Plus the best restaurants in museums, the latest in the Ben & Jerry’s fight, and Dominic Sessa becomes Bourdain |
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Welcome to Open Tab, a weekly roundup of the news, gossip, and stories that have stayed open in my tabs all week. Last time we covered the James Beard Awards leaving Chicago.
In this week’s edition:
- The latest food safety recalls.
- The quietly fabulous museum restaurants across America.
- The latest on the Ben & Jerry’s drama.
- We get up close and personal with Dominic Sessa, the star of the new A24 Anthony Bourdain biopic.
I bake pies even on the hottest summer days, because I don’t mind getting kind of sweaty standing by a hot oven if it means I’ll get to eat pie later. This week I spent a couple hours lightly sweating as I baked a spectacularly tart Key lime pie for dinner at a friend’s house.
I’m feeling embarrassed to share that I used the store-bought graham cracker crust (I know, I know), because I had such machinations for this crust—I’d planned to swap out graham crackers for ginger snaps, or Nilla wafers, or Ritz crackers, like former editor Kendra Vaculin uses in her cherry lemonade beach pie. In the end, my cheat-code pie crust worked just fine and all was well.
One recommended read for you this week: Alinea’s Grant Achatz goes long on humor, food, and conceptual cooking. Grab a coffee and a sweet treat and settle in for a good, lengthy read.
If you have any food gossip to share, please send me a note or a DM.
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This week, a brand of garlic powder sold across Canada was recalled due to possible bacterial contamination. Eggs? Yeah, the FDA is recalling 1.5 million dozen due to possible salmonella risks. We are living in the midst of hot bacteria summer, my friends. If you’re feeling exhausted by food safety issues in the news, know that you’re not alone. We covered the cyclosporiasis outbreak, but it’s since gotten worse, and reporting suggests this outbreak is the worst in the United States’ history.
Why? It comes down to food safety protocol. Last year the CDC made it optional to track cyclospora. Plus thousands of layoffs at the FDA and CDC mean there are less people working to track these outbreaks and offer guidance to contain them as early as possible. |
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If your screentime is as tragically high as mine (and you haven’t yet started Bricking your phone), you can likely name at least three viral pancakes in New York City. A visually dramatic short stack draws influencers by the dozen, leaving a trail of Octobuddy imprints on restaurant windows as they wait to take a bite. The moist, buttery pancakes at Golden Diner or the almost Gusher-like stack at Chez Ma Tante, completely saturated in clarified butter and maple syrup are just two examples of the genre that go viral regularly. Nail the pancake, and you’re guaranteed a steady brunch crowd for the foreseeable future.
One version that’s been quietly taking over the East Village is the salted egg pancake at Naks. Part of the Unapologetic Foods empire (which includes Semma, Dhamaka, Adda, and others), Naks is a Filipino restaurant helmed by chef Eric Valdez. |
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We Know Good Stuff
Sign up for the free BA Shopping email to discover editor-tested products, fresh launches, and tasty ingredients to level-up your cooking.
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We Know Good Stuff
Sign up for the free BA Shopping email to discover editor-tested products, fresh launches, and tasty ingredients to level-up your cooking.
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The Best Mezcal, According to our Taste Test |
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Piaule Catskill Feels (and Tastes) Like a Deep Exhale |
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