Dispatches


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Higgins
06/02/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Brendan Higgins Higgins
I want to take this post as an opportunity to endorse a new spot in town that recently provided me with one of the most unique and memorable culinary experiences I’ve had here: an ice cream shop called Lick. Specializing in artisan ice cream made from seasonal, locally sourced, and organic ingredients, Lick offers an adventurous selection of flavors that are presumably always changing (its menu consisted of note cards scribbled on with permanent marker and posted to a board). I sampled about...
Andrew - Portland's picture
Gooding
05/30/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Andrew Gooding

I do not have a discerning tongue. Subtle flavors, nuanced tastes, they all escape my Neanderthalian tongue. And that’s why I revere Sierra Nevada’s new Hoptimum IPA: there’s nothing in any way subtle about it.

So it’s time to wax lyrical about that about which much lyric has been waxed: beer with lots of hops. It’s a real phenomenon, this hop thing, and it’s all in celebration of the bold, unrestrained, impossible-to-miss taste. (As well as puns; it’s a near requirement that any hop-...

Duncan's picture
05/22/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Duncan
It was raining in the Berkshires today so I asked my friend Tom Parker to help me sample 3 Bordeaux red wines. All were 2009, one of the best vintages in decades, and all were reasonably priced for every day drinking at about $15/bottle. To whet our appetites I prepared some smoked salmon canapes with minced red onion, capers and dill from the garden. Tom brought a jar of homemade pickles laced with a garlicky brine to see how the reds would stand up. We sampled and compared notes. The winner...
Ben - Helsinki's picture
Norris
05/15/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Ben Norris

This past Saturday, I said my goodbyes to New York for the upcoming year. I’m trading the Lower East Side for Helsinki, Finland, where I’ll be living until the summer of 2013.

Before leaving the city, my (former) boss agreed to take me out for dinner and drinks in celebration. For many people, dinner with a boss would be miserable: small talk, formalities, awkward breaks in conversation. Luckily, I’ve had the opportunity to work with an insanely brilliant--and sometimes just insane--...

Duncan's picture
05/13/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Duncan

May is the month asparagus spears push up through the ground, and there's no better bounty this time of year. Yesterday I bought enough fresh cut green asparagus at Taft Farms http://www.taftfarms.com/ for three meals. Last night I peeled the ends and finished them off in a saute pan with butter, salt and fresh ground pepper. Tonight it's a Mother's Day risotto with asparagus tips and fresh English peas simmered in homemade vegetable stock. Tomorrow we...

Andrew - Portland's picture
Gooding
05/10/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Andrew Gooding

Has it ever occurred to you that indie music aficionados and craft-beer hobbyists are after the same thing? That despite their radically different demographic makeup* they’re using some of the same criteria to decide worth, namely: rarity, exclusivity of experience, uniqueness? That “I have an original first-release Captain Beefheart record” and “I’ve had a glass of ________, of which there existed only ten kegs nationwide” are logically equivalent as attributive value statements? That...

Jack - NYC's picture
Pollock
05/07/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Jack Pollock

New York may have more restaurants than anywhere in the world.* Even with niche cuisines like Ethiopian or Ukrainian, a person has a whole list of potential eateries. But the sheer amount of choice can be paralyzing as you ponder the many places that may have a better version of what you’re looking for. I have spent many an afternoon hopping from spot to spot only to return home stubborn and hungry. That’s why I have provided you with three warning signs that indicate when a restaurant is...

Steve - NYC's picture
Fletcher
05/06/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Steve Fletcher
At approximately 2 in the afternoon, May 5th, 2012, I fell in love with a sandwich. I was in a taquería line somewhere uptown with the rest of the city's agave-soaked droves, when I caught an irresistible whiff of something entirely un-Mexican. The scene: It's a breezy but clear Cinco de Mayo, the city's trading sobriety for sombreros, and I'm aimless -- jostling against foot traffic, towards the source of a sweet, smoky aroma, groping the air for more, like a madman. I stumbled down thirteen...
Duncan's picture
05/04/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Duncan
In the Berkshires you know its planting season when the Farmers Market opens in Great Barrington. The air’s a little colder up in this neck of the woods so the early options are usually confined to ramps and spring onions and some tasty spring lettuces. The farmers hail from nearby New York State and the Berkshires and bring baked goods, homemade soups and all manner of organic plants for us home gardeners. The old timers warn not to plant before Memorial Day but I’m digging my lettuces and a...
Danny - D.C.'s picture
Michel
05/03/2012 / (0) Comments / In Latest News / by Danny Michel

The transition from student to semi-young quasi-professional is one of self-discovery. Goals that were once as clearly defined as a single letter (the “A” if you will, or the “B” in any class with a “400“preceding it) are now ambiguous. I’m self-discovering the hard way that things that were once nuisances are now expenses: I have to pay money to have a dentist orally assault me? You expect me to not only clean my bathroom, but pay $20 for the supplies necessary to do so...

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