Culture

Weekend Reading: a Delicious Hangover Cure, a Wine and Cheese Pairing Wheel, and More

What we’re reading, cooking, and clicking this week

• Sarah Karnasiewicz writes in the Wall Street Journal of the power of chilaquiles (tortilla chips simmered in salsa and topped with a fried egg) to cut through the pain and fog of a hangover and return off-balance breakfasters to themselves. I love chilaquiles, but the really marvelous thing about this story is the second recipe, for a similar morning after dish of torn lasagna noodles and herbs tossed in a sauce of browned butter, soy sauce, and lemon juice and topped with a poached egg. The day I read the story, unable to get the description of the torn pasta dish out of my head, I made a big batch for dinner. It was one of the most utterly delicious things I've ever eaten, and was a cinch to make. I can't wait to make it again for breakfast—hangover or no. —Karen Shimizu

• With David Arnold, owner of the high-tech cocktail bar Booker and Dax, as founder and president and chefs like Wylie Defresne, Anita Lo, and Brooks Headley as advisors, New York City's future Museum of Food and Drink is off to a good start. The first exhibit they're planning? A traveling extravaganza featuring the amazing puffing gun, a 19th-century machine that heats grains under enormous pressure, exploding and releasing them to create the kinds of puffed cereals you're used to seeing in your breakfast bowl. —Betsy Andrews

• A link from David Lebovitz's Facebook page led me to this wine and cheese pairing wheel, a cute little infographic that suggests what to drink with everything from blue cheeses to Camembert and Gruyere. As I've long suspected, Champagne goes with just about everything. —Laura Sant

• Earlier this month Al Jazeera aired a documentary called Mustafa's Sweet Dreams, about a young Turkish pastry apprentice in Gaziantep—a small town in southeastern Turkey that's home to hundreds of baklava workshops—who longs to become a baklava master in Istanbul. The film offers a glimpse into the demanding work that goes into making the famous pastry, while also telling an intimate story of father and son. —Felicia Campbell

• In a segment on NPR's All Things Considered, Allison Aubrey reports on a San Francisco food lab's development of "Beyond Eggs," an egg substitute made of ground-up peas and sorghum that's apparently a convincing stand-in for the real deal. —Lauren Rothman

• Hailing from Maryland, I grew up on crabs, the Redskins, and pit beef. But I never realized pit beef was a "Maryland thing"—for us, it was a summer tradition. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Jim Shahin explores the weird and wonderful world of Baltimore pit beef: a method of cooking meat that isn't quite barbecuing and not quite grilling; it's something wholly its own. Reading about it evokes memories of a place my family used to frequent down the road—and makes me hungry to go back for more. —Farideh Sadeghin

• I love quinoa for its nutty flavor, nutritional profile and quick cooking time. What I don't like is the quinoa I prepare at home: it often comes out mushy. Thankfully, The Kitchn's quinoa cooking guide, which instructs you to rinse, toast and simmer the grains, will help turn out a perfect, fluffy pot of quinoa every time. —Riddley Schirm

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