The lights are out across the street. For the past three years I have lived across the street from wd~50. For the past three years, before stepping into my doorway, I glanced over to see how things were going––busy, quiet, room at the bar? For the past three years I've felt connected to the restaurant, in some part like it was mine.
Read MoreChristina Ha didn’t have cats growing up. She also wasn’t a baker. But both of those things have changed. Early next month the publicist turned macaron baker plans to open New York’s first permanent cat café.
Read MoreThe Brooklyn “party” brought together people who were so obsessed with the next beer thing that we were willing to stand outside in thirty-degree weather for two plus hours. Many sporting facial hair discussed past flavors, none of which sounded potable: blue cheese, pad Thai, Sriracha, pecan pie and, oh yeah, hog.
Read MoreUrban farmers in New York City face many obstacles—from high winds, to lack of space, extreme temperatures, and more. But now, there’s a line of seeds made just for them. Zach Pickens of Rooftop Ready Seeds, a small NYC start-up, has been cultivating, packaging, and selling seeds bred specifically for New York urban farms for the past four years.
Read MoreThe Amish farmer stepped into the backseat of the car and placed an old, slightly dusty black briefcase on his lap. “Nice briefcase,” I told him.
“Everyone notices it,” he laughed.
It’s hard to imagine ice cream could get one iota better, but Nicholas Morgenstern has found the one iota. Morgenstern, the former pastry chef responsible for the hot little self-named ice cream parlor in the Lower East Side, has just launched a weekly pop-up of limited-edition ice cream flavors.
This week the residents of San Francisco and Berkeley, California, will be voting on a proposed tax on sugary soda. It’s not the first time soda has come under the firing gun, but it’s possibly the first one poised for success. Northern California, land of edible schoolyards, plentiful farmers markets, and Michael Pollan, already seems like a region that has drunk the Kool Aid, so one wonders: Can a soda tax become the first step in fighting the poor American diet?
Read MoreYou might think the inventor of the Cronut has enough success and accolades now that he could kick up his heels and relax a little, but the reality is that Dominique Ansel is still waking up at the same time some of us are going to bed (at least on a Friday) and his days are still spent ensuring the quality of every item served at his bakery. I caught up with the pastry chef to find out what a typical day looks like.
Read MoreThe rainy season means two things for me: losing my black umbrella in a sea of like-minded umbrellas at my local cafe, and apples. Apples! It's like a blessing and a curse.
Read MoreThere’s a new food court in town and it’s sandwiched between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, and 32nd and 34th Streets. The market fits the oblong space perfectly. What's unique about Broadway Bites, and markets like it, is that the small scale allows first time vendors to try something before making a big financial commitment. They also get an opportunity to serve a demographic they might not usually find, a mix of both tourists and office workers.
Read MoreLast Sunday I attended an event thrown by Transportation Alternatives, an organization that I volunteer for. As a cyclist I am in debt to the work TA does to improve the city for people not driving cars. As a pedestrian, I am again thankful to TA because they lobby for improved conditions for everyone outside of cars. What's surprising is that despite the massive population of New York, the membership in TA is lower than that of a similar organization out west, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. If you're not a member, but you walk, cycle, take the bus or subway, you can show your support by becoming a member. (There are tons of perks too.)
Read MoreWhen I walk down the cereal aisle of my grocery store, I see a breadth of options that are overwhelming. Baristas at my local coffee shop inquire whether I’d like my coffee brewed using a Chemex, French press, or siphon pot. To continue this hyper-granular thread, my new corner ice cream shop––yes, it’s in Manhattan––offers four flavors of chocolate ice cream.
Read MoreOutside my grandparents’ home was a walnut tree. It stood uncomfortably close to their front picture window, creating an off-putting darkness that I tried to escape. When I walked from the sidewalk to the front door, I gingerly stepped around its detritus: thickly hulled green orbs that dropped from its branches and rolled around. They would get crushed, blacken, and, eventually, open to reveal a magical wrinkly nut. My memory holds the walnuts there, even though I’m sure the tree did not produce nuts every year of my childhood. There are other plants I remember too: olallieberries grew in the backyard, thickly covering a red fence. The word seemed plucked from a Dr. Seuss book. I thought they had made it up because, well, the berries looked exactly like blackberries. Over that red fence I could see a slide that went into what must have been a pool. This was the San Fernando Valley. This was my early life. Despite the messy debris, it felt urban, clean.
Read MoreForaging, urban exploration, finding surplus in local parks or growing at the base of your neighbors tree, are all options for eating a meal that is far left of the mainstream. However finding these ingredients might mean you need to pick up a few un-city-like tools, like say, a shovel. Don’t want to buy a shovel? No problem. In most cities you can find these formerly frowned upon weeds at your local farmer’s markets.
Read MoreAs New York City hosts Honey Week with its honey infusion workshops and apiary tours, local beekeepers say they have an added reason to celebrate this year. Their bees have been extra busy. "It was the best year in my last 10 years," said Andrew Cote of Andrew's Honey, a full-time beekeeper with about 50 hives in Manhattan.
Read MoreBrine—that wonderful liquid you might find in a martini, or accompanying a shot of whiskey as part of a pickle back—is also harmful to the environment. In fact, how to dispose of vast amounts of brining salt is one of the biggest problems facing the pickling industry. But the USDA may have just uncovered a solution.
Read MoreA few weeks ago a friend sent me a free trial week to Blue Apron, the home-delivery meal service that sends every little thing you need to make dinner for 2 (or more) . Everything except for the olive oil, salt and pepper.
Read MoreLast Thursday I attended a dinner where every ingredient used to create the meal had been earmarked for the landfill. What am I talking about? Moldy grapes, floppy herbs, limp carrots, overripe peaches and eggplant scraps.
I wrote about the dinner for the Wall Street Journal, and you can read that here. One item that we weren't quite able to get up on their website in time were the tips the host, Josh Treuhaft, and his chef, Celia Lam, shared with me on ways to minimize your food waste.
Bruised apples, floppy herbs and moldy grapes might not be considered acceptable ingredients for most home cooks. But a Manhattan man is hoping to change New Yorker's outlook on food freshness—one dinner party at a time.
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