Food & Drinks

Bonnie: A few weeks ago, a publicist offered the three of us some wild, 100 percent organic, cultivated mushrooms. “We’re encouraging your writing about, blogging and cooking with …. four varieties of mushrooms,” she e-mailed.

Who could resist? Once we each received a sampling containing king trumpet; brown beech; white beech and maitake or “hen of the woods” mushrooms, we set about cooking with them. It was unanimous. Seems we each found the robust earthy flavor of the maitake the most flavorful and decided to select it as our FeaturedBite — although you can’t go wrong with any of them. The maitake mushrooms are medium to dark brown, have odd-shaped brown caps and are clustered at the base.

To cook, I just cut off the base, gently pulled them apart and sautéed them in a bit of extra virgin...

Bryan: This is one of the funnier posts I’ve had to write here at Bite of the Best. There is nothing particularly hilarious about the product at hand (maitake mushrooms by Golden Gourmet, aka The Kinoko Company); the humor lies in my past treatment of mushrooms in general. I’ve mentioned in previous articles that I was, at one time, a very picky eater. Never did my past food finickiness reach greater heights than with mushrooms. I would literally plead with my mother not to cook mushrooms. Note that I wasn’t pleading with her for me not to eat them — that was never going to happen. Actually I was begging for them not to be cooked at all. There are a few documented occurrences of me literally fleeing the house to avoid the wafting scent of sautéing mushrooms. I could not stand the smell, let alone stomach the thought of these bizarre...

Eric: The maitake variety of mushroom, straight from the special-effects department of a B-horror movie, is without a doubt something different – in texture, taste and shape – but more importantly, it is a food worth trying.

Let me start by saying that I am not an avid mushroom eater; there is something typically unsettling about eating a “fungus,” and I generally try to avoid incorporating them into my food (this mind-set also lends itself to my disgust of the mold family – hello Roquefort). On the contrary, I am a strong advocate of trying every, and any, food at least once. This philosophy has led me to appreciate the tenderness of well-prepared...

Bonnie: Last summer, in the midst of a July heat wave at an event where the air conditioning didn’t work, I was approached by Tom Pfleider, president and CEO of Pfleider Pfoods, the company that makes The Art of Chipotle products. He tried to tell me about his food products, but I was way too overheated to listen. I just wanted out of the muggy, over-packed room. But, impressed by his passion for his family business, I gave him my card, requesting that he send samples. Then quickly — very quickly — I exited that steamy room. I hoped his tenacity matched his eagerness. It did, as his samples arrived [...]

Bonnie: I do love almonds.

For heart health, I try either to nibble an ounce a day or use almonds in place of bread crumbs as a coating for fish or chevre or to add crunch to my salads. For the most flavor, be sure to toast the nuts before adding them to salad. Just heat in a 350-degree oven or in a skillet over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes until fragrant and golden, watching carefully as once they begin to toast almonds can burn easily.

For nibbling, though, I like them a bit spicy, which is why...

Bryan: Whatever happened to lunch? I sit and ask myself this question from time to time as I remain shackled to my desk, not from fear of an overbearing boss, but from an e-mail inbox that just won’t cease. I believe the two-martini lunch has gone the way of the dodo as e-mail and other forms of instant communication continue to demand such rapid response times that deals may be won or lost over appetizers.

This dilemma never used to bother me, as my old office was on 47th...

Eric: I remember when I was growing up I would scoff at anything that contained nuts. The mere sight of a chopped walnut in a brownie or a single peanut’s presence in one of my chocolate chip cookies would be enough to enlist the “surgeons tools” — my pudgy little fingers — to dissect the baked good until it was simply nut-free. I fast forward my life 10 years and can’t imagine a world without nuts. I can understand that over time a person’s taste buds can change, but when I look back, I can no longer imagine how I ever felt disgusted by...