In the Wild Hare Tavern’s windowfront kitchen, the flat-top grill hisses against a layered rectangle of mortadella, Genoa salami and capicola (or “gabagool,” as the cured pork neck and shoulder is known among Sopranos fans and spanning the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border). Flipped onto a split Amoroso roll with mayo and circles of provolone, shredded lettuce, […]
Italian cuisine
Posted inEat + Drink
Versatile Dark Leafy Greens, 2025 Edition
Today I continue an informal tradition I seem to have established in recent years: celebrating Earth Day with a recipe that uses dark leafy greens, which are nutritious and overall good for our bodies. In 2022, I argued in favor of consuming radish greens, overlooked in favor of the colorful, spicy roots and often discarded […]
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Kimchi and Alfredo? Hear Me Out …
Growing up in the ’80s as a half Korean and half white kid in Southern California, the TV shows, dolls and demographics of my neighborhood didn’t reflect me or my reality. Physically, I did not look like I was enough of one side to hide comfortably behind those features. As a child, I longed to […]
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A Trio of Arcata Soft Openings
Chef Gori Igarashi wears a tall ballcap with a cannabis leaf embroidered on it and a thin towel tied around his neck as he hunches over a burner, tossing fried rice in a wok. A pair of men pinball between stations in Susukino Ramen Bar’s (1504 G St., Arcata) open kitchen, ladling out broth, checking […]
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Arrivederci, La Trattoria
After 21 years, Jim Becker and Patricia Cambianica, husband and wife owners of La Trattoria in Sunny Brae, are bidding farewell, shuttering the little restaurant after service Saturday, April 1. “We’ve been doing this for 21 years,” says Becker over the phone. In that time, La Trattoria has built a loyal following with its traditional, […]
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Chop Up Italian Salsa Verde
Several things stand out in my memory of the semester I lived in Florence. I remember narrow cobblestone streets. The tranquility of brisk, autumn mornings near the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio, and the quiet occasionally interrupted by buzzing vespas. I also remember my delight when tasting new Tuscan foods such as Italian salsa verde, green sauce. In […]
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Gone After Dinner
Cork-down wine bottle chandeliers light Marcelli’s Italian Restaurant from the chipped green linoleum counter on one side to the corner that was once walled off during the spot’s time as an Italian deli but is now decorated with framed news articles. Outside the front windows, cars flash by on Fifth Street’s three lanes as a […]
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Marcelli’s Serves its Last Dinner
Marcelli’s Italian Restaurant, the mom and pop joint run by the family that’s been making ravioli in Eureka for 90 years, will close for good after tonight’s dinner service. The ravioli will still be made in the back and shipped to stores for at least a little while, but the Marcelli family has no comment […]
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‘Not Like it Used to Be’: Why Mazzoti’s Eureka Shut Down
Peer through the darkened windows of Mazzotti’s in Old Town and you’ll see the chairs have been upside down on the tables long enough to gather yellowed leaves from the hanging plants. Eventually the furniture will come out and the sign will go down, but Mazzotti’s isn’t coming back — at least not here and […]
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Hum Plate Roundup
Red sauce for the blues Pity those whose otherwise broadening travels render them unable to enjoy American immigrant iterations of their ancestral cuisines. I think of my old classmate returning from a semester in Rome, heartbroken from an affair and recoiling from the messy red spaghetti and glass shakers of parmesan cheese and red pepper […]
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Red Sauce for the Blues
Pity those whose otherwise broadening travels render them unable to enjoy American immigrant iterations of their ancestral cuisines. I think of my old classmate returning from a semester in Rome, heartbroken from an affair and recoiling from the messy red spaghetti and glass shakers of parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes that seemed to him […]
Posted inEat + Drink
The Simple Pleasure of Lentils
On New Year’s Eve, a steaming pot of lentils with whole sausages and slices of traditional cotechino, large pork sausage, was always on the dinner menu at home in Perugia, Italy. In preparing this festive comfort dish, my mother followed a tradition meant to bring prosperity, as lentils have come to symbolize coins. As a […]