MarlenaSpieler.com

Happy Halloween! Eat candy, be happy!

2007-10-31T13:04:00.000Z

But start with a nice big crunchy spicy Asian-inspired salad, perfect for pre-trick-or-treat munching. And if you run out of candy, make some chocko-macadamia popcorn! Get into your costume and let the night have its way with you!

Another year, another apple--Shana Tova to you and you and you.......

2007-09-13T18:37:00.000+01:00

Happy Rosh Ha Shana, that is, the first day of the Jewish New Year. Apples and honey all around, sweet challah, sweet wishes, and most important: a sweet sweet year to you!

The Roving Feast: The Bakers of Napoli had a party! And I was invited!

2007-09-07T13:06:00.000+01:00

Oh, the bread, the bread, the tomatoes and olive oil, the gorgeous bakers in their skimpy undershirts (well, when they were baking the bread and got close to the hot wood-burning ovens, they took off their bakers' whites and voila: those delightfully skimpy undershirts)....all under the shadow of Vesuvius! Best party ever, a carb-fest to delight in!

The Roving Feast: Peaches, Nectarines, Mai and Mas

2007-07-24T00:31:00.000+01:00

Mai Pham is the chef who dazzled us with platter after platter of spicy Vietnamese flavours combined with peaches and nectarines, David Mas Masumoto is the farmer who grew the fruit. Me? I'm the eater, and a happier (okay okay, and greedier) eater you couldn't find. Mai and Mas tell me that they're doing the dinner again, this year, August 15 at Mai's Lemongrass restaurant, Sacramento.

The Roving Feast: Swimming, Swimming, Swimming

2007-07-24T00:28:00.000+01:00

And afterwards everything tastes really really good. Why not have some eggplant, the Greek way? Such as in this recipe...oh, and check out the gorgeous eggplants on my bathing cap. Wish they were real...any bathing cap designers out there?

The Roving Feast: My Hotel in New York City

2007-07-24T00:22:00.000+01:00

The Carlton Arms, my home away from Home. Its not for everyone, but if you can keep from bursting into tears when you walk through the door, you're sure to have a groovy time. Cozy, friendly, and they're even letting me adopt a kitty for them! When you get hungry go have a bagel at Ess a Bagel, go for a swim next door at Baruch College, check out the second hand stores along third ave, and 23rd...and for a very yummy burger, go to Shake Shack, Danny Meyer's venture at Madison Square Park. Eat the burger while you hang out at the door park watching the pooches frolic. Whats that you say? You go to New York for culture, museum, plays, galleries and art? Well, Ye Olde Carlton Arms has lots of art. And if it doesn't have art you like, offer to make some of your own.

Roving Feast: Watermelon and Lime!

2007-07-24T00:18:00.000+01:00

Its simple, its delicious and its the season! Watermelon. Even better with tequila...

The Roving Feast: Tuna! Whatta fish!

2007-07-24T00:15:00.000+01:00

Not tartare, not seared, not sushi, not grilled...I'm talking tunafish from a can, and its a heckofa great fish!

The Roving Feast: Whats the first thing you're going to eat in Malaysia? A bagel, right?

2007-07-24T00:07:00.001+01:00

Half-dead from the long flight with jetlag kicking in, and the day so hot that everything looked hazy white, having not yet changed our money and being a zillion miles from either a noodle bar or a change machine.......we had a stroke of luck: Deep in the recesses of my backback, stashed for such emergencies, was a New York bagel, a fabulous New York bagel (Ess a Bagel) and bite after chewy bite, its never tasted so good. Second thing we ate in Malaysia was Laksa, the spicy coconutty savoury soup that I nicknamed "Save Your Life Soup" because each spoonful transfused us with vitality and seemed to bring us back in touch with the life force.

matzo brei, i love matzo brei! everybody loves matzo brei!

2007-07-23T23:58:00.001+01:00

When my friend Amanda asked me if I had any idea what kind of pancakes HER friend, Add, was referring to, when Add was deep in nostalgia for a childhood pancake of matzo and eggs... I knew right away: matzo brei, fried matzo, possibly my favourite comfort food, and a favourite of those who have grown up around me. matzo + eggs, then fried in a pan. eat it with those you love.

marlena makes a video-taster

2007-03-31T12:58:00.000+01:00

Tuesday, March 27,2007. Working with the fabuloso Granite Films, I made a video as a taster for UK Television Channel 4. If it doesn't work out with Channel 4, we'll move on down the line. wish us luck for commissioning! We--the brilliant UK food writer and Cambridge professor Bee Wilson and myself--spent all day in a bucolic countryside kitchen, surrounded by springtime Sussex, daffodils and trotting horses; we worked all day, cooking and chopping, rolling and tucking, and finally tucking in. We laughed, we cried, we ate, for hours and hours and hours. It will all get edited down to 8 minutes, the standard time for a taster.

