make it in the restaurant industry? Joining me today on "Someone's In The Kitchen With" are two guests who can speak authoritatively on the subject: one of New York's best chefs (regardless of gender), Chef Anita Lo from Annisa, and Wall Street Journal reporter Charlotte Druckman who's currently writing a book about women chefs called "Skirt Steak." It's a fascinating conversation and one that I hope you'll continue in the comments.

Previous Episodes: Lauren Shockey, Ludo & Krissy Lefebvre, Sara Jenkins, Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs, Ed Levine, Matt Armendariz, The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.