Best of 2008: Now...where do you live?

6th Feb 2009

Bestof2008where

It sounds like an easy question to answer, but sometimes even I have a hard time remembering where Blake is half the time (Don't even get me started on what time zone he lives in).  I can only imagine what casual readers might think.  In the past three years we've both lived in a combined total of 9 or so apartments, which doesn't include Blake's month of couch surfing, which might bring...

Best of 2008: The Urban Farmer

5th Feb 2009

Urbanfarming
One of the things we've talked about on this site from time to time is a British fellow named Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, mostly in spurts of unmitigated, gushing exaltation: this man is some kind of food messiah.  When we live-blogged last year's James Beard Awards --which is the most fun we've had in ages, standing ten feet from Jacques Pepin (who was surrounded by young women), watching...

Best of 2008: "Dinner Tonights" of the Year

4th Feb 2009

Bestof2008dt

Though last year we boasted of writing well over 140 articles at places besides this blog, that turned out to be nothing.  This year that total was well over the 250 mark.  Nearly all of those were for the Dinner Tonight column at Serious Eats , which, as the name suggests, is updated every weekday night.  That's a lot of recipes, and a hell of a lot to keep straight.  Abby has to o...

Best of 2008: Hamburgers of the Year

3rd Feb 2009

Bestof2008burger3
Since the beginning of the site, Blake and I have had an unabashed love affair with the burger.  Though often neglected for more highfalutin fare, we've found inspiration in the ground meat patty.  Perhaps we loved it so much because ground beef was cheapest kind of meat in the grocery store when we were poor and living in Manhattan.  There was hardly a week that went by that we didn't have...

Best of 2008: The Art of Curing Meat

2nd Feb 2009

Curingprojects

Welcome to our Perpetually Late Year-End Roundup. It's a tradition here at The Paupered Chef that we tend to pull off sometime in January or February.  Maybe we only put this thing together for our own amusement, because when you're constantly writing and thinking about new things, you sometimes forget where you've been.  It's illuminating, to see what captured one's imagination over...