Category Archives: Food for Thought

Food for Thought is useful reading, and occasionally viewing, about food and related matters: mostly blogs, but also a few books and magazines with Amazon links when available for purchase.

Food for Thought: Gastro Obscura

I have long appreciated the daily emails I get from Atlas Obscura, a website chronicling truly out-of-the-way travel experiences. The other day they reminded me they now have a food section, called Gastro Obscura, and it’s already at 500 posts. … Continue reading

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Food for Thought: how NY Times’ Sam Sifton develops recipes

There’s a nice piece in this Sunday’s New York Times on how their food editor, Sam Sifton, develops recipes for home cooks. It describes a technique we have often used: harassing a chef till she reveals the secret, or at … Continue reading

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Food for Thought: Omnivore Books

I’ve pretty much stopped buying new cookbooks in physical form. They’re hard to schlep around, inconvenient to refer to while you’re cooking, and it’s a tragedy when you splash hot grease on your favorite photo. My growing Kindle library is … Continue reading

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Food for Thought: Ottolenghi on Kindle

The other day I discovered that Yotam Ottolenghi’s eponymous first book is just $2.99 in the Kindle edition. What a great deal! This book did not get the attention of his two subsequent books, Jerusalem and Plenty, but it’s loaded … Continue reading

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Food for thought: How to evaluate a new cookbook

This was going to be a review and recommendation of Vegan: The Cookbook by Jean-Christian Jury. The book had received a glowing write up in the very uneven Saturday “Off Duty” section of the Wall Street Journal, and I was … Continue reading

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Foor for Thought: My New Roots

I found my way to Sarah Britton’s My New Roots blog because Josey Baker credited her as the inspiration for his Adventure Bread. (She calls it the “Life-Changing Loaf of Bread”.)  Britton is a nutritionist, originally from New York, who has … Continue reading

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Food for Thought: As American as Shoofly Pie

As American as Shoofly Pie is about half history and half recipes, making it a good introduction to Pennsylvania folkways from the leading authority. Wiliam Woyes Weaver has lived in the Pennsylvania Dutch region for much of his life so … Continue reading

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My take on the David Brooks “I’ll have a side of white privilege” covfefe

New York Times columnist David Brooks recently wrote a piece on white privilege in which he pointed out all the ways American society is subtly tilted in favor of people who are already well off, so they and their offspring … Continue reading

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Food for Thought: Making of a Chef

Making of a Chef is not a new book; it was first published in 1997 and I only became aware of it because of author Michael Ruhlman’s latest, Grocery. But it’s not outdated at all, other than the numbers quoted for … Continue reading

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Food for Thought: Teff Love

I blundered on Kittee Berns’ Teff Love on Amazon while looking for injera recipes. I don’t think I have ever seen such glowing reviews for a book. I bought it, and committed to sourcing some of the ingredients like ajiwan … Continue reading

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