On My Shelf: The Food of a Younger Land

From Mark Kurlansky, the author of Cod and Salt, comes The Food of a Younger Land  (Riverhead Books: 397 pages, $27.95)– “A portrait of American food before the national highway system– before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation’s food was seasonal, regional, and traditional– from the lost WPA files.”
That’s quite a mouthful.
Reading [...]

Check, Please: How to Pay without looking like a fool or making everyone uncomfortable.

 For most diners, paying one’s bill at the finish of a restaurant meal is a simple, uncomplicated process, a no-brainer. Or should be. It never fails to amaze me how many people screw this up.
The ideal execution of bill getting-and-paying should be a near-non-event. The only words exchanged should be those of thanks between the [...]

I Hate(d) Peas

Look at me, I’m eating peas. I’m nearly 40 years old and I’m eating peas. Who says middle-aged men don’t have growth spurts?
I never cared for peas as a child. Perhaps that’s too mildly put. I had always hated peas. No, still not enough. I had a terror of peas as a child.
That’s more like [...]

39 Rue de Barbe

Rhubarb. I have loved it for years. And why not? It’s a tart, refreshing, and completely extraordinary thing when handled properly.
Of course, it is also highly seasonal. It’s one of the first bits of produce to show up in markets when the ground warms up in the spring, it hangs around in the summertime, when [...]

Coronation Chicken Salad: Fit for a Queen.

…and, boy, I know a lot of them.
Last weekend, I was (cheerfully) roped into helping prepare and serve a “proper” English tea by an old friend who had offered up her home, her china, and her silver tea pots for the benefit of my goddaughter’s school. I have placed the word “proper” in quotation [...]