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Why food TV keeps going undercover

While perusing Food Network’s summer lineup — a familiar parade of seasonal returns like “The Great Food Truck Race” and brand extensions like “Guy’s Grocery Games: Global Games” — I found myself lingering over one new arrival in particular: “Kitchen…
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The creamiest lemon pasta salad

Like seemingly everyone else, I’ve spent the past year trying to find practical ways to sneak a little more protein into my day. (No offense to the internet, but I simply cannot look at another eight-egg omelet.) Instead, I’ve become…
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Chilled, bacony summer noodles to soothe the heat wave blues

Tomato and soy are one of those quietly brilliant flavor pairings that seem to pop up everywhere once you start looking for them. They’re the backbone of everything from Chinese tomato-and-egg stir-fries to noodle dishes whose sauces somehow taste deeper…
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Your freezer wants to be hot

I was born the same year the Food Network debuted, which sometimes makes me feel as if I cut my teeth on “The Barefoot Contessa” and its particular arrangement of fantasies: a perfected roast chicken, always somehow at the ready;…
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How to upgrade instant ramen into a genuinely good meal

I’ve been on a mission to transform a handful of my go-to “struggle meals” into something that feels and tastes more elevated — without breaking the bank, of course. Thus far, I’ve conquered the humble, often-overlooked canned soup, along with…
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How Māori food tells New Zealand’s story

New Zealand’s Māori people often say that food is a feeling, a memory. It talks to your stomach. Everything in Māori culture is tied to Papatūānuku, Mother Earth, especially its food. Located at the bottom of the world, it’s hard…
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It’s always rice and eggs

The water was at our backs, but everything still looked blue. It was a Saturday, and the sky above the lake was shockingly clear. The breeze hurried the fluffy clouds along like an invisible, impatient dog walker trying to jostle…
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No one can resist a good cheese ball

For years, the cheese ball has been my quiet party superpower. Whenever I’m hosting — or even lightly conscripted into bringing “something snacky” — it’s the dish people inevitably circle back to, buttery Ritz in hand, doing that little half-apology…
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A love letter to Chicago’s gravy bread

It had snowed seven inches the night before I decided to get gravy bread again — the most snow O’Hare had seen in a single day in decades. I felt like a real Chicagoan, trudging through drifts in snow boots,…
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