Levain Bakery is a tiny bakery on the Upper West Side of New York and is famous for its cookies. The first time I walked by their tiny below-street-level location, there was a line out the door and around the corner. Since I was on my way to meet the rest of our group, I didn’t […]
Travel
Lazy Pickles, or Japanese Cucumber Salad
These are not really pickles, but rather a Japanese cucumber salad. This dish received its name of Lazy Pickles from one of my lunch buddies at work, who moved to Toronto from Ukraine a couple of years ago. The food she brings for lunch are amazing treats that seem to come from a time forgotten by most […]
Okonomiyaki – Japanese Cabbage Pancake
Okonomiyaki is a specialty of Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and also it’s foodie capital. Tomiko and I first tried it at an okonomiyaki restaurant when our aunt took us to Osaka in 2006. The word ‘okomiyaki’ means ‘grilled as you like it’ and is a cabbage pancake, but it tastes so much better […]
Caribbean Buttered Rum Cake
Tomiko and Donatello used to work on cruise ships for several years, and I flew down to visit them in the Caribbean once. In the Cayman Islands I tried some delicious Rum Cake, which was sold in boxes piled high in almost every store. This recipe is the closest thing to that buttery Tortuga Rum Cake. It’s […]
The Year in Books: March with The Basque History Of The World by Mark Kurlanksy
Basque History Of The World by Mark Kurlanksy, 1999 “Nomansland, the territory of the Basques, is in a region called Cornucopia, where the vines are tied up with sausages. And in those parts there was a mountain made entirely of grated Parmesan cheese on whose slopes there were people who spent their whole time making […]