Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 138

The 2nd Annual New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt

If you've been reading this blog for more than a year, you may remember an exciting contest from last year called "The Great New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt." It worked like this: I wrote a long list of celebrated New York foodie destinations and assigned different points for various tasks that contestants had to undertake at these destinations while posing for pictures that they'd ultimately upload to Flickr. Here are last year's results. As you can see, contestants had the time of...

A Jolly Green Banner

Ho, ho, ho check out this month's new Springy banner. There in a forest of asparagus, sugar snap peas and what looks like Swiss chard, I stand with my chiseled arms and chest (no airbrushing, I swear) in a loin cloth made of leaves. This can only be the work of one artist, our lovely and talented banner illustrator Lindy Groening. Thanks to her, as always, for her wonderful work and thanks to Justin Dickinson for uploading the banner to the site.

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The James Beard Awards' Chef's Night Out

I have a secret to reveal: this year, I was a judge for the James Beard Awards.

Whoah, I just heard your collective gasp through the computer screen. Believe me, I gasped myself when they asked me. It's a pretty gasp-worthy fact, considering that the James Beard Awards are like the Oscars of the food world. At first, I was shocked, then I was terrified, then I was deeply honored and flattered. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what category I judged (that's a major stipulation) but I can...

Ramps: What Up With That?

There's this SNL sketch that Craig and I find pretty funny. Actually, I'm not sure it's even that funny; it's more amusing than funny. Essentially, there's this talk show host (played by Kenan Thompson) who hosts a show called "What Up With That?" and he sings a theme song (also called "What Up With That?") and every time he starts to interview his guests, he starts the song again and nothing ever gets done and there's a man in a red track suit dancing and sometimes a choir and weird cameos a...

What Kind of Drink Do You Serve at a Bachelorette Party?

Tonight I'm hosting a bachelorette party for my dear friend Diana and we're about to go shopping for alcohol. What kind of drink should we serve? I just polled Twitter and here's what the Twitterverse had to say:

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The A.G. Piano Bar

In case you don't follow me on Twitter, every so often I livestream a spontaneous piano concert, taking requests and fielding questions about cooking. (You can read a review of last week's here.) Today you have a little more warning; I'll be serenading you live at 5 PM EST. Click here at 5 to join the fun (and post some song requests, in the meantime, in the comments so I can practice.)

Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie

Ok, I promise, this is it with the Meyer lemons. You're sick of them--after this post, and that post--I know, I know. And when Lindy drew lemons (that sort of look like Meyer lemons) into my banner this month, who knew I'd be writing so much about them? Unless this was Lindy's master plan? What if she works for the Meyer lemon industry? What if her banners are prophecies and whatever she draws in them comes true? What if next month's banner features me...DEAD?! This is like an episode of...

Meyer Lemon Chicken & Asparagus

There are two dishes referenced in Kim Severson's "Spoon Fed" that don't have corresponding recipes: the first is a chicken stuffed with Meyer lemons, the other is something called a "Jewish muffin." I haven't had any luck parsing the mysteries of the Jewish muffin, but after an exchange on Twitter I was able to extract from Kim a Tweetcipe for the chicken: "Meyer lemons, cut in half, shoved inside a well-seasoned chicken along with some fresh parsley and maybe thyme."

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Tartufo at Lupa

The Brown Bonnet from Carvel Ice Cream was a staple of my childhood. It's hard to believe it now, but our family would ride our bikes together to the Carvel on Long Beach Road in Oceanside, Long Island, where I grew up. We'd dismount, mosey inside and place our orders and my parents' orders were always the same: a brown bonnet for my dad, a brown bonnet for my mom. What's a brown bonnet? Essentially: soft-serve ice cream dipped in a chocolate glaze that instantly hardens. You can get it at ...

Kitchen Grease Hand Soap

I don't normally take pictures in restaurant bathrooms. Ok, so maybe I do, but that's not something I like to talk about on the blog. The point is that the other day, I met my parents for lunch at Lupa (I'm going to blog about their tartufo, the best I've ever had, later in the week) and something in the bathroom made such an impression on me that I took a picture of it. You probably can't make out the words, though, so let me explain.

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