[Here's a new feature from our editor, Faith. Each Thursday she'll be looking at food coverage in either magazines or local news media. We begin with the glossies... ]
What are food magazines talking about right now? Here's a taste, along with a couple other features from mainstream web magazines.
The October Gourmet focuses on eating out with a list of America's Top 50 Restaurants. But that doesn't mean it isn't good for cooking - inspiration abounds in the stunning photography and restaurant recipes, like Grant Achatz's fantasy of asparagus, Meyer lemon and egg drops. Foam is involved somewhere. In their more straightforward Quick Kitchen section, recipes like Apple Upside-Down Cornmeal Cakes, Espresso Sambuca Tapioca Pudding and Mushroom and Oyster Soup set the mood for fall.
Leite's Culinaria, the online food magazine, has a mouthwatering photo and sweet essay on alfajores, a traditional Argentinian cookie - but no recipe! They do however feature recipes for Indonesia Spice Cake, Paella, and Tofu and Summer Vegetables in Coconut Milk.
Tim Wu writes a passionate Dumpling Manifesto for Slate, lamenting the sad state of what passes for jiao-zi in America today. He takes a tour through the varieties of Chinese dumplings - soup-filled xiaolongbao, shrimp-stuffed har ga, and the ultimate Hong Kong yellow-river crab supreme dumpling, with a "flavor explosion comparable to good foie gras."
Have you read that Vanity Fair piece yet? The one where David Kamp gives us a sneak peak into his new book about the transformation of American food? This would be the "transformation that began in 1971 with a burst of sex, drugs, and organic mesclun at Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California" - a transformation headed up by Alice Waters' stubborn optimism, Jeremiah Towers' flair for the baroque, and eventually the local produce of America itself. It's a fascinating look at an idealized icon, but also slightly disturbing. Towers makes Anthony Bourdain look prim.
