Three Things

New England clam chowder, favorite food podcasts, a vegan main for BBQ season

Good morning eaters and readers, and greetings from sunny Cambridge, MA where I am stationed this week, piggybacking on my husband’s business trip, and squeezing in one more long weekend away before the kids come home from college. Boston friends will know better than this tourist click-clacking away at the Harvard Square branch of Tatte, but so far I can report that the tajarin (an eggy noodle) with apricots and favas at Pammy’s and the gem lettuce salad at Oleana, the one with the curry-spiked dressing and crispy chickpeas, have made the decision to work remotely this week well worth it. Also, meals that have nothing to do with Boston, but are being considered for the dinner line-up later in the week: Salmon with Yogurt Mustard Sauce, Wheat Berry Salad with Tofu and Pickled Peppers, and Cauliflower Fritters from The Weekday Vegetarians.)

Here are your Three Things…

1. My Pretend Trip to Newport

Before there was Cambridge, there was Newport. Sort of. My college roommates and I had been planning a big reunion trip — our first one since Covid — to the charming, quintessentially New England seaside town in Rhode Island. But on Friday, as I was loading up the car with some Shacksbury ciders and various snackies, I started getting a flurry of texts involving positive antigen tests, and, alas, we were forced to postpone. Besides the obvious disappointment over the fact that I won’t see them all for a while — 15 kids between the seven of us makes logistics kinda tricky — my brain had already switched to that New-England-beach-town-in-the-summer mode…

…(^^^this mode^^^^…the best mode!!) and I could not shake the craving for eating chowder and a lobster roll or clam roll or any roll while gazing out at some crystalline sailboat-dotted harbor. (Next time, Flo’s!) Well, it wasn't quite the same, but that night Andy cooked up a batch of legit New England clam chowder using some local (NY-local) Little Necks. As I’ve mentioned before, the recipe, from Portland’s Eventide, is something of a project meal — great for a Saturday night — but it garners very high marks on the Transporting Scorecard, so worth it in my book. Especially since I didn’t lift a finger to make it anyway — I just sat on the kitchen floor sulking and texting my old friends who I miss so much! (Shown above: Abel’s Lobster, Maine.)

2. Gnocchi on the Grill!?

I’m always in search of a vegan main to serve at a barbecue — something that is actually smoky and grilled, not a separate meal that has been prepared at the boring old stove earlier on in the day. So I was drawn to the cover recipe in Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Barbecue coming out in a few weeks. With this recipe, the Guardian writer threads skewers with blanched gnocchi and vegetables and serves them with a basil-y pesto. How clever is that? (And I know this is the opposite of the point, but how good would this whole thing be in a skillet too?) The recipe for Gnocchi Skewers with Peppers and Lemon-Basil Sauce is on DALS today.

3. A Food Podcast Round-Up

What are your favorite food podcasts? I’m a longtime devotee of Francis Lam’s Splendid Table, Samin Nosrat’s and Hrishikesh Hirway’s Home Cooking (come back you two!), Evan Kleiman’s Good Food, Adam Roberts’ Amateur Gourmet, and lately, Matt Rodbard’s Taste. Matt gets the best guests — my two most recent favorites were Mi Cocina author Rick Martinez (who completely shifted careers when he was 38! That blew my mind!) and the deputy editor of the NY Times Dining section, Emily Weinstein (who talks about her move towards more plant-based eating, as well as words you will never see in the food section); How I Built This is of course first and foremost a huge business podcast, but some of their most popular episodes have featured big names in the food world, like Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi, Kathleen King of Tate’s Cookies (who started her cookie business when she was 11 at her family’s farm stand), and Sukhi Singh of Sukhi’s Gourmet Indian Food. And last week, while I was sniffing around Food52’s Genius Recipe Tapes, I found an entire recent episode dedicated to mine and Andy’s “internet famous” (their words, not mine) Pork Ragu. We listened to it on our drive to Boston, and Andy was like, “Damn that sounds really good,” and it made me laugh. What podcasts have you listened to lately — not just shows, but specific episodes? I’d love to hear.

Have a great week.

Jenny