Spice Art by Tim Ziegler

Last week I shared my favorite sweet treats from the Fancy Food Show. Well, we can’t very well have the sweet without the savory, now can we? I thought not.

Let’s start with cheese, where all things good begin.

1. Buttermilk Bleu Affinée, Roth Käse

Buttermilk Bleu Affinée

The cheese aisles of the Fancy Food Show are legendary. Booth after booth of master cheese makers showcasing their best; wheels upon wheels of creamy bliss in all forms imaginable – aged, fresh, sharp, mellow – it’s a cheese-lover’s paradise. I have my favorites that I really love, and look forward to tasting again every year at the show, so it takes something special to steal my attention.

The Buttermilk Bleu Affinée from Roth Käse succeeded in doing just that. Insanely creamy with an easy sweet finish, this blue stopped me in my tracks and had me coming back for seconds and thirds, dragging friends with me each time so they could experience this magnificent cheese for themselves. As my friend, Michael observed, “It looks intimidating, but it’s really approachable.”

To make the Buttermilk Bleu Affinée, select wheels of Roth Käse’s standard (very good) Buttermilk Blue are identified as having the potential to be obscenely good. Those special wheels are hand-picked to be the true crème de la crème, the all-stars, the special ops team of blue cheese. Where the Buttermilk Blue is aged 60 days, the Bleu Affinée is cured for a minimum of six months. If I had some right now, I’d make some crazy good mashed potatoes, or stir it into risotto, or melt it on a steak, or simply spread it on a slab of hot bread with some sliced pears…

» Continue Reading “Best of the Fancy Food Show 2012: Savory”…

Fancy Food Show 2012

When the Fancy Food Show rolls around, my husband inevitably starts humming It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. This year, the three-day foodie extravaganza was bigger than ever, with the exhibit halls of Moscone overflowing with 80,000 specialty products from food artisans and importers from around the world. Imagine an avalanche of chocolates, cheeses, olive oils, spices, jams, sauces, teas, snacks…that’s pretty much what the Fancy Food Show was like.

Happy Birthday Humboldt Fog!

It is always nice to reconnect with old friends at the show, like Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog (which turns 20 this year — Happy Birthday!) or the insanely delicious Whole-Milk Ricotta from Bellwether Farms (which I just want to bathe in), but my favorite part of the Fancy Food Show is discovering new treasures.

Here are the Top 10 Sweet Treats that blew me away:

» Continue Reading “Best of the Fancy Food Show 2012: Sweet”…

Healthy Butternut Squash Soup

There are times for luxurious butternut squash soup laced with brown butter…and then there are times for a more austere version that doesn’t involve homemade stock, a gaggle of aromatics, bouquet garni, and tedious straining. This isn’t a knock on the former – she’s an elegant special occasion soup, and you can taste the extra fuss that goes into her. Sometimes though, you just want an everyday soup – a practical gal that’s into healthiness, nourishment, and minimum effort.

For times like these, I turn to my Healthy Butternut Squash Soup. Comforting, satisfying, zero-guilt goodness, step right up. Did I mention, it only requires 3 main ingredients? Butternut squash, onion, chicken broth. How wholesome.

» Continue Reading “Healthy Butternut Squash Soup”…

Bar Masa, Las Vegas (ARIA Resort & Casino)

When I first moved to New York as a fresh grad, all bright-eyed and dirt poor, I saved my pennies for pretty shoes and sushi takeout. I would read through my Zagat as religiously as my Vogue and Glamour, and file away dream meals at Per Se and Masa alongside dream shoes by Louboutin and Manolo.

Chef Masa Takayama

I never would have thought that one day I’d be eating a meal personally prepared and handed to me by Masa himself. (I’m still waiting for Monsieur Louboutin to call me about those custom heels, but you know, one dream at a time).

The 150-seat Las Vegas outpost of Bar Masa, inside the ARIA Resort & Casino, is much larger than the Bar Masa in New York. And it is, of course, done up in high Vegas fashion with soaring, 36-foot, airplane hangar-esque ceilings and curvy red leather banquets. The food? Extravagant to be sure, but not in a haphazard hedonistic way. No, this meal at Bar Masa was elegant and poised and gracious, possessing a poetic lightness of being to it.

» Continue Reading “Bar Masa {Las Vegas}”…