The Kitchn Archive: Mar 2010

A few mornings ago, I wandered into a small apple orchard that was just beginning to bloom. It had been raining all night and the sun was starting to come out here and there, a most magical combination. Everything was washed clean and enlivened by the rain. The green grass beneath my feet vibrated, lit up and awake, and the air hummed with the cracked-open, wild potentiality that is spring. Plus, there were a fair amount of pollinating bees flying about, a happy and good thing to see.

Is the U.S. ready for a food revolution? Depending on who you ask, answers to that question could range from “Yes!” to “A what?” to “Sure, but hasn’t it been happening for a while? Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Eric Schlosser – ring a bell?” Well, there seems to be plenty of revolutionizing to go around, and Jamie Oliver is jumping in with a big network TV reality show set in “America’s unhealthiest city.

Spring Vernal Equinox: March 20th 2010 1:32 PM EDTThe great thing about life is that we are constantly being taught, or given the opportunity to be taught, even when the lesson is not necessarily what we signed up for. Volunteering to plant trees, for example, can teach us as much about neighborhood politics and working in a group as it does about digging holes and watering methods. Last weekend, I got some lessons on how to cook, and live my life, from a photography workshop.

The New York Public Library has a breathtakingly vast digital archive. You can browse botanicals, photographs, historic apartment floorplans, and (our favorite) old menus. It’s addictive! And here’s the best part: You can order prints, framed or unframed, or print them out yourself for free. We can so see a row of these whimsical menus in a kitchen.Most of the menus are from hotels and cruise lines and date back to the early-to-mid 1900s.

Although Kansas City is known for its abundance of meat and potatoes, we also have a hidden gem of an Asian grocery store. Although it smells a little strange and unfamiliar when you first walk in (hey, we’re honest), they have tastes and flavors that can’t be found anywhere else in the city. We brought our camera along for our last visit to give you a peek inside!The Chinatown Market in Kansas City, Missouri is located in the River District along the edge of the Missouri River.

Thomas Keller, on starting out as a dishwasher in his mother’s restaurant: “What resonated with me was rituals and repetition…So many of the things that I learned as a dishwasher you do as a cook. The idea of being efficient, being organized, the rituals of being a cook, the repetition…and of course the more you do something, the better you become.