Destination: Pocantico Hills

travel: less twerk, more cook…

– I have neglected my blog. And I am sorry for it. In the months since my trip to Chicago in March (the last, substantive post on this blog), I have seen spring, summer, and autumn happening in fragments all over the Western Hemisphere, both above and below the equator. While I intend to write […]

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travel: less twerk, more cook…

– I have neglected my blog. And I am sorry for it. In the months since my trip to Chicago in March (the last, substantive post on this blog), I have seen spring, summer, and autumn happening in fragments all over the Western Hemisphere, both above and below the equator. While I intend to write […]

Continue

best of 2009, the restaurant edition…

Corton New York, New York The course of any meal unfolds in a highly personal and circumstantial way.  Evaluating any restaurant experience devoid of personal context (e.g. company, mood, and personal preferences) is an impossible task. Though I like think that I can be scrupulously objective, I know that emotion trumps reason, personal preferences cloud […]

Continue

best of 2009, the restaurant edition…

Corton New York, New York The course of any meal unfolds in a highly personal and circumstantial way.  Evaluating any restaurant experience devoid of personal context (e.g. company, mood, and personal preferences) is an impossible task. Though I like think that I can be scrupulously objective, I know that emotion trumps reason, personal preferences cloud […]

Continue

best dishes of 2008…

Softball-Size White Truffle l’Ambroisie, Paris, France Gastronomic self one-upsmanship was not my intention when 2008 began. But it happened quite unexpectedly. For the past three years, I’ve recapped the top 25 dishes in a year-end review (click here for 2005, here for 2006, and here for 2007). Annually, I announce with certainty that my lucky […]

Continue

best dishes of 2008…

Softball-Size White Truffle l’Ambroisie, Paris, France Gastronomic self one-upsmanship was not my intention when 2008 began. But it happened quite unexpectedly. For the past three years, I’ve recapped the top 25 dishes in a year-end review (click here for 2005, here for 2006, and here for 2007). Annually, I announce with certainty that my lucky […]

Continue

best dishes of 2007…

2007 saw a noticeable change in food trends. Our nation’s culinary drivers began to consciously steer us away from fine dining and toward casual fare. This de-emphasis on luxury in favor of the humble meant that caviar and foie gras became out-paced by brussels sprouts and short ribs; the fascination and wonder with molecular gastronomy […]

Continue

best dishes of 2007…

2007 saw a noticeable change in food trends. Our nation’s culinary drivers began to consciously steer us away from fine dining and toward casual fare. This de-emphasis on luxury in favor of the humble meant that caviar and foie gras became out-paced by brussels sprouts and short ribs; the fascination and wonder with molecular gastronomy […]

Continue

review: meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Blue Hill at Stone Barns ulterior epicure Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Photographs of this meal can be found on my flickr account.) Moments and reminders of how humans ought to live are, in our world, scarce. Having grown up on the prairie plains of the Midwest amidst fields of corn, wheat and cattle, there […]

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review: meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Blue Hill at Stone Barns ulterior epicure Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Photographs of this meal can be found on my flickr account.) Moments and reminders of how humans ought to live are, in our world, scarce. Having grown up on the prairie plains of the Midwest amidst fields of corn, wheat and cattle, there […]

Continue