pourpre de patate douce

purple sweet potato

Why would an otherwise normal 36‑year‑old woman rush out of her hotel room late at night in her nightgown to buy a sweet potato? Here’s what happened. On November 8th, 1985, my wife and I checked into the Kyoto Central Inn for a three‑night stay. This was day fifteen of an eighteen‑day trip to Japan. more »

les petits gâteaux de nombreuses saveurs

little cakes of many flavors

Cupcakes are the libertarians of the food world. Even if they look the same as the others in the box, each is an individual meant to be the snack of only one person. Cupcakes aren’t team players. Neither are the people who consume them. No one shares a cupcake, especially children. more »

œufs de hareng sur toast

herring roe on toast

Great swirling schools of herring converged in San Francisco Bay this month, drawing fishermen, sea lions, harbor seals, and thousands upon thousands of birds looking to fatten up for the winter. The menagerie of wildlife is a sign that the bay’s once spectacular herring runs, which collapsed four years ago, are returning to their former glory. more »

fromage frit

fried cheese

My love of cheese started during the third week of October, 1999. I was at the Michelin one‑star restaurant Hostellerie de Vieux Moulin in Bouilland, France. Before the dessert was served, the cheese trolley, or chariot à fromages, was wheeled to the table. This was no simple cart with a small platter of cheese. more »

sorbet à la mangue

mango sorbet

I hate kitchen gadgets. I like kitchen tools. What’s the difference? Tools are useful and gadgets aren’t. This is my opinion. Most sensible people disagree. Most dictionaries define gadget in a neutral to positive sense. “A small mechanical device or tool, esp. an ingenious or novel one.” I prefer the less than positive, tertiary definition from the Oxford English Dictionary of “an accessory or adjunct; a knick‑knack or gewgaw. more »

carottes confit au cumin

carrot salad

The chef motioned me over to the largest plat à sauter I had ever seen. It was made of aluminum and appeared to be about a meter (3 ft) in diameter and 15 cm (6 in) high. It had two handles, but I wondered if it could be moved when it was full of fat, as it was now. more »

gâteau de Savoie au parmesan

parmesan sponge cake

Being that my father couldn’t butter bread, it was surprising that he was excited about going to a new restaurant where the main selling point was that it cooked your meal right in front of you with an Amana radar range. The evening was sometime in the early 1960s and took place at a new, Mexican‑style restaurant located about 8 km (5 miles) north of our home. more »

crêpes japonaises

pancake sandwiches

My first trip to Japan lasted less than 24 hours. That’s not much time to see a whole country, let alone a city or two. I saw only one street. In the late spring of 1980, I was on my way to China. My itinerary had me arriving late in the evening at the New Tokyo International Airport—now officially renamed Narita International Airport—and leaving mid‑afternoon the following day. more »

oignon rôti

roast onion

The smell was the first thing to alert me: vaguely biological, somewhat antiseptic, but mostly just obnoxious. At first, the source was simply a bundle of heavy‑duty plastic which, being dirty and having been folded and unfolded many times, looked cracked and semi‑opaque. The guy had pulled it from his trunk where it was buried under a pile of dirty clothes and miscellaneous car paraphernalia. more »

salade tricolore

tri-colored salad

So here I sit with a perfectly ripe Hass avocado and a perfectly ripe fuyu persimmon. As much as I appreciate the flavor of each separately, it seems like they would go super good together. But the pale green of the avocado next to the warm orange of the persimmon is not appetizing. more »