Ah, summers in New York! Makes me think of sticky nights (hugging a fan by an open window), the squeal of neighbors splashing in open fire hydrants, and the pervasive ditty of the ice cream truck. Yes, summer in New York makes me think of the ice cream truck, and with good reason — they are everywhere. Whether it’s the quintessential truck of our childhoods, … Continue reading cassata.
Despite it being now officially spring, it’s been cold (and snowy!) in Brooklyn this week, and the winter weather has us dreaming of our recent trip to Miami. Scrolling through the photos of sunshine and empanadas, we were reminded of another dish we’d spent much time with — ropa vieja. The dish is everywhere in Miami. It’s not surprising — it is, according to popular … Continue reading ropa vieja à la argentina.
I spent the fall of 2004 studying in Bologna, and to this day, even so many years later, the mere mention of the city and its mothering region Emilia Romagna makes me slightly weepy. Perhaps Giacomo Leopardi said it best, about the beauty of Bologna: Io sospiro per Bologna…dove non si pensa ad altro che a viver allegramente senze diplomazie, dove i forestieri non trovano … Continue reading sorbetto di limone.
Easter in my Italo-Argentinean household was unlike that of my friends, growing up. There were no basketfuls of plastic pastel eggs, nestled among shiny strands of green, no pink bunnies with pinker nubs for noses, no neon-colored peeps. There were no hunts for brightly colored jelly beans or tiny chocolates wrapped in crinkly purple and blue. That’s not to say we lacked for sweets (no … Continue reading pansitos para pascua.
Ah, the Super Bowl. We’re not quite sure what all the fuss is about. Really. There’s something so unappealing about watching large men with protruding bellies in shiny spandex lumber about and fall on each other in some hilarious attempt to move a few yards. It’s graceless and, frankly, boring. How is it possible that four quarters takes four hours? Isn’t “quarter” like, 15 minutes … Continue reading the superbowl.
We can see it now: Clara’s abuela, standing in her cool stone and ceramic kitchen in Córdoba, worn white apron tied around her waist, slowly, ever so slowly, patiently, ever so patiently, pouring a steady, remarkably steady, thin stream of sparkling white sugar into a bowlful of mountainous egg whites. She makes it seem effortless, and in some ways it is, having done it so … Continue reading torta de merengue.
It snowed in New York this weekend! Finally! After a freak October snowstorm, we’ve had nothing but strings of 50+ degree days alternating with bitterly cold, bleak ones. Disconcerting and frustrating. How can it be winter in the Northeast without those brilliant snowy days that justify baking and braising? ‘Twas a lovely morning for a walk, to the Greenmarket to drop off our compost (new … Continue reading glühwein
Mornings in Warsaw we’d step into the biting cold and cross the underpass to the bodega wedged up besides Bazar Rozyckiego, where we’d get a tub of pickles – enough to feed a crowd who loves pickles so much that they´d eat 3 apiece before 10am – for just a little over one American dollar. When we returned to New York, no amount of deli … Continue reading pickles (spicy carrots & orange fennel).
*note: this entry updated in Dec 2012. In Munich a few weeks back, our (American) friend and Clara’s (German) uncle got into a to-us-ridiculous debate about whether gingerbread was lebkuchen. Elizabeth maintained it was; Eckhart was adamant it wasn’t. We were at the holiday market in Marienplatz, poking through cookie cutters, and had come across some tiny gingerbread men (we bought ourselves a wooden owl … Continue reading lebkuchen.
Dan returned from Japan this week, and his only request for his first meal home was something non Asian. Of course, this meant an Italian dinner was in order, and we whipped up some of his favorites: a slow-simmered Bolognese, and another classic, tiramisu. Clara spent a year studying the art of food – ahem – semiotics, in Bologna, in the food-famous region of Emilia-Romagna. … Continue reading tiramisu (senza gli uovi!)
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