The making of a restaurant: Zahav, Philadelphia

A restaurant under construction, by Flickr user leonardo.bonanni.
Anyone who can turn out a few decent dishes at home has heard the suggestion: “Why don’t you open a restaurant?”
Now, I have an ego that makes it touch-and-go whether I can fit in standard elevators. Sometimes I have to take the freight lift. But at [...]

Bless me, father: Daisies Cafe, Lackawanna

Such a rough-and-tumble name for a breakfast’s that’s pure comfort food.
The place I meant to go was closed, so I was driving through Lackawanna looking for lunch. In Buffalo’s, er, economically challenged sister city, I wasn’t exactly expecting to find a killer salad bar.
Still, the sign made me hit the brakes.
LARD OMELETTOS.
“So, that’s [...]

Warming trend: Carrot-ginger soup

You can use organic vegetable broth, but you don’t have to, as any decent broth will do.
There are some recipes that are almost too simple to call recipes.
Let’s say you were thinking of a hearty soup to ward off the chill. But you wanted to stay on the leaner side of the scale, [...]

The Gummi Bears of Gondor

So let’s pretend for a second that I’m not a huge Lord of the Rings nerd. The kind who’s still peeved that that the movie script had Frodo in Osgiliath practically brandishing the One Ring at a Nazgul like a magnesium flare in a coal mine. (“Yoo-hoo, Witch King of Aaaaaang-mar! [...]

A taste of Chinatown: Sun Garden, Amherst

This Serrano chile shrapnel was all that was left of our order of Salt Baked Squid.
The sign in the window said “Homemade Pork Dumpling.”
Not exactly a smoking gun. But my Chinatown antennae went up instantly. First of all, it was odd to see a sign like that in the window of a Chinese takeout stationed [...]

Our not-so-daily bread: Focaccia

The longer you let the dough laze through its final rise, the fluffier it’ll be in the end.
Kathy Galarneau, the wife, thinks there’s no finer way to spend an afternoon than picking sour cherries in an orchard in Burt.
I hate to cook. Yet somehow, despite being married to a man who adores concocting tasty meals, [...]

‘My greasy lover, bacon’

Jim Gaffigan may not be the funniest comedian on the planet. But he clearly has a special relationship with bacon, making him my soul brother. I would be honored to stand in the brunch buffet line next to this man. (Via dooce.)

Out standing food: Ice Bowl tailgating

Flurries continued throughout the game, but no one acted like the sky was falling.

A special game demands something more than hot dogs at the tailgate, and the National Hockey League game on New Years Day between the Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins was certainly special.
More than 70,000 people, the largest crowd ever [...]