Category: Cooking, Kitchen and Table
Hyggelig 6: A Copenhagen Miscellany
Note to self: if there is the chance to drop off luggage before the room has been prepared, drop off everything except for telephone, wallet, camera and guidebook. As we waved hej-hej (that’s “bye-bye”) to Lars the landlord and strolled into town, I realized that my tablet, hardcover book and the heaps of stuff one…
Hyggelig 1: Living Cozy
Apartment 1 in the Central Canal Apartments, Wildersgade, 15, in the Christianshavn neighborhood in Copenhagen is snug. No rugs for bugs and no room for much else. A rack accommodates clothes on hangers but stuff that would go into drawers must stay in suitcases. The kitchen is efficient and spacious…but a space heater fills up…
Black Jelly Beans
What is it with making ordinary treats seasonal? I already went cuckoo when I nearly couldn’t find peppermint stick ice cream for my Christmas dinner menu—and I don’t see why the flavor should be available only from late November to late December. When I was a child and subject to terrible carsickness—okay, I’m an adult…
Book #3 in 2018: “How To Bake π” by Eugenia Cheng
How To Bake π: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics, by Eugenia Cheng. (Basic Books, 2015) is a disappointment. Cheng is, I am sure, a fine mathematician and probably an excellent teacher, but she needs help writing, especially the help of a copyeditor. The jacket cover features lavish praise from five professors of…
Christmas Letter 2017
Dearest All, A single Japanese eggplant plunked in a pot parked on the edge of the driveway around the first of July was still producing beautiful purple fruit at Halloween. Eggplant parmesan. Ratatouille. A whopping lot of pasta alla Norma. Dan reaped the final bounty on 9 November while mesclun lettuce, radishes, beets and oh…
Based in Batignolles 5: Same Dish, Different Preparation
We once taste-tested lobster rolls in Maine and coastal New Hampshire. Somewhat to our surprise, the most famous joint did not provide the best. A few days into this trip, we realized a similar project was underway. Having shoehorned ourselves out of those coach-class seats on American Airlines and fidgeted for two hours in gridlock…
Based in Batignolles 3: Beyond the Pale
Apparently, our neighborhood does not exist. Consult a tourist guide like Eyewitness Paris and there is an empty white space where one might expect to find Batignolles. The teal-green blob of Montmartre floats in a void separate from the colors that identify the other quartiers of the city. There is the 8ème and not much of…
The Naples Jaunt 5: It’s My Birthday
Everyone was celebrating my birthday. That morning bagpipes skirled nearby. When I logged in on the computer, I noticed that Google had lit eight candles in my honor. Or maybe for Hanukkah. And just as I started making notes for this post, fireworks exploded in the vicolo Pietro del Pesce, right by our front steps….
The Naples Jaunt 3: Swiss Army Knife Cooking
I don’t want to be unduly critical of Casa Futura Retrò at vicolo Pietra del Pesce in Salerno, 2. It’s charming, decorated with a modern sensibility (and old photos of kissing couples in the bedroom). I love the gated stair with terracotta tiles that leads to the front entry. The space is lovely, with a large…
The Naples Jaunt 2: Downpour
Rrrrrnnnnnhhhh! Rrrrrnnnnnhhhh!… Rrrrrnnnnnhhhh! Rrrrrnnnnnhhhh! … Rrrrrnnnnnhhhh! Rrrrrnnnnnhhhh! What the hell was that? Oh god. The doorbell. The guy from the bar downstairs with our double espresso, cappuccino, and a couple cornetti. What time was it? Must be eight o’clock, that’s what I told Francesca when she said first breakfast was a freebie. I felt around…
