Heather Edwards and Todd Jansen are general manager and chef, respectively, at The Painted Lady — a pop-up making its debut in the space that otherwise belongs to Local 186 […]
Food & Drink
Cook, mix, pour, and pull up a chair.
Browse all Food & Drink stories below or dive into a topic:
WHAT’S OPEN
A Deep Winter Outer Cape Dining Guide
The Independent’s February update on where to eat
Cozy homemade suppers sound romantic in December, but by February the search is on for somewhere to go or at least something good to order in. We found plenty of […]
THE BREAKFAST BEAT
Good Morning, Shakshuka
Starting the day right with garlic, tomatoes, spices, and eggs
Starting my day with pancakes always put me in a moody, sugar-laden stupor. And I never could get behind a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast. Even when I was […]
COOK’S KITCHEN
A Dumpling to Keep You Cozy Through a Long Winter’s Night
Practice makes for perfect, pillowy potato gnocchi
January’s sun sets smack down in the center of Blackfish Creek tinting the clouds beyond my back window a cotton-candy pastel. It’s stop-in-your-tracks gorgeous Cape Cod light. And every bit […]
THE ESSENTIALS
One Chicken, Three Dinners for Two
Rice and greens transform broth into a fine Italian soup
I remember my grandmother — all four-feet-eight of her — standing tall before the grocer, as he rang up her order. “No, sir! I will not pay 59 cents a […]
POP UPS
Pizza Spinello Gets Hot in Wellfleet
A spot for bagel hounds by day serves Wednesday night pies al taglio
WELLFLEET — John D’Aponte grew up traveling back and forth between two pizza meccas: Naples, Italy, and Brooklyn, N.Y. A New Yorker, D’Aponte often visited the southern Italian city where […]
FROM THE LARDER
Congee’s Good for Anything That Ails You
A silky rice porridge is a palette for color, crunch, and heat
As the Outer Cape’s long trek to spring begins, Christopher and I are grateful for the reprieves we’ve had this year from winter’s cold grip. A good number of magically […]
KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL
Crispy Fried Shallots
A sweet, salty pick-me-up for almost any winter soup
There was one good thing about those green bean casseroles. It wasn’t the beans, which tasted metallic, like the inside of the can where they’d been biding their time before […]
COOK’S KITCHEN
Gougères Are the Little Black Dress of Hors d’Oeuvres
Simple and elegant crisp-tender cheese puffs are the ideal bites with bubbly
Of all the dips, spreads, noshes, and nibbles I have served, there is one that I make for holiday parties year after year: gougères. They always get raves. Gougères are […]
FORAGING
A Restorative Sip for the New Year
White pine needle tea is ‘like drinking the forest in winter’
My friend Ingrid Bratberg knows all the best places to find stinging nettles, wild onions, blackberries, and elderflowers. Ingrid’s a professional baker by day — her shortbread is legendary — […]
SALUD
Coquito, Puerto Rico’s ‘Just Don’t Call It Eggnog’
For Navidades, rum, spices, and a little coconut suffonsify
Somewhere along the road, eggnog fell into a ditch. Exalted until the late ’70s, it got tossed out with all those avocado-green appliances. It’s all but disappeared now, save for […]
PROST
A Drink for Getting Cozy, Abroad or at Home
Red wine, spices, and a little more honey than you might think
Europe in summertime is out of reach for most Cape Codders — it’s our busy time, and there’s too much work here to leave the Cape in June. I’ve learned […]
KITCHEN CULTURE
There Is Soup and There Is Borscht
A Ukrainian Christmas tradition takes on new significance
Yuliia Svieshnikova has always prepared borscht, one of the 12 traditional Christmas dishes of her native Ukraine, on Jan. 6. That is Christmas Eve on the Julian calendar, which Ukrainians […]
FAMILY RECIPE
Biscotti With Love From a Grandma’s Kitchen in Yonkers
A cookie for the holidays and for always
It’s a terrible thing to say about one’s grandmother — especially one’s Italian-American grandmother — but mine was not a great cook. Her specialty was a swamp-like egg drop soup […]
TASTE MEMORIES
The Joy of Cookbooks
Vintage favorites are the ones cooks most want to give
Cookbooks aren’t always for cooking by. That’s what we heard when we asked a few dedicated local cooks about their favorites. These kitchen volumes are for bringing back taste memories […]
