I confess. I am starting the trip reports completely backwards.  Quite simply, my amazing voyage of culinary discovery, aboard Silversea’s exquisite flagship, Silver Muse, ended in Manila.  And while I will take you to Bali and to Borneo and cannot wait to share with you…

This recipe landed in my inbox in a collection of the 10 Most-Popular recipes in The New York Times. Turns out the Times runs posts of its Most Popular recipes so frequently, that I cannot tell you what time frame they’re referring to.  However, the…

Meatless Mondays have been missing from our house. It was not intentional but I had trouble finding recipes that appealed to the palate and to the eyes.  But on one of the daily e-mailings from Healthy-ish, Bon Appetit’s latest venture, I spied this recipe. It…

Sam Sifton is the Food Editor at The New York Times.  If you aren’t a subscriber, you’d be astonished at his weekly output.  Sometimes it feels as if his emails come hourly. Daily he extolls the virtue of various recipes that have appeared in the…

Two years ago, we covered Christopher Kimball’s scandalous leave-taking from Cook’s Illustrated, the precursor to which he founded in 1980.  If you want to relive the whole sordid mess, there’s a link to that story beneath today’s recipe.  The announced reason that he then started…

I love Indian food.  Its intriguing blend of exotic spices and flavors are so distinctive and so transforming that it really does represent a cuisine far from our own American classics.  Take this dish from Bon Appetit.  It transforms the simple and inexpensive Chicken leg…

Chef Anthony Mauboussin in action aboard the Viking Sea. By Land and by Sea: Viking’s New ‘Kitchen Table’ Culinary Arts Program By Monte Mathews Staff Writer We set the scene for Viking Cruise’s new ‘Kitchen Table’ chef experience Since last year’s launch of its first…

As promised earlier this month, this blog has not heard the last of Ruth Reichl’s latest book (Random House 2015).   Completely coincidentally, while Ruth wrote of yet another snowstorm marooning her and her husband in their upstate New York house, we here in the city…

Mark Bittman, “The Flexitarian” Mark Bittman calls himself “The Flexitarian”.  He writes about his food philosophy in The New York Times Dining Out Section once a month.  I am happy to report that from the start Bittman promised that, first and foremost, his new column…

Catherine de Medici Mother of 3 French Kings        As far back as the 16th century, Lyon, not Paris, has been the gastronomical capital of France.  It was then that Catherine de Medici, the Queen Consort of King Henry II, an Italian noblewoman by birth,…

         Confession time:  I made this dish just as Spring was arriving. But by the time I got around to writing up the post, Spring had sprung and with it temperatures that suggested getting out of the heat and out of the kitchen.   But now…

         While we’re all anxiously awaiting Spring, Winter weather is still in our forecast.  Cold temperatures and Indian-inflected dishes seem made for each other.  This dish, which appeared in last month’s Bon Appetit, really drives that point home.  It’s a rich stew full of…

Chef Michael Ponzio of Chicago’s Rosebud on Rush          When I saw a special for Veal Short Ribs at 4.99 a lb, it was like discovering a new protein!  I’d never even heard of the cut and never seen it on a restaurant menu.  I…

Confession Time:  Those vegetables that look like potatoes? They are potatoes served alongside the dish the night before. Since I didn’t get a photograph then, this picture was taken the next day with the leftovers potatoes added to the stew.          When we entertain, I…