The travel season has just begun in our home. My wife just got back from a weekend in NY and the coming months will see us visiting Nebraska, California, Texas and Washington for a mix of business and pleasure. It’s a weekend free of travel or activities, dedicated to our favorite Mom. Our annual mother’s day picnic always has us wishing we spent more time at local parks and hiking [...]
17 May, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 8 Comments
From time to time I invite other food writers to share something from their kitchen with you. Often the post will highlight a recipe that I have needed guidance on or a dish I have never cooked myself. Today’s recipe is from a foodie friend of mine, Hindy who writes at Confident Cook, Hesitant Baker. Like Hindy, I hesitate to bake but love to experiment in the kitchen and develop new recipes [...]
9 May, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 8 Comments
For years, I didn’t eat lettuce. Nor would I touch cinnamon or cilantro. I still don’t eat bananas, yet all of these flavors are on our three year old’s top ten list. We can hardly get a lettuce from the store to the fridge without him asking for a leaf or two. I’m not sure how or when I started to eat lettuce, but I am pretty sure my wife’s [...]
6 May, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 82 Comments
In making chili con carne this week, I took a look at the recipe I posted when I was just three months into writing This American Bite. I read the recipe and I realized how much I have grown as a food writer and a cook. Beside for the fact that the original recipe is long and the photograph is terrible, we have cut some of the ingredients from our [...]
2 May, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 11 Comments
We all have those “what’s for dinner?” nights when we open the almost-bare fridge, make a mental note to do groceries after work the next day. On closing the door, we still have no idea what to make for dinner. We might go through this three or four times, hoping that a miraculous food elf will stock the fridge with the ingredients needed for a delicious dinner if we just [...]
29 April, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 11 Comments
There are dozens of recipes in the book Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi that I want to make. Each and every page of that book inspires me to get cooking and the photography in this title brings both food and Israeli culture alive. Preserved lemons are front of mind as I turn the pages. They are not something I have ever made but have wanted to for a long [...]
25 April, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 15 Comments
I have a childhood memory of seeing stuffed zucchini (or courgette as it was called back there) on TV and being enamoured by the dish. Why this image has stayed with me for so many years is a mystery. Perhaps more mysterious is the fact I have never attempted to stuff zucchini squash, acorn, butternut or any or any other type of squash. My wife’s stuffed cabbage (coming soon) are [...]
22 April, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 11 Comments
A good shawarma has the potential to be the best thing you will ever eat but a bad shawarma recipe will send you running to the hills. Perfecting shawarma is an art that many of Jerusalem’s street vendors haven’t quite mastered. The Israeli shawarma, similar to the Greek gyro, Turkish doner kebab and the Armenian tarna, is prepared on a vertical roasting spit and can be prepared from lamb, beef or turkey. Often you’ll [...]
15 April, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 21 Comments
Every time I step into The Milky Way in Los Angeles’s Pico Robertson neighborhood, I feel like I have entered a vacuum of tranquility. The hustle and bustle of Los Angeles stays outside as the owner, Leah Adler, welcomes each and every guest. Leah, a proud Jewish mother, has tastefully decorated the restaurant with movie memorabilia and posters, a subtle reminder to all that her son is the Hollywood mastermind, [...]
8 April, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 14 Comments
Would you believe me if I said I have never cooked with pineapple before? My mother’s deathly allergy to this fruit kept it far from our home, perhaps even our block when I was growing up. Pineapple happens to be my wife‘s favorite fruit so when I see a good looking pineapple at the store, I’ll remind myself that it isn’t poison and add it to the cart. In brainstorming [...]
18 March, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 14 Comments
In February 2013 I flew to New York for 50 hours to attend the Kosher Food and Wine Experience. As I made friends and mingled with foodies, there are two questions I was asked over and over again. First, “isn’t that where Kosher on a Budget is from?” Second, “why Kansas?”. After two years in this fine city, I answered that question my my recent Times of Israel Op-Ed. In short, these [...]
14 March, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 12 Comments
Sometimes you want something quick and easy, a short cut that will get you most of the way there. Last night, in the midst of my hummus prep, I ran out of steam and with my chick peas soaked, tahini ready and garlic already roasted, I wanted to call it a night. Making the hummus wasn’t bothering me, but if there’s one kitchen appliance I hate to clean more than anything [...]
4 March, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 15 Comments
Thirteen years ago, Malcolm Gladwell’s popular science book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference hit the shelves. I first heard of the book when I was new to life in Israel and the book was rising in popularity ahead of the 2005 launch of Gladwell’s second work, Blink, when someone turned to me one day and told me I was a connector. Connectors, are the [...]
25 February, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 22 Comments
The Jewish holiday of Purim is just around the corner and it’s a holiday that I have always enjoyed. There’s a carnival spirit in the air and communities come together to honor the holiday and one of the many traditions of the day is to send mishloach manot (literally translated as sending portions) which are gifts of food that can be used later in the day for a festive meal. [...]
10 February, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 19 Comments
When I was first introduced to pickled eggs at the home of The Sephardic Table, I think I was perplexed. Forgetting for a moment that pickling preserves as well as, if not better than, refrigeration, I hesitantly tried one of these purple eggs and instantly loved the delicate balance of sweet and acidic flavors carried by this colorful little egg. One bite had me sold. I asked for the recipe and made a a [...]
4 February, 2013 // By : Yosef Silver // 39 Comments
Around the time that we moved into our home, coconut oil became a go-to ingredient in my kitchen. Originally, I intended to use this a healthier alternative to olive oil as it has a higher burning temperature and a slew of health benefits but as it turns out, I have found that coconut oil is an excellent ingredient in it’s own right. While coconut oil is often used in South [...]
14 November, 2012 // By : Yosef Silver // 19 Comments
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