Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 149

Creamed Mushrooms on Toast

When I'm home alone and making dinner for myself, my standards change dramatically. If Craig's there (and he usually is), I know he has certain expectations about what constitutes a dinner. That's fair, because most people do. But alone? My standards go out the window and I just improvise a meal with whatever I have on hand. And the other night, while Craig was in London showing his movie at the Raindance Film Festival, I happened to have the following on hand: mushrooms, thyme, cream and b...

What's Good?

The waitress, who we loved, responded to our request for a pasta suggestion with enthusiasm. "Get the ravioli," she said. "It's amazing."

I was with my mom last night at the new A Voce in the Time Warner Center, and our waitress was solicitious, funny and helpful. And when we asked for her advice, she gave it with zeal and genuine enthusiasm. But it was only when we were eating the ravioli, which she so heartily recommended, that I began to question the wisdom of asking the server's...

I'm A Peanut

Yes that's me up there in this month's delicious new banner--another masterwork from Lindy--having baked The Great Pumpkin into a Great Pumpkin pie. (If you can't see it, clear your cache and reload the site.) Thanks, of course, to the uber-talented Lindy and the ever-helpful Justin for making the site look great, as always.

Locanda Verde

My parents and I often get into a quibbling match over the Italian food that they like and the Italian food that I like. The Italian food that they like is the food found at what's typically called "a red sauce joint" with dishes every American who's been to EPCOT or an Olive Garden can rattle off: Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Scarpiello, Shrimp Scampi (a tautological phrase since scampi means shrimp), and so on. I'm not against this food--sometimes, I really enjoy it--but my parents LOVE...

The Burger at Lure Fishbar

For years, I've walked past Lure Fishbar in SoHo. You can't miss it, really: there are portholes for windows and the restaurant, which is below ground, is styled like a yacht.

I can't say I was dying to eat there, but then word on the street was that their burger was one of the best below 14th street. That's what William Tigertt claimed on Eater, and then Adam Kuban echoed it on A Hamburger Today: "This burger really is all that Mr. Tigertt describes."

Now I'll echo Adam: this ...

Orecchiette with Broccoli & Pancetta

Here's something for you to cook this weekend, something from the archives. It comes from The River Cafe Cookbook, a book I no longer own, but no matter. It's an easy enough recipe, I have it memorized. So easy: I can squeeze it all into this paragraph. Boil a pot of water, add salt. In a large skillet, add cubed pancetta--about two big slices worth. Add a splash of olive oil, raise the heat and let the pancetta start to brown. When it's getting closer to brown than not-brown, add broccoli ...

How To Make a Chocolate Souffle

One of the highlights of making our Amateur Gourmet show for Food2.com, was the day we got to visit the kitchen of Le Bernardin--one of the nation's, if not the world's, great restaurants--to learn how to make a chocolate souffle from revered pastry chef (and blogger!) Michael Laiskonis. What follows is the video we made, with step-by-step instructions that result in a chocolatey souffle that's as ethereal as it is delicious. Hope you enjoy! [For the full typed-out recipe, click here.]

Pre...

My Secret Cookbook Gems

After yesterday's cookbook slaughter, I thought I'd steer the blog to sweeter waters and talk about a subject I've never addressed on the blog before: my secret cookbook gems.

No, I'm not talking about books that I actually cook from. Those would be my favorite cooking cookbooks and you can find those on the lower right hand corner of the page under the heading "The Amateur Gourmet Recommends." These books, my secret cookbook gems, are the ones with the most sentimental value: the ones...

The Great Cookbook Purge of 2009

Nobody likes moving. It's a daunting process: first you have to find boxes, then you have to find packing tape, then you have to put all your stuff in the boxes and then you run out of packing tape and then you find you have more stuff and you need more boxes, etc, etc. It sucks.

Which is why, a few days ago, I found myself staring at my cookbook collection. I was on the couch and there it was, across the room. Six giant Ikea shelves of cookbooks, collected from five and a half years of f...

Late Night Lemon Mousse

After a long day on Tuesday of editing a video for Food2.com, I called Craig and told him to order a pizza. When I came home, he was editing a video with his friend Alena. There's a lot of video editing going on in our lives. And so we all snarfed down that pizza, they returned to their editing, and I--like the sophisticated, highbrow person that I am--watched "The View" on Tivo. At around midnight, after Alena left, I got a hankering for dessert and decided, at 12:15, to make a lemon...