Wednesday Food

[lsanderson]

Should a Wine List Educate or Merely Flatter You?

In Oregon, Truffles Are No Match for Wet Noses

Sasha, foreground, found an Oregon black truffle for her owners, Erik Campen and Kim Hickey.
By NICK CZAP
Published: August 7, 2012
REDLAND, Ore.

THE forest air was cool and the light translucently green, sifted through the Douglas-fir canopy above and refracted by plumes of sword ferns that sprang from the forest floor. There was a muffled galumphing, a blur of golden fur, and then another, as Sasha and Ashleigh, two golden retrievers, bounded by off-leash in a kind of dog nirvana, followed closely by their owners, Kim Hickey and Erik Campen.

LETTER FROM PARIS

It was not until then that meat became a key part of the diet of aristocrats. Bear paw was a dish appreciated by King Zhou, the dynasty’s last king, who made his reputation as a torturer, a drinker and a host of extravagant orgies.

The recipe was straightforward: 1 bear paw, 2 ounces of honey, 1 teaspoon of salt, 20 ounces of chicken broth,1/3 ounce of ginger and 7 ounces of grain alcohol.

The paw was to be peeled and cleaned, coated in a thick layer of honey, cooked in a pot at low heat for an hour, rinsed, then simmered for three hours in a pot with the chicken broth and seasonings on the embers of a fire.

It was the prep that threw me: “Clean the paw with paper. Don’t use water that might contaminate it. Put some lime in a bowl, then add a thick layer of fried rice. Place the bear paw on the rice and cover it with another layer of rice. Put a lid on the bowl and seal it with lime.

“The bear paw cannot be eaten immediately after it is cut off. It is necessary to let it go rancid for one or two years before cooking.”

Who knew? Chinese Bear Paws Tickle the French

A GOOD APPETITE
Never Say ‘No’ to a Tomato Vine

Tomato, fresh fig and blue cheese salad.
By MELISSA CLARK
Published: August 3, 2012

I’M afraid to even say this out loud because I don’t want to jinx it. But a few weeks ago, at the very beginning of tomato season, I ate a perfect heirloom.

Recipes
Tomato Bread Salad With Chorizo and Herbs
Cherry Tomato Caesar Salad
Tomato, Fresh Fig and Blue Cheese Salad
Tomato Tonnato

SPROUTS
Palates, Like Children, Grow

Wade Burch gives Addison, Brie and Hailey, above from left, a hands-on lesson in corn shucking as they make corn soup.
By ELAINE LOUIE
Published: August 3, 2012

“I FIND it inconceivable that my daughter won’t eat what I cook,” said Wade Burch, the 46-year-old executive chef at 11 restaurants owned and managed by Merchants Hospitality, including Neely’s Barbecue Parlor on the Upper East Side.

He and his wife, Lisa, a freelance publicist, 42, have three daughters, Hailey, who just turned 8; Brie, 6; and Addison, 5. And when he says “my daughter,” he is speaking of any one of the three, since whatever he cooks will usually please one or two but seldom all. At their sprawling two-story house here in North Jersey, a trifecta is rare.

WHAT WE EAT
Asked to Get Slim, Cheese Resists
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: August 6, 2012

MILWAUKEE — In the centuries that Americans have been making cheese, they have gotten very good at it, producing world-class Cheddars and chèvres, to name just two varieties. But more recently, cheese making has been something of a struggle.

Under pressure to reduce sodium and saturated fats in American diets — especially those of children — the cheese industry has tried to make products with less salt or fat that consumers will like.

It has not had great success. Moar

Marcus Samuelsson, a Chef, a Brand and Then Some

Marcus Samuelsson greeted customers at his Red Rooster Harlem restaurant.
By ADRIENNE CARTER
Published: August 4, 2012

MARCUS SAMUELSSON, dapper in a Ralph Lauren tuxedo and patterned scarf, is working the celebrity-couture crowd at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is a Monday evening, just around 7, and Mr. Samuelsson — hotshot chef, food impresario and kinetic force behind Red Rooster Harlem, one of Manhattan’s restaurants of the moment — is displaying his usual verve.

On the red carpet, he snaps a picture of his glamorous wife, the model and philanthropist Maya Haile, with Beyoncé. In the European sculpture gallery, he is chatting with Kanye West and several of the New York Knicks. At the Temple of Dendur, he is dining with André Balazs, the hotel owner, and Chelsea Handler.

The next morning at 10, Mr. Samuelsson, in a fresh shirt and tux trousers, is sitting in a sound studio some 60 blocks downtown, painstakingly recording the audio version of his new memoir, “Yes, Chef.” Six hours later, in a vintage, red velvet tuxedo jacket, he is overseeing an intimate dinner for 350 at Gotham Hall on behalf of Queen Silvia and Princess Madeleine of Sweden.

A Kitchen Rainbow

By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Published: August 7, 2012

Bialetti, an Italian cookware company, introduced its five-quart oval pasta pot more than 10 years ago. I loved its shape, which neatly accommodated a pound or two of long pasta like spaghetti, and its colanderlike lid, which locked in place for easy draining. I even put up with the color, metallic blue. Now Bialetti has introduced an array of hues: red, charcoal gray, purple, turquoise and orange. Meanwhile, I have discovered some uses besides preparing pasta: It will hold six ears of corn on the cob, and is ideal for steaming or boiling two 1 ¼-pound lobsters.

FOOD STUFF
Calling Jack Horner

By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Published: August 7, 2012

Greenmarkets normally win plaudits for selling produce that’s locally grown and often organic, but they also sell items that are simply not available anywhere else.

Take plums. Yes, there are local farmers who grow varieties that you will find in your supermarket, like Santa Rosa, Italian prune and Elephant Heart. Yet for juicy, Ping-Pong-to-golf-ball-size plums in yellow, green, pink, red and purple — some blushed with rouge — you need to seek out the farm stand. About a dozen kinds are on sale these days in New York Greenmarkets, though some are tailing off as others appear.