Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 148

Eid-Al-Adha (The Sacrificial Feast)

[We all know the big American food holiday that's fast approaching--most food blogs, magazines and TV shows are going crazy over it--but there's another food holiday that's fast approaching too, a holiday that I didn't know anything about until last year when I decided to work on a book proposal about religion and food called "Food of the Gods." The book, unfortunately, never got off the ground, but this sample chapter is something that I'm really proud of and eager to share. So, pull up a...

A Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

In case you haven't noticed, food blogs, food magazines, food networks and the like love Thanksgiving. They love it because, for once, the nation is intent on cooking dinner. For 364 days out of the year, that's mostly not the case--what with fast food and frozen dinners and all the other instant options at our fingertips. But Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is something you've gotta cook. That is, unless you're me.

Me, I prefer cooking those other 364 days out of the year. It's not ...

Ordering in from Otto

As a New York based food blogger, I often make an effort to vary my posts so that those of you not in New York--which, I imagine, is actually the large majority of you--can feel like I'm speaking to you too.

But this post, despite its New York specificity, has what I imagine is universal appeal--mostly because of a chef that I've loved and admired for as long as I've been interested in cooking. That chef is Mario Batali.

Mario's show "Molto Mario" was the show, along with...

Pot Roast

When I think pot roast, I think Americana, I think 50s sitcoms and a beleaguered housewife who intones: "Oh, darn it, I burnt the pot roast!"

It's not a dish that I ate much growing up, eating--as we did--most of our meals out. My first real pot roast memory, actually, comes from Atlanta. I ordered pot roast at one of my favorite, kitschy restaurants there--Agnes & Muriel's--and got very sick afterwards. I don't blame Agnes & Muriel's, but I did blame pot roast. I avoided it for years.

...

Steam-Scrambled Eggs

Those of you with cappuccino makers, may I have your attention? I have a weekend project for you. When you make your scrambled eggs this weekend, instead of melting butter in a pan, beating the eggs with a fork, plopping them into the foamy fat and stirring them round and round, why not find inspiration in the picture above? Those eggs, you see, are the work of renowned New York chef Jody Williams. I ate them last Sunday with my friend Jimmy at her lovely little restaurant, Gottino, and...

Lunch with Lidia Bastianich (and my dad)

It's my fault, really. My parents were in town and my mom asked me, early in the week, if I'd babysit my dad for lunch on Tuesday while she met some of her friends. I said, "Sure." Then, the day before, I received a confirmation e-mail from Lidia Bastianich's publicist reminding me of a lunch scheduled at Lidia's restaurant Felidia the next day. I'd RSVPed for two (I was going to bring a more talented photographer friend (why? see picture above)) and so, after some clever thinking, I...

Pork on Fire (The Spiciest Dish in New York?)

On Friday, I sent out the following e-mail to my pork-eating friends:

Dear Friends,

Today I was reading the New Yorker profile of the only food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, Jonathan Gold. In it he says of a spicy Thai food dish: "It was glowing, practically incandescent. You bite into it and every alarm in your body goes off at once. It's an overload on your pain receptors, and then the flavors just come through. It's not that the hotness overwhelms the dish, which is what people who d...

Arnold Schwarzenegger at Le Pain Quotidien

My friend Tom snapped this picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday at Le Pain Quotidien in Santa Monica. Says Craig, in his Arnold Schwartzenegger voice: "Hasta la vista roast beef with caper mayonnaise, diced tomatoes and scallions!"

MIchael Symon's Spicy Tomato & Blue Cheese Soup

At the end of yesterday's video podcast with Michael Symon, you may have heard me sheepishly express doubt about adding blue cheese to tomato soup. For some reason, I thought the result would be grainy and gloppy and just kind of gross. Instead, this tomato soup was absolutely the best tomato soup I've ever had--and the best part about it is you'd never know that blue cheese was what was making it taste so good. It adds depth and creaminess but it doesn't taste funky and you don't notice the ...

A Video Podcast with Michael Symon

Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with Iron Chef Michael Symon outside the Standard Hotel in New York's meatpacking district. Chef Symon's in town to promote his new cookbook, "Live To Cook" which he co-wrote with this blog's good friend Michael Ruhlman. Here's our lively chat edited down to just 4 minutes:

As for the tomato soup I mention at the end, I made it later that night and it was so fantastic I'm going to share the recipe in a separate post (look for it tomorrow). And if...