03.16.2006 Farmers have, since time immemorial, bred the local corn with other strains, while also cross-breeding these crops with bacteria, viruses, fungi, and the occasional jellyfish or horse, in search of grains that can infect others, grow under toenails, cause intense pain or run the steeplechase.
01.1.2006 I sip my iced coffee, which having set for a while now seems to whisper to me of Eritrea. Back in the waiting area, I see, to my surprise, Maria, sipping her Pepsi. They’ve given her a straw, a token of dignity to compensate for the shoelaces.
Food 04.20.2005 The French term terroir translates to soil but in the world of wine it also connotes the “old” ways of winemaking that is more expressive of the individual winemaker, his land, grapes and the fickle moods of Mother Nature. Big business, on the other hand, would prefer a reliable and consistent product with appeal to a broad market.
03.7.2005 "Coffee," Rossini told me, "is an affair of fifteen or twenty days; just the right amount of time, fortunately, to write an opera." This is true. But the length of time during which one can enjoy the benefits of coffee can be extended.
03.7.2005 Caffeine is a member of the same family as strychnine and emetine, the deadly agent in hemlock. Legend has it that Voltaire drank 50 cups a day, and when his doctor warned him that coffee was considered a slow poison, he replied: "I think it must be so, for I have been drinking it for 65 years and I am not dead yet!" Bet Socrates would have preferred a cappuccino, eh?
03.1.2005 My son Jacob wanted a stew tonight for dinner, a story nearly as old as creation. “Beef Stew” he said, and off to Dean and DeLuca we went.
Food 09.22.2004 Here in New York, where we once consumed so many oysters that Pearl Street takes its name from its former function as the dumping-ground of the city's nightly harvest of shells, we should be a little more down-to-earth.
