Cool mountain breezes waft across snow capped mountains reaching towards implausibly blue skies. I have returned to one of my favorite vacation spots.
Summer in Aspen has it all: awe inspiring hiking, invigorating biking, unique shopping, the eight week long classical Aspen Music Festival and to top it all off, a vibrant and highly creative dining scene. Continue reading
Just because I have great outdoor space for dining in CT. doesn’t mean that I don’t hanker for peaceful courtyards tucked away in the middle of NYC.
I found just that when I arrived for a late lunch at Pure Food and Wine, just off Union Square, last week. Continue reading
What do you get when two talented chefs marry and combine their culinary histories to open a cool place in Nolita?
Jack’s Wife Freda is just the place. The young owners are Dean and Maya Jankelowitz. Dean is from South Africa and Maya hails from Israel. They both worked for Keith McNally and met while working around the corner (Balthazar) from their three month old gem of a cafe. Continue reading
When we discovered the Villa Carmel Hotel on a shady, tree lined street off the main drag in the busy Carmel center, we were grateful. As visitors to M’s native Israel each year for more than 30 years, we had stayed in nearly every other hotel in Haifa, and disliked them all. Cavernous lobbies, kids running amok, outdated color schemes and tired furniture prevailed. Continue reading
Last week, I received an invitation from Naama Shefi, Israeli food specialist and past Director of Public Programs and Events at the Consulate General of Israel in NYC. She asked me to join her at Balaboosta in Nolita, NYC, for lunch with a dozen strangers who had signed up to eat with her and learn more about Israeli cuisine.
Through a program called I Want More Food, founded by Jeff Orlick, these food adventure seekers were scheduled to meet and eat with Shefi as their insider guide. Continue reading
Take a look at the online menu for Print Restaurant, 11th Ave. at 48th St. in NYC, and you can learn a lot. Ride your cursor over the ingredients and you will find a whole lot more than overblown descriptions of flavors.
You will discover that the impossibly magenta oranges in the Blood Orange Salad come from Isabelle’s Orange Orchard in New Orleans. The butternut squash that serves as a tasty whipped landing for the Pan-roasted Snapper comes from Paisley Farm, which coordinates a co-op of upstate NY farms consisting of 25 like minded farmers seeking to distribute their crops. Continue reading
Finally, someone has reinterpreted our favorites and created Jewish food with a twist.
I heard Alan Wilzig and Zach Kutsher in conversation at the 92STY/Tribeca in January. They were chatting about the legendary Kutsher’s Country Club in the Catskills, the namesake and inspiration for the recently opened restaurant, Kutsher’s Tribeca.
These business partners summoned up images from a different era, one where vacationers ate heaping piles of whatever tasted great, without any concerns about fat, chemicals or origin of ingredients. And it was unlimited.
Ah, the good old days! Continue reading
As one who avoids all animal products that are not kosher, I relish having an entire menu to choose from. Yup. It is like a celebration and I get a little giddy when the entire menu is fair game for me. No need to ask tons of prying questions here. Continue reading
