Eat + Drink

Last week’s “Table Talk” described how a national aversion to saturated fats was exploited by the National Pork Board in two ways: First, in creating “Pork — the Other White Meat” as slogan and campaign. Second, by breeding and raising pigs in confinement, and with low-fat, antibiotic-laced diets. The column detailed the literally odious methods […]

Once upon a time there was a pork chop: nearly two inches thick, moist with tiny interior seams of fat, seared in butter in a heavy copper skillet; then a splash of Calvados deglazed the pan, and it gently braised until it was the color of burnished cherrywood. It arrived on the plate attended by […]

There has been a shift In the way Americans think about food over the past two decades, a change in tone. At first, only pinpricks of awareness, then — as water doesn’t become viscous on its way to becoming ice — a sudden consciousness that we need to change the way we eat. True, this […]

Who would have thought there would ever be two successful movies about American wine? But following on the heels of Sideways (based on Merlot-tasting in Santa Barbara wine country), comes Bottle Shock, a critically acclaimed comedy based on George Taber’s book Judgment of Paris: California Vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized […]

It doesn’t look like there will be much to mark the occasion, just some giveaway raffles and some special activities for kids, but this Saturday the North Coast Growers Association celebrates the 30th anniversary of Humboldt County’s Farmers’ Market. A couple of weekends ago, as I made my way from stall to stall on the […]

While I’ve found that cheese-mongering is full of life’s rich delights, sadly it is not making me rich — not with the rent I’m paying. In my new state of horrifying, dizzying penury, I have been investigating all the possible dishes one can make with canned food, and on the cheap. That might mean a […]

"Hello everyone, today was a beautiful day out at the farm. The sun was warm, the air calm, and 102 new little broiler chicks were introduced to the fresh green pasture. Over the last few weeks, activity on our farm has been chuggin’ along as the season marches closer to Summer Solstice — the longest […]

In a previous column, I wrote of New York’s newest culinary destination, David Chang’s Momofuku Ko, a restaurant at the forefront of a new American cuisine, making eating out an exciting yet relatively affordable adventure ("Table Talk," Aug 21). But there is another kind of culinary adventure, one presaged by Michael Pollan, whose books (most […]

I have always loved crostata alla crema (tart with pastry cream). My mother, however, did not bake desserts of any kind. My aunt Lucia baked tarts with her homemade jam and made excellent pastry cream, but in her kitchen never the twain would meet. I feasted on her pastry cream and nibbled at her jam […]

In a faraway city, a Korean-American chef is changing the way restaurants work. David Chang is a top young restaurateur in New York, and the darling of the Eastern culinary sophisticates; in fact, he just won the James Beard Award for Best New York Chef. Of course, right there, that’s enough to damn him as […]

I’m drawn to folk recipes — the kind that aren’t actually written down, or if they are call for things like “some sugar” or “enough salt.” Recipes that make use of leftovers in your refrigerator. Take Shepherd’s Pie. for example. Even better take a dish that was introduced to me by my British husband — […]

I have food prejudices like most people, but I have always felt uncomfortable with them. A half century ago, I watched with envy as patrons of the Grand Central Oyster Bar indulged in what looked like having sex in public; it would be decades later that I enjoyed my first oyster, and years more before […]