Food

  • Salt from the Celtics to Sinkholes

    Even the word itself has salted our language from biting or “salty” dog language to the invigorating briny – or salubrious” smell on our skin after an ocean swim, “salubrious”- or “healthy” derived from the Latin for “salt.”   So is “salami” (salted meat), “salary” (from wages paid to Roman soldiers...

  • Thai Red Curry Brightens Any Winter Day

    Our California cold snaps may not rival those of the Midwest but they can still feel like the winter “blahs.” One way to counteract dull days is with lively colored red curry dishes. They spices up mealtime with a big flavor, comfort-food style and smooth taste.Red curry paste is made from both wet and dry […]...

  • Macaron and Canale: French Pastry Goes Mainstream

    Heavenly French macarons and rich hot dark chocolate have become the newest form of “cookies and milk” –and more healthy and non-fattening! We’re talking here about the French macaron, not the candy-kiss-shaped coconut meringue cookies, though are made of egg whites and almond paste and got their biggest bo...

  • TART Sweetens the American Regional Menu with Sorghum

    Even knowledgeable foodies may anticipate that the “sorghum” in  Chef Keith Shutta’s Butternut squash sorghum “risotto” on his new TART Restaurant menu is a syrup. But when the chef presented the dish, it turned out to be the grain that the chef pops from tiny, globular grains of white sorghum to make a kin...

  • Tart’s “Beeler” Pork Raised the Native American Way

    This Little Piggy went to TART. Often when we eat at TART it feels like a good idea to take Chef Keith Shutta’s food home to be sure it tastes as good as in the festive air of the restaurant. We did this with the Blackened “Beelers” natural pork chop with sweet potato & hominy hash […]...

  • Marlo’s Bakeshop Updates A Classic Global Favorite

    A “star” baker as a relative with a closely guarded recipe automatically bestows bragging rights onto an immigrant family. The family of Marlo Gertz of Marlo’s Bakeshop in San Francisco is no exception. But unlike so many recipes that have disappeared (like my Viennese grandmother’s tissue paper strudel), Marlo not only...

  • Petrossian: Historic Russian Product with A Timeless Appeal

     When I test drove a marvelous vintage Porsche last month I had no idea I would soon be tasting caviar at about the same price. Among the most famous and expensive of the precious eggs, Almas (“diamond” in Russian) costs about the same price pound per pound at $25,000 for 1 kg or $700 per ounce. […]...

  • Cinnamon Tequila Combines Two Classic Latin Flavors

    Inspired by the pursuit of big breaks and good times south of SoCal, Surfers Keith Ross and Bruce Beach set out to create a drink that embodied memories made on the dusty roads and beaches of Baja. Made the traditional way in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico They claim that Peligroso® is the drink crafted […]...

  • Eastern European Cooking in “My Fat Dad” Book

    Eastern European pastries and heavy foods play an uplifting, sentimental part of Dawn Lerman’s insightful book, My Fat Dad.  Author of the witty, informative New York Times Well Blog series of the same name, Dawn shares her own food journey and that of her father, a wildly successful copywriter from the “Mad Men” era of...

  • Asian Author Uncovers NY Food Scene in “Food Whore” Book

    Jessica Tom’s first novel, Food Whore, published this fall by William Morrow made recent news when Dreamworks acquired the rights to it; Lisa Rubin will write the screenplay. Food Whore follows the melodramatic graduate student life of Tia Monroe, an “aspiring cookbook author” seeking an internship with rever...