The Queens Night Market has become a beloved summertime institution since its founding by Texas native John Wang, who modeled it on the night markets he discovered as a child while visiting family in Taiwan during the summers. Up to 100 vendors (historically from over 90 countries) gather from 5 pm to midnight at the... Continue Reading →
Two Looks at Italian-American Food and Families Around NYC
Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, by Louise DeSalvo In our house, no one ever went with the flow. There was no flow. There were only dangerous rapids, huge whirlpools, gigantic waterfalls. In our house, you had to be wary, vigilant. To stop paying attention, even for a... Continue Reading →
How Cooking Made Living Seem Possible
Book review: Midnight Chicken, by Ella Risbridger (Amazon / Book Depository) There is a German word, kummerspeck, that translates literally as 'grief-bacon,' and metaphorically as 'comfort eating'. This book is the grief-bacon book...This is the book I wanted to read when I was sad, but it's also a book for good days. I'm not going... Continue Reading →
Heartening Anecdotes of Cooking and Life, Disastrous and Otherwise
Book review: Home Cooking, by Laurie Colwin Amazon Originally published 1988, this collection of memoir-centric essays on cooking and life is insightful, funny, surprisingly practical and helpful, and still fresh and relevant thirty years later. Beloved novelist Laurie Colwin loved being in the kitchen, especially cooking for other people. She has an upbeat, happy sense... Continue Reading →
The Healing Powers of Comfort Food
Book review: The Comfort Food Diaries, by Emily Nunn (Amazon / Book Depository) What's comfort food to you? What do you make or seek out when you're blue, or need soothing? Is it what your family made when you were small, or something far away from those memories? I thought a lot about my preferred... Continue Reading →