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Feeding Frenzy
Julia Reed 8/27/2009 12:00:00 AM
A few weeks ago, I was leaving my parents' house in Mississippi when I saw my normally fairly composed mother in the rearview mirror, running down the driveway wild-eyed, carrying an armload of corn. "Wait, wait, you have to take these. Please take them with you, please."
Stop Hating Julie Powell, Please
Jennie Yabroff 8/6/2009 12:00:00 AM
Last night I made fried zucchini squash blossoms. I stuffed them with cheese, dipped them in a batter of Guinness, half and half, flour, and salt, and fried them in oil. If you were reading about my squash blossoms on a food blog (just as I read about several other amateur cooks' squash blossoms on their food blogs to figure out how to make them), it would have taken you several paragraphs to get to the denouement: they were delicious. First, you would probably have to read about my past relationship with squash blossoms. Then you'd hear how I came across them in the picturesque farmer's market or my own sweet little backyard vegetable patch, and you'd see a picture of them, all pretty yellow and orange petals. Next would be the paragraph where my husband/boyfriend made an adorably skeptical remark about eating flowers, followed by a swift (and adorable) attitude reversal once he learned they'd be dipped in beer. Eight hundred words or so in, and you still wouldn't know how to fry a squash blossom, but you'd know a whole lot about me.
Garden Variety
Julia Reed 6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM
The summers of my youth were spent largely at the house of our neighbors, who had six children (including three good-looking, much older and very funny boys) and a playroom with a pool table, card table, stereo and ancient refrigerator. Depending on the summer, I was invariably in love with one of the brothers or their friends, and it was in their company that I picked up the skills that have contributed to my good health and happiness ever since: how to kiss, play poker, hold my beer—and hum along to pretty much every song on a nonstop vinyl soundtrack that included, but was not limited to, the Allman Brothers, the Rolling Stones and the Sir Douglas Quintet.
SPECIAL REPORT: TRAVEL
The Most Important Meal
Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop 5/2/2009 12:00:00 AM
Even guests who never eat breakfast when they're home have trouble resisting a well-appointed breakfast buffet on the road. A recent survey of business and leisure travelers in Asia by Le Méridien hotel group showed that 60 percent of leisure travelers and 40 percent of business ones eat more than usual when traveling, and more than 80 percent favor the buffet breakfast. However, only 38 percent of travelers said they were extremely or very satisfied with what hotels are offering.
SPECIAL REPORT: TRAVEL
Visiting the Second City
Cathleen McGuigan 5/2/2009 12:00:00 AM
Sicily is a magnet for tourists, with its ruggedly spectacular coastline and ancient Greek and Roman ruins. But many travelers steer clear of Palermo, the island's capital and mafia stronghold. Yet it's a far less expensive destination than Rome. Palermo is one of the world's great "second" cities—like Manchester, England, or Buffalo, New York—that's maybe a little grittier than the better-known cultural capital that overshadows it, but full of its own historic riches. Palermo's civilization reaches at least to the Phoenicians, who settled during the first millennium B.C. From there, the city's timeline looks like a fever chart of invaders, colonists and conquerors. Of its multitude of significant old churches, two overlooking the city's Piazza Bellini perfectly embody the cultural collisions: the starkly beautiful San Cataldo, from the 12th-century Norman conquest, is topped by three small red domes, a reminder of the enduring Arab influence; right next to it, an architectural hodgepodge known as La Martorana contains stunning 12th-century Byzantine gold mosaics as well as Baroque frescoes and froufrou from five centuries later.
HEALTH
A Food-Safety Savior?
3/31/2009 12:00:00 AM
With yet another food recall in the news (this time it's pistachios), Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, now poised to take the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will undoubtedly face tough questions at her confirmation hearings about the failed safety record of products like peanut butter, pet food, spinach and tomatoes. The Food and Drug Administration, which is a part of HHS, has responsibility for oversight of the lion's share of the food supply and as such, touches every American three times each day like clockwork, at breakfast, lunch and dinner.