Features • Published Jun 16, 2022 12 am
Why has it taken me so long to visit Chamard Vineyard, especially since so many friends have told me the food is divine? I recently had lunch there on a Wednesday, a birt...
Features • Published May 26, 2022 12 am
On a recent Sunday afternoon, I decided I was hungry. It isn’t easy to find lunch on a Sunday afternoon. Not to worry, for the Rustic Café, a favorite of mine, with about...
Features • Published May 12, 2022 12 am
On a recent morning, I woke up by 6:30 a.m. and realized I had a very busy ahead. My car was due for service in Old Saybrook, then lunch in Middletown, then home to finis...
Features • Published Apr 14, 2022 12 am
To get to Camacho Garage in New Haven is a bit of a drive for me, which would give anyone pause with gas prices as high as they are. But when the name of the brilliant Me...
Features • Published Mar 31, 2022 12 am
Black Jax Saloon really isn’t a saloon, although the gorgeous bar, and the people who sit there, remind me of the camaraderie of the Black Seal in Essex, with customers d...
Features • Published Feb 23, 2022 11 pm
When I picked up Dining in the Dark, a memoir by The New York Times food writer and restaurant reviewer Bryan Miller, I read it in one day. That’s how terrific it is. Bef...
Features • Published Feb 16, 2022 11 pm
I was in Old Saybrook, hungry, on a Friday afternoon. I remembered a little French bakery and restaurant located where the James Pharmacy used to be. I hoped it was open....
Features • Published Jan 05, 2022 11 pm
I think you know how much I love tomatoes. I just ordered another case (12, 28-ounce cans of peeled Muir Glen tomatoes). And I am sure those of us who love local tomatoes...
Features • Published Dec 13, 2021 11 pm
By Lee White
One of the best parts about living in Connecticut and writing about food is simple: Mike Urban. Over the years, Mike has written about New England clam, lobster, and seaf...
Features • Published Dec 08, 2021 11 pm
As a restaurant reviewer and food writer for several decades, I’ve always felt that a great hamburger in a dive bar could be as good as beef Wellington in a five-star res...
Features • Published Nov 17, 2021 11 pm
I like to shop, but clothes shopping (especially during the pandemic) bores me. On the other hand, I love to shop for food. On the shoreline, I will often go to the Big F...
Features • Published Nov 04, 2021 12 am
Does everyone on they Connecticut shoreline know about the Book Barn? They should. The original is in Niantic and consisted of one big room and lots and lots of little on...
Features • Published Oct 28, 2021 12 am
Earlier this month, we tried to decide where to have a casual dinner. We were in Madison in three separate cars; two of us would be driving north on 95. We wanted burgers...
Features • Published Oct 21, 2021 12 am
Having been away for a little over a week, regular errands pile up. After a late morning meeting in Old Saybrook (and forgotten to eat breakfast, again!), I stopped at Ch...
Features • Published Sep 16, 2021 12 am
I often have mid-morning appointments. If I don’t have breakfast, by the time my appointments are finished, I need lunch. One day, I was in the mood for a fish sandwich, ...
Features • Published Aug 26, 2021 12 am
Many, many years ago, I found a gas station in Clinton with a sign that said “pies.” And the owner of the gas station made the pies. Maybe the best pies ever. And then, o...
Features • Published Jun 17, 2021 12 am
After the washout that was Memorial Day weekend, I did my errands early on a recent Saturday morning so I could spend a beautiful afternoon at the beach. My errands inclu...
Features • Published Jun 10, 2021 12 am
I used to like to make fun of counter-top appliances. We really have everything we need in most kitchens: stoves with an oven and pots and pans, I said. But then came the...
Features • Published May 27, 2021 12 am
On a recent Friday night I went to the First Friday celebration at the Shennecossett Yacht Club. Even though I no longer have a boat, I love their Friday Nights and, as w...
Features • Published May 13, 2021 12 am
Late last summer (or maybe early September) friends suggest we go to Kokomo’s for a Sunday brunch. I lived in Old Lyme for more than a decade and I never went to that res...
Features • Published May 06, 2021 12 am
Looking back to when I was a kid, my parents ate things I couldn’t stand: grapefruit, cabbage, lox, raw onions, and radishes. I particularly did not like radishes. Today ...
Features • Published Apr 22, 2021 12 am
If you loved the grinders at Bennie’s Farm Market in Centerbrook, which is now closed, and if you don’t mind taking a drive, I have a tip for you: check out Hartford Gian...
Features • Published Apr 15, 2021 12 am
On my way to friend’s home last week, I forgot to take my house-made iced coffee. Because I left it in the kitchen, I stopped at Dunkin’. While waiting behind the three c...
Features • Published Mar 18, 2021 12 am
I have been buying these tiny potatoes, usually from a company called The Little Potato Company’s Terrific Trios. They are called creamer potatoes. Yes, they are more exp...
Features • Published Feb 03, 2021 11 pm
I so miss going to a restaurant for dinner. By the time you read this, I will have gotten my first vaccine dose and, by the middle of February, I will have had my last. M...
