Here’s a moment where I really wish that a friend of mine had executed her idea to write a parallel blog to mine called, “Not Having Sex in New York.” The plan was, we would be able to compare and contrast the relative advantages or disadvantages of both plights and the unique revelations we each [...]

Let me tell you, it’s serious. After my prize weekend trip to the Copia center’s annual Death by Chocolate festival and private tour of Charles Chocolates factory thanks to Culinate, I estimate my blood is 72% cacao right now. I may not have died by chocolate, per se, but I think I consumed enough of [...]

There’s a new home base for not eating out in New York: my new place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I don’t know if I could say this transition went less smoothly than the last time I moved, since I’ve had a working gas stove at my new residence since Day One. But it was a [...]

This was the challenge I faced growing up with learning to cook anything too rustic and simple: Time and again, I’d be taken aback by something that my mom had just thrown together. Wow, this is really good, I would say, tasting an eggdrop soup with crunchy scallion bits floating about. Or a stir-fry of [...]

The first thing you’re probably wondering is why there is a big picture of broth instead of a completed, beautifully presented plate of winter vegetable couscous before us right now. That’s because when I made this at home, I erred on the side of caution and prepared the mostly winter dish with the addition of [...]

There’s a silver lining to every cloud. Rainy, stormy, freezing days are cooking days for me, spent tending a fragrant simmer, in the warmth of a oven breaking blisters onto the crusts of bread. There’s an acute feeling of physical and emotional nourishment that comes with even the simplest of meals, in the worst of [...]

Is more chocolate! Because thanks to all of you who voted and the esteemed chocolate experts who judged the top ten entries, I’ve won Culinate’s Death by Chocolate blogging contest, hence a weekend trip for two to Napa to attend Copia Center’s chocolate festival and a private tour of Charles Chocolates‘ factory. What?! I’m still [...]

My friend Karol agreed to come to my impromptu Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner last night only on the condition that there would be no utterance of the words “rat” or “mouse,” so just getting it out of my system. Ringing in the Year of the Rat is understandably awkward when trodding the sodden confetti [...]

Gee, I’m single. I don’t know the way it is with you, but Valentine’s Day traditionally falls on a romantically awkward time for me (except for the last two years). This year, it’s pretty bad. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I essentially returned from my girlfriend-bonding Moroccan vacation to a live-in who’d decided [...]

Leaving Marrakesh, Jordan and I boarded a small bus with ten other travelers from around the world. The destination? The dunes of Erg Chebbi, near the border of Algeria. On the way, we’d be passing through the Atlas Mountains, notably Ouarzazate, with its scenic kasbahs often used for location film shoots. I’d been informed that [...]