Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 80
November 13, 2012
Secrets of the Best Chefs is HERE TODAY! (Plus: A Look Behind The Scenes)
When my friends Patty and Lauren had their baby Audra this year, we had lots of conversations leading up to it about doulas and midwives and anesthesia. None of those things were relevant for my own personal pregnancy, though: over the past three years, I’ve been giving birth to a book.
And today that book is finally here. SECRETS OF THE BEST CHEFS arrives at this very moment and it really does feel like a birth: the build-up, the agony, the ecstasy, and, at the end of it all, a thing that exists that didn’t exist before I created it.
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November 12, 2012
Let’s Not Forget These Other Austin Eats (Torchy’s Tacos, La Condesa, Takoba, Barley Swine, Perla’s, Banger’s, Walton’s, The Counter Cafe, TacoDeli & Elizabeth Street Cafe)
The day that I flew to Austin, I was coming from Los Angeles in the most convoluted way possible. I started on Sunset Blvd., where I was staying, then drove up to Topanga Canyon, where I left my car with Craig’s aunt and uncle, then took a car service to the Long Beach airport which was about an hour and a half away. By the time the plane touched down in Austin, I was so hungry and tired I could barely move. But I made my way to a cab which took me to the Doubletree Hotel (my first hotel there) which was nowhere near anything that I heard was worth eating. So then I took a cab to South Congress, specifically to Torchy’s Tacos which many of you recommended on Twitter. It sounded perfect.
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November 9, 2012
Room Service
The idea of room service held little appeal for me until I was on a book tour for longer than expected (stranded in Austin for a bit by the hurricane) and suddenly I couldn’t fathom another dinner out with human beings. I enjoy human beings…but on a book tour you meet so many of them and talk to so many of them there comes a moment where you just want to be by yourself.
So on the night before I flew back to New York, I stayed in my room at the W hotel and ordered room service. Something about it made me feel giddy, like I was a kid doing something I might be punished for later. (And when my publisher sees the hotel room bill, that may still happen! Don’t worry, I didn’t order any exotic movies.)
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November 7, 2012
The Real Reason We’re In New York
It just got announced on Variety.com so I can finally reveal that Craig is about to direct a movie starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader called “The Skeleton Twins.” It’s a script that Craig co-wrote with our good friend Mark (ya know, the one who’s always on my blog) and shooting begins at the end of the month. Obviously, this was the hardest secret to keep in the world (Kristen Wiig! Bill Hader!) and I couldn’t be more excited for Craig. Now you get to be excited too. Phew!
Easy Butternut Squash Soup with Whiskey Ginger Cream
When I got back from my book tour, all I wanted to do was cook cook cook. Comfort foods, mostly. That first night it was my ultimate comfort food dish of fusilli with homemade tomato sauce and a Caesar salad to start. The next night, though, I wanted a different sort of comfort food. I was thinking: “Butternut Squash Soup.” I’d serve it with a salad made with radicchio, fennel, apples, toasted walnuts–olive oil and lemon juice for dressing–a hunk of blue cheese on the side and maybe a hunk of bread to round things out. No recipes were used in the making of this dinner. I just winged it. And the results totally hit the spot.
How do you wing a butternut squash soup? Easy….
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November 6, 2012
November 5, 2012
The First Post-Sandy Dinner at Hearth
As far as good deeds go, they don’t come any easier than the one we did on Saturday night.
The East Village had just gotten its power back after Hurricane Sandy which, as I’m sure you’re aware, has left the east coast devastated, thousands homeless, others still without power and heat. The restaurant community had been hit especially hard, not only losing business for themselves and their employees, but losing thousands of dollars worth of perishable foods that spoiled after several days without power. On Twitter, everyone from Anthony Bourdain to Pete Wells implored people to eat out downtown on Saturday night, to help these restaurants get back on their feet. Kat Kinsman of CNN’s Eatocracy Tweeted that she was headed to Marco Canora’s Hearth and the second she Tweeted that, I realized that of course I would want to be at Hearth too. Marco Canora is one of the most generous, selfless people I’ve met in the food world–he cooked with me twice for my cookbook, both for the proposal and the book itself–and the idea of helping him by patronizing his restaurant hours after he got power back was an absolute no-brainer.
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October 31, 2012
Franklin Barbecue
Some restaurants have a mythology surrounding them. Franklin BBQ, in Austin, Texas, is one such restaurant.
“You have to get there early,” people will say. “They line up starting at 9 o’clock and don’t open their doors until 11.” “It’s because Aaron Franklin carves all the meat by hand and takes his time doing it.” “They’ll ask how much meat you want before you go in so they can figure out when to start turning people away.” “It’s a one hour wait.” “It’s a two hour wait.” “It’s the best BBQ you’ll ever have in your life.” “You’ll want to kill yourself after you eat it because there’ll be nothing left to live for.”
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October 30, 2012
Uchi
I was glued to the TV, yesterday, watching hurricane Sandy updates from my Austin hotel room (note to CNN producers: that was cruel how you kept that guy submerged in water during 100 MPH winds) while harassing Craig and Lolita (my cat) over the phone to make sure they were ok. They were, though via Twitter I knew many others weren’t. My instinct was to stay put, to suffer in solidarity, by way of Facebook updates and Instagram photos. At some point, though, I got hungry and wandered out of my hotel.
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October 29, 2012
Where Do You Escape For A Chocolate Dessert?
There are chocolate people and there are non-chocolate people and, for most of my life, I’ve identified as a non-chocolate person. As I’ve gotten older, though, my taste for chocolate has grown–perhaps as a corollary to my taste for coffee. Both are bitter, by nature, and tempered (based on your preference) with various amounts of sugar. So when I’m craving chocolate and I’m out on the town, where do I go? I go to the following places for a cure-all-your-problems chocolate fix!
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