CHEWING THE FAT

         I love a great burger.  Juicy, perfectly cooked medium rare prime beef oozing with flavor, layered with cheese, topped with ‘special sauce’ and sandwiched between a bun…this is when food takes me to my happy place.  I will go out of my way for…

Mark Bittman Recently Mark Bittman used his Sunday NY Times Food pages to extoll the virtues and utter simplicity of making Pate a Choux. This dough is the basis for both Gougeres, bite sized cheese puffs that melt in your mouth and Chocolate Eclairs, my…

“Meatball Mike” Chernow (left)  and Chef Daniel Holzman             Chef Daniel Holzman and his partner, Michael Chernow, AKA “Meatball Mike” are New York’s Kings of the Meatball.  With the opening of their 5th location, on the Far East side of Manhattan, at 1462 Second Avenue, they are…

         Chef Cosmo Goss “Hop Chef” Gail Collins, the columnist who calls the New York Times Opinion pages home, loves a good name.  One of her all-time favorites is Butch Otter, the Governor of the great state of Idaho about whom Collins wrote: “ That…

         Jason Weiner with an un-Monte’s Ham From the moment Almond Restaurant opened 12 years ago in an old roadhouse in Bridgehampton, it’s been a smash hit.  (It’s also been featured here before https://chewingthefat.us.com/2011/06/roasted-asparagus-with-lardons-and.html).  We quickly became regulars drawn by the consistently great food that comes…

I love a recipe with a past and this simple and satisfying Chicken dish is a prime example.  And it may be the only time when you can say you’re serving Chicken fit for an Emperor, in this case Napoleon.  There’s a myth attached to…

         Bangers and Mash I have a weakness for English dishes with picturesque names. Even the simplest of these is a riddle.  “Bangers and Mash”, or Sausage and Mashed Potatoes, is the simplest to understand.  The sausages used in the original recipe,…

        This morning, New York set a new record in Central Park. It was 4F. For our friends who use Celsius, it sounds even worse: -15C.   So we likely couldn’t find a better day to travel south to the French West Indies and the island of…

         From the numbers of people who have clicked on James Beard’s Roast Beef Hash recipe just this week (1703 and counting), my guess is there’s a lot of Prime Rib leftover from our Holiday menus.  That’s the case here and after I’d made the…

         We’ve had a banner year on Chewing the Fat.  As of right now, we’ve consistently increased readership month after month.  Our readers come from all over the globe – China is just 16 readers under Australia.  I’m particularly proud of our Canadian friends.  The…

       I needn’t tell you the Sweets Factory at our house has been in overdrive ever since we arrived here for the holidays.  There have been dozens of cookies, a Red Velvet Cake, even a Norwegian “Fyrstekake” a Cardomon Almond confection, beautifully decorated…

                  This is one of Ina Garten’s most beloved recipes.  It dates all the way back to 1999 when it appeared in Ina’s first cookbook “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter 1999).  Since I can’t think of  a better time for luxury foods like…

Scampi  I first wrote this post a year ago. But I thought I would repeat it again this year because it’s a wonderful explanation of an Italian tradition that many Italian Americans will uphold again this Christmas Season. And the recipe follows my mantra for…

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,…