‘Tis the season to grill, as they say. And Memorial Day is no exception, especially when it’s as hot and sunny as the one we just had. It seems the weather gurus have had it wrong so much lately — not a drop of rain was in sight. So instead of satisfying my latest craving [...]

A rustic scarecrow looms before the skyline of Manhattan’s midtown skyscrapers. Under its watch lie more than 30 varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs on a rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But its real scarecrows, the overseers of this rooftop farming project, are Ben Flanner and Annie Novak. I asked if they’d had any problems [...]

How to say… thanks? For coming out to serve delicious, unique and inspired food, for eating and enjoying the fruits of everyone’s labor, for lending your discerning criticism of said dishes as an audience member or one of the expert judges, for donating your money to Just Food, and for essentially making Karol and myself’s [...]

Just because jalapenos haven’t ripened in these parts yet, and neither have tomatoes (unless you splurge for the hothouse types), doesn’t mean it’s nach-yo season for nachos. Or at least, that’s what the founders of Nachos NY think, year-round. And who am I to argue with that kind of authority? After a successful Guactacular Invitational, [...]

Last Tuesday’s Dining section in the New York Times said it all: “Cook-off mania has taken hold in New York,” Steven Stern wrote in the article that many have written to congratulate me on being mentioned in. Thanks so much! A “sizzle of triumph,” indeed! And judging from the proliferation of amateur bake-offs, pork-offs, guac-offs, [...]

A couple months ago, I was given a challenge: cook a “date meal” for two that costs $15 or less, including a bottle of wine. It was thrown to me by a local newspaper that has yet to publish the story, and I suspect they might simply never. Which is fine, but it would be [...]

Carpe diem — asparagus season is here! This is no time for beating around the bush(el). At Greenmarkets and farm stands, you’ll see plenty of sprue asparagus right now, too, the first tender shoots that are often as skinny as coffee stirrers. I had the rare pleasure of snapping a spindly green one straight from [...]

Now if only I could miniaturize myself after this string of cook-offs the past two weeks. Brooklyn Kitchen’s 3rd Annual Cupcake Cook-Off, held Monday night at Union Pool, was the last straw — yes, the Risotto Challenge is still on, and yes, it will be still awesome, and will help raise money for our friends [...]

Nobody was to-fooled by what was in their food Sunday at the Highline Ballroom: it was the first-ever Tofu Takedown. As an antidote to last month’s Bacon Takedown, Matt Timms turned his popular Takedown series upside-down by taking on that versatile and very un-carnivoric delight. Tofu, in all forms, firmnesses and flavors found their way [...]

Imagine walking into the office of an industrial agriculture giant, the kind that produces 99% of the food we eat, and saying, “Hey, I’m really interested in learning more about agriculture. Could you tell me a few things about what you do?” Would someone jump up from behind the counter and say, “Sure, let me [...]

I have an absolutely sensational, hysterical and eye-opening book on my shelf: Asian Ice Cream for You and Your Kids by Arron Liu. It’s not intended to be funny, but it is. I also don’t have any kids, so I’m not sure it’s intended for the sole delight of an adult beyond growing age, either. [...]

Yesterday I certainly got my greens judging the 2009 Guactacular Invitational, though they were none the unsaturated fatty type. I can’t say how much I ate of the goopy goodness, but in attendance, more than 300 made it to the Bell House in Gowanus for the first-ever cook-off event.

So, there’s a swine flu, you say? Sure. I saw it all at Loki Lounge yesterday, in the form of sixteen tasty samples, and a throng of hungry carnivores. The Park Slope Pork-Off, it was called! And many familiar faces cooked up their best for this one-off event, a fundraiser for the charity Kamay at [...]

And what a food-filled weekend! On Friday, the Hapa Kitchen hosted its first dinner soiree; Saturday, I saw so many foodies and inspiring panels at the Brooklyn Food Conference; Sunday, I got to taste the weekend-long efforts of so many cook-off enthusiasts at the Park Slope Pork-Off, which was hosted by one of our terrific [...]