Roving Feast: The Hungarian Embassy was a Feast for the Sole

2007-01-03T19:22:00.000Z

My husband would like it known that he doesn't make it a habit of wearing women's shoes, especially not pointy-toe, spiky heeled party pumps. But those of you who read The Roving Feast know otherwise....

Roving Feast: A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to Alba

2007-01-03T19:17:00.000Z

So there we were, in the fields with Padre Giustino and the truffle hounds, having the time of our lives and hoping for a truffle.

Roving Feast: Gravy makes everything delicious

2006-11-15T14:57:00.000Z

A savory blanket of deliciousness that brings all of the other thanksgiving ingredients together. heck, with good gravy you don't even need turkey--gravy ladled onto stuffing is my favorite part of the feast......especially eaten cold the next day.

Roving Feast: A Lobster Pinched My Tush!

2006-10-13T20:12:00.000+01:00

Never turn your back on a lobster.

Marlena in New York Times: Chiles have flavor in addition to Heat!

2006-10-03T04:07:00.000+01:00

Chillies are not just fiery little devils to pop as a macho dare: the fruit of the capsaicin plant also has flavor (to put it more succinctly: the many different fruits of different capsaicin plants have many different flavors).

grapefruit, jicama and pecan salad: too good! I've already eaten half of it. i'm crunching as i snap this pic!

2006-09-19T00:00:00.000+01:00

gretchen and me: cocktails and lunch at slanted door, San Francisco. sooooooo yummy as always!

2006-09-18T23:55:00.000+01:00

Roving Feast: Accents Make the World Go Round

2006-09-18T00:45:00.000+01:00

Have I told you yet about the cows? I've since heard (from dr noah stroe sf veterinarian extra-ordinaire) about a dog that moos like a cow. something is going on in the animal world.......

Roving Feast: Sacramento a la Carte

2006-09-18T00:41:00.000+01:00

My food life in Sacramento. Follow my lead and eat something delicious! Don't go to a chain restaurant, too many good funky places. the one i hadn't been to yet, the boulevard bistro in elk grove, is good to add to my list: it makes its own cream cheese and the sauces from reducing its own veal stock! and don't miss the farmers market, under the freeway sunday mornings......

Roving Feast: Confessions of a Coffee Addict

2006-09-18T00:38:00.000+01:00

Do you ever go to sleep at night with a smile on your face thinking about the cup o' joe you're going to have when you wake up?

Roving Feast: Big Nates BBQ!

2006-09-18T00:36:00.000+01:00

Go to Big Nates! Ask him for the burnt edges! tell him marlena sent you! (and eat an extra portion for me)

Roving Feast: coooooool as a cuke!

2006-09-18T00:31:00.000+01:00

Cucumbers are my favorite vegetable, at least when the weather is hot and sultry. For instance, the other day my buddy Steve Sando (aka Rancho Gordo for his wonderful heirloom beans) invited me and food writer Paula Wolfert over to lunch and served up a jugful of deee-vine pureed cucumber juice, lightly salted. The weather outside was hovering in the nineties, but that cucumber juice was cooling me within. yum.

Roving Feast: Queen of Packed Lunches!

2006-09-18T00:23:00.000+01:00

If its time for lunch, I'll pack it for you!

our favorite breakfast in malaysia

2006-06-11T12:22:00.000+01:00

our favorite breakfast in a cafe in Terengganu, Malaysia: a curry-stew of local tuna--the village we were in was a fishing village, and the people crazy for tuna. so many different types of tuna! this was a small tuna, as you can see, long long simmered so that it had the stong, delicious, savor of confit tuna, or even canned tuna, yet so fresh tasting, as it was...fresh! along with it is rice, and my favorite achar, a sweet-sour vinegar pickle of cucumber and other refreshing vegetables. Iced coffee, locally grown, to drink. aaaah.