Features • Published Jan 27, 2021 11 pm
Why would I have fruit flies in my kitchen when it’s January and there are no over-ripe fruits or vegetables here? And yet, there they are. One of my friends from Faceboo...
Features • Published Jan 13, 2021 11 pm
When I am grilling beef on my Weber, I don’t use an instant-read thermometer. I like steak really rare and I use the flesh between my forefinger and my thumb as a referen...
Features • Published Oct 22, 2020 12 am
I have lived on the Connecticut shoreline for decades and food has been my wheelhouse since the mid-70s, but I still get thrilled about new things, even in this pandemic....
Features • Published Oct 15, 2020 12 am
I rarely buy supermarket frozen pizza because I live in an area where terrific pizza is a few minutes’ drive, or even a phone (or text) away. Most frozen pizzas leave me ...
Features • Published Sep 17, 2020 12 am
As I drive along our beautiful shoreline, my thoughts are sometimes drawn inland, particularly this time of year. Soon, apples will be everywhere, along with cider and ci...
Features • Published Aug 27, 2020 12 am
Oh man, this somewhat-Renaissance woman (comedian/actor/writer/director/producer/mom/wife/cousin of Senator Chuck Schumer of New York) really doesn’t know how to cook. Go...
Features • Published Aug 20, 2020 12 am
Last month, one day, I could not eat anything for more than a day due to a medical procedure. While is isn’t a big deal, I hate the fact that I can’t eat, so I was on the...
Features • Published Aug 13, 2020 12 am
I am a purist when it comes to sweet corn. I only buy sweet corn from a farm stand when it is absolutely local and, ideally, harvested that day. I don’t husk it until the...
Features • Published Aug 06, 2020 12 am
I love watching people using chopsticks when cooking in their kitchens. I guess I wasn’t alone. Sohla El-Waylly, associate food editor at Bon Appetit, has been using foot...
Features • Published Jul 23, 2020 12 am
I cook, I read, I watch television. After watching Somebody Feed Phil, he tasted Montreal bagels. I remembered having bagels in Montreal maybe two decades ago. They look ...
Features • Published Jul 16, 2020 12 am
Many of us are in summer mode, grilling outside in yards, on patios, and in porches. My go-to favorites for grill season, even with all the fancy recipes in all the food ...
Features • Published Jul 02, 2020 12 am
I had an appointment in Old Saybrook at 10 a.m., and I wasn’t ready for breakfast before I left the house. When my appointment was done, it was too late for breakfast and...
Features • Published Jun 25, 2020 12 am
Am I the only one watching way too much television? Well, maybe not as much as my daughter and her husband, both of whom are working at home. We talk every day, usually, ...
Features • Published May 21, 2020 12 am
A Facebook note from Rhonda Depsey, co-owner of Sneekers, about a Friday-night special of whole belly clams, got me very excited. For me, spring isn’t spring until I have...
Features • Published May 14, 2020 12 am
I have known Jerry Fischer for many, many years. He is my go-to person when our local school superintendent asks me for the dates of Jewish holidays so we don’t scheduled...
Features • Published Mar 26, 2020 12 am
There are people who love beets and those who loathe them. This is just for those who, like me, adore them.
I was invited to a very small dinner party at friends in Grisw...
Features • Published Mar 12, 2020 12 am
As soon as I bake a batch of something sweet, I taste one, and decide whether it is good enough for a column. Then, out into the world they go; those sweet things leave m...
Features • Published Mar 04, 2020 11 pm
Back when I was a restaurant reviewer for The Day, I was invited to many dinners before the restaurants were open for business. I rarely went because restaurant critics s...
Features • Published Feb 26, 2020 11 pm
During a recent trip to Madison, my friend asked if we could stop at Bradley & Wall so she could pick up some prepared food for dinner for her husband and son. I had neve...
Features • Published Feb 19, 2020 11 pm
I have a friend Lisa who lives in Westchester County, New York, works in New York City, and comes to Madison most weekends. With a free Friday in Madison, she asked about...
Features • Published Feb 05, 2020 11 pm
It is never a good idea to shop when you are hungry, especially because I am on this intermittent fasting diet. I don’t eat before 11 a.m. or after 7 p.m. So, there I was...
Features • Published Jan 15, 2020 11 pm
On a recent morning, I looked outside, saw it was snowing, and decided I would not be going out because I have a new car and I am treating it like a new puppy, kitten, or...
Features • Published Jan 08, 2020 11 pm
I went to a New Year’s Eve party and the hosts, accomplished cooks who love food as much as I do, asked me to make pigs in a blanket.
Really?
For a group of guests that i...
Features • Published Dec 11, 2019 11 pm
I made roasted vegetables for my daughter-in-law’s Thanksgiving dinner when I visited in Massachusetts, and, again, when I created an encore dinner two days later at my h...
Features • Published Nov 27, 2019 11 pm
On the way home from getting my Costco card in East Lyme recently, I stopped for takeout from the pretty new restaurant in the old location of Five Guys. Instead of burge...
