I add cinnamon to just about everything. I double the amount in my baking, and I toss in at least a pinch of it in the savory dishes I make. Whether it’s lentil soup or braised pork, adding cinnamon to almost anything makes it taste better. The evergreen tree from which cinnamon is derived comes [...]

Joe’s Dairy on Sullivan Street has been a New York favorite for mozzarella since the 1930s. Tuesday through Saturday, patrons will find second- generation mozzarella messiah Anthony Campanelli dunking his dairy-weathered hands into a stockpot of scalding water atop a standard Manhattan stove he’s rigged to heat up to commercial kitchen degrees. He forms and [...]

Going apple-picking is a quintessentially glorious activity in September and October. Happily, New York State grows a large assortment of Johnny Appleseed’s favorite fruit, with many varieties available at U-Pick orchards. Every year, jealous family members who live in the Mid-West ask me how I am enjoying my Crispins, my Ginger Golds, and my Honeycrisps. [...]

As apple pie season rounds the corner, I am reminded of one of my family’s favorite kitchen gadgets, the Apple Peel Away. This device allows brothers, fathers, family guests, and the culinarily challenged to help out with pie prep while enjoying the fruits of kitchen camaraderie. The contraption clamps to any counter; the apple goes [...]

A Dish’s Dish client tried her hand in the kitchen and got great results with this recipe. Roasted Autumn Vegetable Salad with Maple-Cider Dressing 2 tbs olive oil 2 tbs butter 1 tbs honey 1 clove garlic, minced 4 slices pumpkin, cheese pumpkin, or kabocha squash, skin on, seeds removed 4 parsnips, halved lengthwise (quartered [...]

In the wake of last week’s canned toro article, a reader has requested that The Dish address the too often maligned reputation of another finned delicacy, sardines. Many people have long regarded sardines in the same category as Spam—food of last resort, when the cupboard is bare. However, poking around town, there are a few [...]

1963 was a lucky year for little girls. It was the year that the first Easy Bake Oven hit toy stores. In its first year, 500,000 kids took home the turquoise fake oven/stove top combos. Since its creation, the Easy Bake has changed from turquoise to green to gold to white to pink. The classic, [...]

When I consider Brooklyn’s legendary bakeries, I always think of Junior’s, which has been supplying Brooklynites with “the world’s most fabulous cheesecake” for more than 50 years. But there’s more to Brooklyn sugar-love than this well-known, age-old bakery. Two other Brooklyn sugar shops prove that the schlep from Manhattan is well worth the sugar rush, [...]

What makes your soup so velvety when you dine out? What makes those pancakes at a restaurant brunch so fluffy and even? The answer is a fastidious kitchen tool: a chinoise. A chinoise is a conical, ultra-fine sieve that chefs (and uber-perfectionist home cooks) use for straining a number of things: sauces, batters, compotes, and [...]

Every person knows the best diner. No matter the neighborhood, the person, or the favorite breakfast platter, everyone thinks that the tastiest eggs over easy and greasy fries come from a local diner sooo under the radar. It’s the diner with the best potatoes, the crispiest Belgian waffles, or the only shake worth ordering. However, [...]