How to Smuggle a Ham
How to Smuggle a Ham
Sometimes food is too good to be legal
Chinese New Year in Hong Kong
Chinese New Year in Hong Kong
The pinnacle of feasting and festivity

The Feed

Mar 21, 2013
5 Great London Bars
by Ceil Miller Bouchet

From SAVEUR Issue #154
From classic martinis to fruity punches, there are plenty of ways to stay jolly in London. See Five Great London Bars »

69 Colebrooke Row Credit: Courtesy 69 Colebrooke Row
Mar 20, 2013
Nowruz: A New Day
by Farideh Sadeghin

Saffron rice. Mountains of fresh green herbs. Bowls overflowing with fruits and nuts. These are my favorite memories from childhood, intermingled with laughter and arguments, love and tears. The dualities that abound in Persian culture and cuisine pervade Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, as they do my memories. Nowruz is not a religious holiday, but a time of dancing and feasting to celebrate the change of seasons, death and re-birth, good and evil, and renewal for the year to come. Falling on the vernal equinox, Persians spend the weeks leading up to this event preparing for the ancient tradition. There is a massive spring cleaning, new clothes are purchased, and lentil sprouts are planted. But most importantly, there is the food, which takes on highly symbolic meaning during the holiday. Keep reading »

Nowruz: A New Day
Mar 20, 2013
Travel Guide: Chengdu, China
by Matt Gross

From SAVEUR Issue #151
Everything you need for a self-guided eating tour through Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China. See the guide »

Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Credit: The Map Factory
editorial bundle
Mar 15, 2013
America's 50 Best Donuts
by Jane and Michael Stern

America's great donuts are fragile and heavyweight, old-fashioned and artisanal. Aside from the fact that a warm one is taste-buds heaven, we're always on the lookout for donuts because the search leads to the kind of joints we love best, where eaters of every stripe enjoy a pastry so unfussy that it flouts utensils and rarely even comes on a plate. A good donut in hand with a steaming cup of coffee is democracy for breakfast. See 50 of our favorites in the gallery »

America's 50 Best Donuts Credit: Josée Bisaillo/Morgan Gaymin
Mar 11, 2013
Beautiful Bento
by Kenneth Wapner

My introduction to bento—Japanese lunch boxes—took place under less than ideal circumstances. It was 1986, and I'd been hired to teach English at a school in Tokyo—a job that began two days after my wedding. I reported to work jetlagged and discombobulated, only to find that the very next day there would be an overnight trip for new faculty to a spa hotel by the sea. The trip was mandatory. My wife was not invited.

Bento boxes Credit: Helen Rosner
Mar 6, 2013
The Tomato in Winter
by Mia Cabana

The flu-ravaged and freezing Northeast hasn't been a terribly fun place to spend time this winter, so when the opportunity came to decamp for a weekend to Sarasota, Florida, my bags were packed before you could say "sunshine." I departed for the land of warmth and vitamin C, visions of beaches and orange groves dancing in my head. When we touched down to blue skies and balmy air, I sent up a small prayer of gratitude. Swimming pools, wine tasting, and pink sunsets (at normal twilight hours, not 4 in the afternoon) filled the weekend, but the highlight—particularly to my palate, dulled by months of cold-weather root vegetables—was a 7 a.m. foray to the Sarasota farmers' market that proved to be more than worth the early wakeup call. Keep reading »

The Tomato in Winter Credit: Oliver Scott Snure
Mar 6, 2013
Capital of Heat
by Matt Gross

From SAVEUR Issue #154
I was walking down a narrow street in the suburbs of Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, when I spotted what I'd been hoping to spot for days: a tricycle. No ordinary conveyance, this; it was a mobile food vendor of the sort that specialized in dou hua, super-soft tofu drenched in black vinegar and chile-infused oil, topped with scallions, peanuts, pickled turnips, and fried shallots. The vendor ladled tofu from a basin in the back of the trike into a little plastic bowl, seasoned it, and handed it to me. With a thin plastic spoon, I scooped up a bite and put it in my mouth. Heaven. The tofu was warm and silky, with a hint of smoke, against which the garnishes were a rainbow of salty, sour, pungent contrast. Far too soon, my bowl was empty. Keep reading »

Capital of Heat Credit: Ariana Lindquist
Mar 4, 2013
Where Cubans Cook
by Ellen Silverman

From SAVEUR Issue #154

For the past two years I've been taking photographs of the kitchens of Havana, Cuba. I started almost accidently. On a visit to the island in December of 2010, I met a Cuban photographer named Carlos Otero Blanco. We discovered that we shared a passion for interiors—Carlos had recently self-published a book of photographs of bedrooms from all over Cuba, and I'd started shooting kitchens in New York. For each of us, these rooms had a certain pull and charisma. We decided to try taking pictures of kitchens in Havana—a spontaneous shared undertaking that turned into an ongoing solitary project. Keep reading »

Kitchens in Havana Credit: Ellen Silverman
Mar 1, 2013
Food Lover's Library
by Steve Friess
Cereal Foods and How to Cook them Credit: Courtesy Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive

From SAVEUR Issue #154

My understanding of American culinary history was turned on its head after visiting the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. It was there I learned how Jewish American cookery was once celebrated more for okra-based gumbos than matzo ball soups, and how, back in George Washington's day, the apples in apple pie were often substituted with, oddly enough, peas. Located inside the University of Michigan's William L. Clements Library in Ann Arbor, the collection is home to more than 20,000 items, including cookbooks dating back to the 1500s, early Chez Panisse menus, vintage advertisements, even an 1888 Manhattan saloon map. Keep reading »

Feb 28, 2013
The Oyster Regions of Virginia
by Nidhi Chaudhry

I met my first oyster when I was 12 and decided that we would never be friends. I was at a swanky seafood restaurant in Milan, Italy, with my meat-and-fish loving family who had been trying, unsuccessfully, to cure me of my staunch vegetarianism. I don't know why they thought oysters on the shell would do the trick, when much more appetizing-looking fare had failed. The one oyster (flown all the way from France, I was told) that was forcibly put on my plate looked raw, slimy, and highly suspect. I clung to my noble notions of vegetarianism and the oyster lived to see another plate. Keep reading »

The Oyster Regions of Virginia Credit: Nidhi Chaudhry