CHEWING THE FAT

Lillian posed for Blackgama Mink for which she was roundly criticized.  The late Wendy Wasserstein  Did she…or didn’t she ever make an Empanada ? Before you think I am fixated on Lillian Hellmann, Playwright, Author and Memoirist, I feel compelled to admit that you may…

          My friend Betty once told me a riotous story of being invited to a Thanksgiving dinner and being asked to “bring something”.  When she arrived on the big day, there were 12, count ’em, sweet potato casseroles.  Lesson learned: If…

            Andrew and I felt as if we already knew Chuck Hughes before we even arrived at his latest Montreal venue, “Le Bremner”  (361 Rue St. Paul East, Montreal H2Y 1H2 Tel: 514-544-0466 ) in the heart of Old Montreal.  We’d been following Chuck…

         Ground turkey is not my favorite protein, not by a long shot. But I know many people adore the stuff. For its low fat, high protein content, it’s hard to beat.  The difference between it and ground beef is startling.  A mix of dark…

With ingredients bordering on White Trash, this Pot Roast is absolutely delicious When I went to the market last weekend, there was a special on Chuck Roast with a big sticker on it saying “Easy Cooking Instructions for Pot Roast”.  I immediately thought “Lillian Hellmann’s…

Kerala, Land of Coconuts          Talk about a recipe that lives it to its name!  This glorious chicken dish perfumes the house with a wonderful aroma of spices—ginger, curry, cloves and cinnamon.  And then, when you bring it to the table and serve it over…

           The Food Network magazine came on the scene in 2008 and created quite a splash.  Its initial goal was to sell 300,000 copies.  In short order, it had over 1,000,000 readers a month.  Its celebrity chefs grace each cover like rock stars. …

Andrew made this recipe not once but twice and it was big hit. He encouraged me to post it.  But for the life of me, I could not find it. I must have used every search word combination I could think of.  The truly pathetic…

  Joe Beef’s notorious Double Down Our Homage to the Chef, Frederic Morin We realized there was no way we were going to pin a “Best Restaurant in Montreal” title on any one of the sensational places we ate.  They were uniformly great.  They all…

“Poutine”, a fine “mess” and Quebec’s gift to Gastronomy… or Gluttony as in this version from Au Pied de Cochon topped with Foie Gras Vieux Montreal, a perfect base to explore Old and New Montreal          As New Yorkers, we’re inclined to feel that our…

Food and Wine’s Grace Parisi          We love a good curry at our house.  It’s warming and satisfying on all levels.  This particular recipe is the product of that master chef at Food and Wine magazine, Grace Parisi.  What Grace has achieved here is a…

         This dish really ought to come with a passport.  It has undercurrents of India with its cumin and coriander.  But the Haloumi cheese is pure Greek. The chickpeas could be Indian or Italian or German. And if we called them “Garbanzos”,…

         Duck a l’Orange lives in our memory as one of our first introductions to restaurant food.  In Montreal, where we lived, it was fairly ubiquitous on the city’s better menus.  We loved it for its sweetness and its crunch.  For the dark duck meat…

         Few things are more of a convenience in the kitchen than keeping a bag of Costco shrimp in the Freezer. Cleaned, with their tails intact, they are very economical and they come in several sizes of shrimp—from very large to small and somewhere in between.  Whatever…