If there’s one thing I learned from the Souperama this weekend, it’s that a big batch of soup is meant to be enjoyed by many. And, okay, sixteen batches of them, even better. But more importantly, I was reminded of this altruistic goal when it comes to cooking anything in large portion (and really, who’s going to make one bowl of soup?): to try to create something that’s kosher for almost any diet, sway or fancy, and still make it delicious for all. It can also be a fun creative challenge. And for someone who happens to have a handful of vegetarian friends, making split pea soup without ham sounded like a challenge, indeed.
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There are so many things you can do with fennel, that I don’t know where to begin. Slivered and sauteed just like onions creates a caramelized, anise-tasting substitute in a savory beef stew. You can lop off the stalks, which most people sadly don’t use, and chop them up like celery to use instead of that, in soup and stock. The fronds are mild-tasting, but they make a distinct, sweet garnish that makes me wonder why I haven’t steeped them in milk for ice cream, or dried some of the stuff up for tea. But before we get to those things, here’s the most basic, popular way to enjoy fennel: slicing the bulb for a crunchy, refreshing salad.
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Join us at Jimmy’s No. 43 for a really warm charity event. The 1st annual NYC Souperama, to benefit Harbor Hope and the Fresh Air Fund, is going to be hot. What better way to escape the wintery mix of slush and snow than slurping up ladles of homemade soup, and craft beer? And, chefs are still welcome to sign up so get your stockpots out and throw in whatever’s leftover (my favorite thing to do on a winter weekend).
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Ditching the blizzard in New York and being delayed twice thanks to frost on the planes, I finally arrived in Madison, Wisconsin Friday evening, well-fed from my carry-on meal. I was picked up at the airport by Jonny Hunter of the Underground Food Collective, and from that point on, taken on a whirlwind tour of one of the most inspiring food destinations I’ve been. It was also at this point that I decided to let things happen as they may — to eat, out or in, whatever was on the menu, so to speak. To be sure, my trip had a few eaten-in missions: I would be cooking for a collaborative dinner between three supper clubs, and leading a guest chef menu at Slow Food UW’s Monday night dinner series, too. It turned out I was the only member of Hapa Kitchen who could make it to Madison, but I knew that I was in capable hands.
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That is the question. It is quite possibly the most perplexing thing about not eating out. We live in a culture that travels a lot — whether it’s just a twenty-minute commute to work each day in a car or perpetually being “between” two coasts, or countries, by plane. I wonder about our wandering if it isn’t the reason why take-out or fast food was created in the first place. Eric Schlosser certainly makes a causality seem logical in his tour of interstate highway development in Fast Food Nation: the more we hit the road, the more we press the brakes on preparing meals ourselves.
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photo courtesy of Goldilocks Finds Manhattan

I just love peeking into other people’s kitchens, see how they chop and dice and scurry about. This time my voyeurism has a very particular angle: to see how they cope with a Week of Eating In. And what I’ve seen from other folks doing that, at the blogs The Eaten Path, No Recipes, Relish Austin, Goldilocks Finds Manhattan and eating-sf, makes me want to come pounding at their door.
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Getting into the midst of the Week of Eating In, I figured it was time for a good gathering over (homemade) grub again. As I discussed in The Art of Eating In, everyone can use some time in the middle of their day to relax, sit down and eat. Especially with your friends, fellow workers or family. Just like we all need to sleep, this communal time is restorative and constructive in many ways, even if it’s not a business or “power lunch.”
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Let me confess: my first day of the Week of Eating In was actually Sunday, one day before it officially began. On that day, I managed to leaven two loaves of bread, which would later be baked, roast two trays full of root vegetables, which could be snacked on like popcorn or put into more formal preparations with a little warming up, simmer some tomato sauce from a can of whole plum, and make a pot of stock and some soup with most of it. And I went shopping, too, though the brunt of it was on Saturday, picking up bulk plastic bags of produce like apple and turnips at the Greenmarket. I did about enough to keep me going for two weeks of eating in, over the weekend. I’m still thinking that some of this bread may end up for the birds, or at least, as breadcrumbs.
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flyer by Chow Ciao design

We’re pleased to roll out the green carpet at Anthology Film Archives tonight, for the second installment of Hungry Filmmakers! The food documentary screening and discussion event is back, thanks to the enormous response we received to the first one. In all his years of hosting and having fun at food events, Jimmy Carbone, proprietor of Jimmy’s No. 43 and Hungry Filmmakers co-host along with Tim Lynch, Shelley Rogers and myself, has said that he had never seen such enthusiasm for anything like we saw for the first event. That’s saying something, but knowing the great films involved, we weren’t surprised.
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It’s the first day of the Week of Eating In challenge, and I’m taking it easy like Sunday morning. Only it’s Monday. You don’t start skiing by tackling the super giant slalom, no, you keep to the bunny hill for a while (or in my case, never progress from that point, because you find that you don’t like skiing much and have planted your face in the snow while getting on or off the ski left one too many times). So for a possibly frenzied week of cooking, in the midst of my book’s release no less, I wanted to start off real simple.
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