A Berry Popular Mother’s Day Cake
Originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer May 2016 Peak Jersey strawberry harvest season is still about a month away. And so it might seem it’s about a month too early for a story about Tiffany’s Bakery’s famous strawberry shortcake. But you’d be wrong. That’s because Tiffany’s shortcake is made with Florida or California strawberries that […]
Love It or Hate It, Shad Is Here
This oily, bony relative of the herring swims up the East Coast and onto restaurant menus and into home kitchens every spring. Meaning I had to write about shad both in Connecticut (site of the pictured Essex Shad Bake) and Philadelphia as you can see here. Good thing I’m among the select few who actually […]
May 15 Is Chocolate Chip Day
I’m not one for these PR-firm-generated holidays except when they’re an excuse to make a favorite food, as here. In this article for stellar consumer newsletter Bottom Line Personal, I offer tons of tips for upping your chocolate chip cookie-making game.
A Tiny State’s Big Breakfast
May 1 is a labor holiday in some countries other than the U.S. But people in my native Rhode Island — in a nod to their English forebears’ maypole tradition — celebrate what they call May Day by flocking to churches and granges to chow down on enormous breakfasts of old-fashioned foods like jonnycakes and […]
Jelly Bean Fritters
State fairs are laboratories of weird fried foods. R.I. clam cake mix maker Drum Rock came up with this dessert adaptation of their mix, featured in my Great Clam Cake and Fritter Guide, after hearing of the dish’s debut at the Big E multi-state fair in Springfield, Massachusetts. But these would also be great for […]
Easter-time Addiction
Forget Cadbury and Russell Stover: Zitner Butter Krak eggs are the taste of Easter Philadelphians crave. This story for the late, great City Paper chronicles my tour of the Zitner’s chocolate factory with then-CEO Christine Murphy. The Philadelphia company continues to churn out this delectable dark chocolate-butter-cream-toasted-coconut holiday treat (i.e. candy crack!) and many other […]
Bubbly Bath
Originally published in Philadelphia CityPaper February 2005. Update: Caesars Pocono Resorts are now known as the Pocono Palace Resorts. All three of their hotels, including Palace (where I stayed), still offer rooms with champagne glass hot tubs. It’s 4 p.m. on a frigid Sunday in late January and I am sitting completely naked in a […]
Valentine’s Chocolates You Drink
Originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer Feb. 2017. Updates: Cafe Y Chocolate is now located at 1532 Snyder Ave. Sazon and SkyLodge are no more. You’ll now have to go to NYC to have Max Brenner’s hot chocolate. For most of history, chocolate was consumed only as a drink. This Valentine’s Day, instead of handing […]
Afternoon Tea in Philly
Originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in March 2018. Updates: The Rittenhouse’s tea is now Thursdays through Sundays and the Sofitel’s, on weekends only. The eccentric Frieda in Old City also now offers tea on Sundays by reservation. The high-end tea scene in Philly isn’t what it used to be – it’s better. Is there […]
A holiday card/comic
