Revolutionary Connecticut


This is the new ad campaign for Connecticut. It's a great thing that Governor Malloy and the state have decided to start promoting tourism here again. I couldn't be happier. However, I'm seeing a lot of mixed reactions to the ad campaign. What do you think? Good? Bad? Both? I think they could have removed "Still," and just made it "Revolutionary." However, that's nitpicking.

Connecticut Learns to Say Momofuku

On my way to a friend’s apartment, I walked the New York City sidewalks with a full backpack pressing my feet into the concrete. Block after block, across each rush-hour street. Restaurants and vendors beckoned, but I ignored them. I strode past busy women in long trenchcoats and sleepy-eyed hipsters. Turning left on 13th street, I reached my destination on the corner of 2nd Avenue: Momofuku Ssam Bar. No one stood in line at the Milk Bar “take-out” section of the restaurant, and I put down the pack and ordered two pork buns. Three minutes later, I squirted generous helpings of Sriracha onto the tender pork belly cradled in the pillowy bun, and bit into one of the best things I’ve ever tasted...

Read the rest at Connecticut Food and Wine.

Ginger Cookies


Here are ginger cookies from an old recipe that we tried out. It was not the one we ended up using for A History of Connecticut Food, but another, less molasses-rich recipe. Once people started finding cane sugar more readily available, they used molasses less in cookies and other sweets. However, I tend to think that in some cases, that switch is a huge mistake. Molasses and ginger go so well together - why mess with perfection?

James Novoa at Lobster Landing



Up and coming writer James Novoa at Lobster Landing in Clinton. They serve the best lobster rolls in Connecticut that I have tried so far. And I have tried a lot. For an excellent recipe for lobster rolls in our new book, out in a month...A History of Connecticut Food. Now your mouth is really watering.

Keep your eyes and ears out for James and his excellent poetry.

Fresh Oatmeal Bread


The Tassajara Bread book has really been a wonderful friend these past couple years - and breaking free of the bread machine (which has its uses) has been great. Here's a loaf of my wife's latest oatmeal bread - rich and delicious.

Cutting certain breads out of the bread chapter in A History of Connecticut Food was difficult - there are so many individual traditions. Oatmeal bread is one of my all time favorite, and will be part of my tradition from now on.

Mashantucket Pequot Museum


Is the Mashantucket Pequot Museum the best Native American museum in America? I make that claim in the Insiders Guide to Connecticut. It's better than any other one I've been to, which includes the Smithsonian.  


Here is the view from the tower of Foxwoods Resort Casino, the business venture that allowed this amazing museum to be built. If you haven't been there, get there this summer and be blown away.

Joey Garlic's


Tried Joey Garlic's (the Newington one) for the first time a few months ago. Good pies, with a little bit of nice brick oven charring on the bottom. They offer "New Haven Style" but I can't taste that they are actually using coal-fired ovens like Sally's or Pepe's. The pizza is also a little thicker than at either of those two places. Essentially they are splitting the difference between a New Haven Style and regular brick oven pizza from a crappy chain restaurant. The result is very good, but not as good as true New Haven Style. Five thousand times better than a place like Bertucci's, though.

They also have too many things on their menu, without really doing anything interesting with most of them. Mostly Italian dishes done in a fairly traditional (meaning American-Italian restaurant) way. Their milkshakes, on the other hand, are divine. This is a great Connecticut restaurant chain that could be even better. Here me guys? You're almost there. Just cut down the menu a little and get more inventive with what's left.