Posts from the ‘Catching Up’ Category

Jun 30

Catching Up in June

Catching up in June, it seemed everything was moving more slowly. Maybe it was just having the time to read Christina Delsol’s Mexico Mix articles for the SF Gate about the slow food movement in the Yucatán and the discovery of chocolate starting with Moctezuma drinking “bitter water” (xocóatl) from golden goblets. Reading Chichi Wang’s post on Serious Eats on how to make Colombian-style chicharrones, I learned they do not grow on trees in grease-stained brown paper bags but can be slow cooked in a wok then fried in their own rendered fat. It’s not something I’d ever considered before but his step-by-step for the Nasty Bits made it seem too easy not to try. Meanwhile, Enrique Hernandez explored Miami’s changing/never changing Cuban restaurants for the Miami Herald and Ferran Adrià announced plans for a new restaurant in Barcelona.

May 31

Catching Up in May

I collect links and articles for my monthly catching up posts every day so it’s not until I sit down to go through them all that a theme emerges. The New York Times City Room covered the struggles of two neighborhood restaurants. Due in part to the efforts of community leaders and a last minute fundraiser, Coqui Mexicano was able to temporarily stave off eviction from their South Bronx location but Manhattanville’s La Floridita, one of the last Cuban restaurants left in the area, was forced to close for repairs and faces an uncertain future. The Village Voice interview with Fernando Ruiz of the Tortilleria Nixtamal, which is doing well, was about mistakes, misconceptions, and underappreciated ingredients — a more interesting read but still. Even news that Rick Bayless would be preparing the state dinner President Felipe Calderón of Mexico stirred up some controversy both before and after. On a brighter note, Carolina González wrote for the Daily News about the prominence of women chefs and restaurateurs like Zarela Martínez and Sue Torres in high-end Mexican cuisine. I thought May would farmer’s markets and spring blossoms but there were some shadows too.

Apr 26

Spring Break and Catching Up in April

With the days a blur of pollen and rain showers and my 200th post coming up, I thought it would be a good time to take a break, update my site and catch-up on my reading. ABC New recently posted a list of recent cookbooks on Latin cuisine and I can’t decide if I want to start with Nirmala’s Edible Diary by Nirmala Narine, Jose Pizarro’s Seasonal Spanish Food – a finalist for this year’s Julia Child IACP award for a first book, or Daisy Martinez’s latest – Daisy: Morning, Noon and Night (click here for her interview with A Chica Bakes). I’ll probably go with The Brazilian Kitchen by Leticia Moreinos Schwartz because it’s because it’s been leading my wish list since I tried her recipe for coconut brigadeiros last month. There have also been some interesting one ingredient articles. Now that the weather is fit for wandering, I plan on seeking out new markets and sources to include here. Apart from last week’s look at cilantro, which always elicits strong opinions, John Willoughby’s Pimentón: It’s Spanish for ‘Better Than Paprika’ had me triple checking the denominations of my paprika, and I’m still not sure what the Indian spice asafetida does but can’t wait to find out. That’s my spring break plan – cooking, reading, and shopping. I’ll be back next week, still hungry and with a lot to talk about, unless I decide to ditch it all for sunbathing, flirting with Ivy Leaguers, and bebop. Stay tuned.

Mar 31

Catching Up in March

I am under the wire for my Catching up in March post. Usually there’s a common theme that emerges in the stories that I come across but March was all over the place, a bumper-car month. There was a Cuban sandwich ‘throwdown’with Bobby Flay won by Nick Vazquez of Jersey City’s Azucar. There was also a good New York Times review for Pilar Cuban Eatery, a new cafe in Clinton Hill named after Hemingway’s boat that’s about bringing Miami to Brooklyn and another one for El Parador Cafe, the oldest Mexican restaurant in New York. If you’re looking for seemingly random food rules, Leslie Freeman Riva collected a few for the Atlantic (though I still believe that hot Read more

Feb 25

Catching Up in February

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve talked about what I was reading, but I didn’t want to let February go by without pointing to some really interesting articles. Of course, the El Bulli story has continued to develop with the announcement that it would close permanently in 2012 and re-open as a non-profit foundation 2014. There were two interesting pieces in the New York Times Diner’s Journal by Grant Achatz and Frank Bruni about the very different emotions the restaurant inspired. Read more

Jan 18

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Catching Up in January

I took advantage of a rainy Sunday to catch up on some reading though, instead of newspaper stacks, I had bookmarked pages and Google alerts filling up my inbox. For the New York Times, Jonathan Miles visited Roneria Caracas, a new Brooklyn bar specializing in rum drinks, in The Choices? Rum or Rum and doesn’t miss the whisky while Paola Singer went to western Spain to sample the Dom Pérignon of Iberian ham for In Spain, A Delicacy Rooted in Earth and Tradition. Meanwhile, Read more