Popular at this week’s Union Square farmer’s market, cousa squash originated in the Middle East. This summer squash is similar to standard zucchini (and interchangeable in most recipes), but with a thicker shape and grey-green striping. In Persian cuisine, this type of squash is often stuffed – with tabbouleh, rice, lamb, or couscous. Wanting something a bit lighter, I made the squash into a salad that didn’t require turning on the oven. Cousa, with its sweet, creamy, and slightly nutty flavor and firm texture was perfect for this simple and pretty summer salad.
(more…)
Like tourists on the Grande Traversata delle Alpi, New Yorkers have been making the journey to the Upper West Side to sample the rich, dense gelati at Grom, a newly opened micro-chain founded by Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom, two natives of Torino, Italy. Principled and high-quality, Grom offers authentic gelati with Slow Food cred. Their fresh, seasonal and organic ingredients, combined with a storefront that feels very Italian in design, adds to the pleasantly sophisticated experience at Grom. (more…)
Due to the grossness factor of noxious mutant chicken parts, I rarely eat chicken. Recently, however, the idea of hot buffalo wings with thick blue cheese sauce and cold beer sounded pretty irresistible. Brooklyn has some solid wing options in restaurants and bars, particularly Bonnie’s Grill, highly praised for their buffalo wings. But I wanted to try a place that specialized exclusively in chicken wings. I soon found myself at Wing Wagon, where I’d hoped to get messy with a mound of bona fide chicken wings.
Your choices in a chicken wing establishment are level of heat (mild to Chernobyl), wing form (the standard “flats and drums” or “fingers”), sides (hardly necessary), and the sauce (always blue cheese). Other wing joint offerings such as (more…)