One of the best things to have in the refrigerator in summer is a large quantity of chicken salad.  You can serve it on a bed of lettuce or make it into sandwiches.  You make it once and you have it all week. And I…

Salad lovers are in sheer heaven now and will be through the rest of the summer.  The ingredients for perfect salads are everywhere. And the earliest part of the season yields the tenderest of greens. Arugula has its bite but it’s far from bitter which…

The Battle of Puebla        Once again we’re celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a tried and true favorite.  This post is the # 2 most viewed page in all of Chewing the Fat’s history.   This sensational recipe for Enchiladas is hundreds of…

If you read my last post about my trip to Vietnam, you will remember my going to Cooking School in the town of Hoi An.  The class began with a visit to the Central Market, a hurly burly of a place with vendors selling everything…

Too often, I get into trouble with a recipe that’s just too much food for two people.  Try as I may, cutting back on volume isn’t always the easiest task.   Things that say they are for four people are relatively simple to divide in half. …

I like Bobby Flay.  For quite a few years, I worked above his ‘store’. That would be his late lamented Mesa Grill. At Mesa, his take on Southwestern cuisine virtually introduced New York to the flavors of that part of the country.  Of course, along…

How’s this for a request:  A reader who lives in North Dakota enjoyed our post about Thousand Island Dressing and its origins on the US/Canadian border (See https://chewingthefat.us.com/2013/10/the-saga-of-thousand-island-dressing.html).  Anonymously, said reader commented that a restaurant in Mandan, North Dakota had closed, forever locking the secret…

Chef Keller in the Vegetable Garden For years I’ve relied on Julia Child’s “Screw Top Jar” method for making a basic vinaigrette which I’ve enhanced with Dijon mustard and a little Garlic.  It’s a good salad dressing and I like to keep it on hand…

        Last summer, we served a version of Watermelon and Tomato salad so often, we were convinced everyone we knew had tasted it.  And this year, we’ve seen so many recipes for it, that we’re sure our readers have been inundated with variations on the dish. …

The man himself, Daniel Boulud Who doesn’t love Daniel Boulud?  His restaurants are on everyone’s New York Top 10 list from Daniel to DBGB on the Bowery, of all places.  I have a particular soft spot for his Bar Boulud, across from Lincoln Center and…

         A funny thing happened on my way to making this great salad. Two funny things actually, both of them involving Kale.  (But you’ll have to wait a few words to hear them.)  The basis for this wonderfully lemon-y salad recipe came Anna Stockwell from…

Chile’s Chicken Valdostana  “Milanese” is god’s gift to people who love fried food but are afraid to admit it.  This easy-to-conquer technique coats meat with crunchy, crispy bread-crumbs. The meat is dipped in flour, then in egg and finally in breadcrumbs.  Originally, I tasted it…

Month after month, Martha Stewart Living takes us into the spectacularly photogenic homes of equally photogenic families. They share Martha’s passion for the domestic arts in their wonderfully curated and art directed living spaces.   And there is always a prominently featured menu item that is…

         I could eat our local asparagus until it was coming out of my ears.  Thanks to growers in Mexico and Peru,  asparagus is now a 12 month a year vegetable in New York and almost everywhere else. However, nothing but nothing comes close…