black pepper

Sloppy Joe

My first encounter with the Sloppy Joe was at my elementary school lunch counter where giant cans of sloppy joe mix were dumped into beat-up chafing dishes before being unceremoniously ladled into a crumpled hamburger bun. It may not sound like much of a lunch, but with other options like leathery turkey smothered in mucus-like [...]

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Chicken Parmesan

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I have a love-hate relationship with Chicken Parm. It sounds great in theory: I love chicken, I love Parmesan, I love tomato sauce and I love spaghetti. So I should love Chicken Parmesan too, right? But for all its promise, in most restaurants, it’s an utter abomination that ruins the ingredients that go into the [...]

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Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

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The secret to making a great spaghetti and meat sauce is to build layers of flavor (beyond the meat and tomatoes), and to allow them to meld together in a balanced way. It’s a fairly simple thing to do when you’re including dozens of ingredients and simmering them together for hours, but I wanted to [...]

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Tebasaki (Japanese Fried Chicken)

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Tebasaki(手羽先) literally translates to “wing tips” and refers to the cut of chicken as well as to a dish popular in izakayas around the city of Nagoya. Unlike the other Japanese fried chicken, Tebasaki is always made with bone-in chicken wings, has little to no breading, and is seasoned after it’s fried. Despite the absence [...]

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Fish Tacos

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It wasn’t long ago that beef cheeks and pork cheeks went from being a throw-away cut of meat to a highly sought-after delicacy served in some of the priciest restaurants. I’m willing to wager that fish cheeks will be next in line for this trend. So why do cheeks taste so good? Whether it’s a [...]

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Best Meatloaf

32 comments

It’s not your grandma’s meatloaf, it’s better… there, I said it! I know, some of you are thinking “them’s fightin’ words” and hitting unsubscribe right now. But in all seriousness, I don’t go labeling recipes as being “best” willy-nilly. As a mater of fact, out of nearly 600 recipes, there have so far only been [...]

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Tabouleh

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It’s been a long cold winter and my body’s been aching to eat something vibrant and green. It’s still a bit early for spring vegetables, but Tabouleh is a verdant salad you can put together with vegetables and herbs that are available all year. While it’s a simple salad to prepare with very few ingredients, [...]

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Hamburg Steak (Hambāgu)

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Chicken teriyaki aside, Hamburg Steak or Hambāgu (ハンバーグ) as the Japanese like to call it, is probably the most popular entrée to stick in a bento lunch in Japan. Although it’s unclear exactly when this dish was introduced to Japan, it presumably comes from the American Salisbury steak, which is named after its inventor Dr. [...]

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