Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 145

An American Brunch at The Old Town Cafe (Bellingham, WA)

Not long ago, my friend Diana had a friend visit from Italy and this friend--who went to college with Diana in the U.S. (Brown University, to be precise)--was incredibly eager to eat an American brunch again. "She was really excited about brunch," Diana related to me later. "She says it's one of the things she misses most about the U.S."

A few days ago, while eating brunch at the Old Town Cafe in Bellingham, Washington, it occurred to me: if I were going to tell a non-American how to best ...

Pfeffernussen, Orange Sables & The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie of Your Dreams

The Baking Bug isn't a ladybug, it's a wasp: once it stings you, you've been stung.

Such has been the case with my friend Josh Hume, director of my show on Food2 and a recent convert to the world of baking. He loves it. He calls himself Man Martha because of his love for Martha Stewart's recipes and, most recently, he represented me at a Bon Appetit Magazine blogger bake-off. (Check out his bouche!) It's no surprise, then, that Josh approached holiday baking this year with a fervor; not...

Chicken Soup to the Rescue (The 2nd Ave. Deli Delivers)

The scene: our living room. Craig is sneezing, coughing, blowing his nose. He's not happy. He's feeling unwell. Me? I'm ok, I've avoided the cold so far. But I am sympathetic, I am suggesting he buy cold medicine, and then I suggest what my mother and grandmother would undoubtedly suggest if they were in the room too: "Chicken Soup."

As it happens, Craig is reading New York Magazine and stumbles across an article about the best soups in New York and a big full-page spread about The 2nd...

Caramelized Apple Pancakes

People who live in warm climates aren't allowed to eat pancakes.

It's true: pancakes are for cold winter mornings, still in your pajamas, curled around a space heater and holding your coffee mug close to your face. Pancake batter is basically cake batter and the only way you can justify eating cake at the start of your day is to keep warm; so Floridians, stay away. This recipe is for those of us who saw our breath this morning.

The recipe comes, as most great recipes do...

Cooking For Clotilde

My friend Clotilde Dusoulier, of the legendary food blog Chocolate & Zucchini and author of several notable food books (including her own cookbook, a guide to Paris and the book she recently translated, the French Joy of Cooking, "I Know How To Cook") was coming to dinner.

I've spent lots of time with Clotilde, we've dined together several times in New York (at Babbo and the Corner Bistro and Dirt Candy) and in Paris (at Ze Kitchen Galerie) but we'd never cooked for each other. And...

Blue Ribbon's Spiced Matzoh

As a Jew who grew up pretty Jewy (a Bar Mitzvah, Passover seders, an original last name of Rothenberg (changed by my grandparents)), I never got very excited about matzoh. Sure, come April, the inevitable boxes would show up at the store and my mom would by some and we'd spread it with butter (a memory I hadn't remembered until I wrote this sentence, but now that I remember it, it is a nice taste memory). For those who've never experienced matzoh, imagine if cardboard and bread had a...

Where To Have a Wedding Brunch in NYC?

My friend recently got engaged (woohoo!) and now she's trying to figure out where to have her wedding in New York. I actually get e-mails quite a bit from people getting married in New York looking for venue suggestions and I rarely know what to tell them. So what say you, married New Yorkers? Where's a good place for a wedding brunch that can seat 75 to 100 people and can close for a private event? If you use this advice yourself, I expect to be invited.

The Best of 2009 (Or, The A.G.'s Gift-Buying Guide)

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Today's the second day of Hanukkah and as much as I wish I could tell you that I'm frying latkes and spinning dreidels and unwrapping Hanukkah gelt in celebration, I'm actually sitting here next to a pile of cookbooks trying to figure what constitutes the Best of 2009. You see, many of my food blogging contemporaries--David, Deb, Eat Me Daily--have already offered up their take on what you should buy for you and yours this holiday season and now it's my turn to separate the wheat from the ...

Summer in Winter

December is a deceptive month. You have the Christmas songs and the decorations and the temperature goes up and down and hints, rather cruelly, that maybe, just maybe, it won't be a bitter cold winter after all. Then January hits and you're walking down the street with your nose falling off from frostbite and you curse yourself for ever trusting December in the first place.

On one of those bitter cold days, then, I have just the meal for you. I call it my Summer in Winter dinner and it...

Who's Going To Win Top Chef?

This season of Top Chef has been my favorite so far. The chefs are more talented than they've ever been, the focus has been on the food not chef antics (well, except for everyone's conflict with Robin) and somehow the Vegas setting, which might've undermined the shows credibly, has allowed for some of the world's great chefs--Joel Robuchon, Thomas Keller--to act as judges. Today, I join my blogging friend Mark Blankenship (check out his great blog, The Critical Condition) for a discussion ...