Fa-latkes

Sometimes kooky fusion combos are better, more soulful, when improvised on the spot rather than pre-meditated. This one was borne from us being too tired, lazy, brain-dead and starving on a weekday night to be pithy or political with our pairings.

Falatkas …

Alex's Weekly Workout

Parmigiano-Reggiano is an unyielding behemoth of a cheese.

The eighty-eight pound monster you see above is two and a half years old, and took approximately 550 liters (145 gallons) of raw milk to produce. Portioning one of the Kings of cheese takes …

The Black One

At its inception, Imperial Stout was a savage concoction. The Russian Czars' thirst for stouts could not be quenched and English and Irish producers couldn't produce beer that would survive the brutal cold of a month long trip to St. Petersburg. Their answer …

Heart Beets

Forget to make that reservation at the new organic small-plate izikaya cocktail raw food bistro for Valentine's Day? Get stuck with a 4:45 seating time? You know, there's no shame in cooking, for one another. Like Adam and Eve sharing the apple tarte tatin of …

Lavender Feta Kumquats

A few years ago we witnessed a close friend be deeply moved by fresh cheese. We had recently visited one of our favorite sandwich stops, Mario's in Glendale, and happened to have perused their deli case. Along with innumerable cured beef and pork products …

Watermelon Radish Bites

On the eve of Super Bowl Sunday, we threw a Hot Knives dinner party. Jokes were made about making "nachos" out of Portuguese thistle rennet cheese and Egyptian fava beans, or terriyaki tofu burrito bites (shudder, barf). But without thinking about it, we really …

Liquid Smoke

After many successes and failures in beer cookery; we've determined what might just be the perfect cooking beer. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier is a rustic brew with a long history of intensity. It's one of the few remaining breweries to exclusively utilize open …

Older Viscosity

"Pop, phisss... utter vacuumed silence." That is, essentially, the sound a bottle of Older Viscosity makes when you (finally) open it for a drinking. We like to think we could place it in a line-up of recorded bottle-openings -- much the same way those grating, …

Older Viscosity

"Pop, phisss... utter vacuumed silence." That is, essentially, the sound a bottle of Older Viscosity makes when you (finally) open it for a drinking. We like to think we could place it a line-up of recorded bottle-openings -- much the same way those grating, …

Cult of the Curry Carrot

Quick preface: We bow low before the soup kitchen altar of our friend Astara, soup wizard-ess and ancient soul, who throws together far superior carrot creations than we by the mere flick of her pinky finger -- her curry carrot soup and her herbed carrot puree …

Kimchee Shimeji

Lately you're favorite kitchen hood-rats have been slammed to the gills with the rigmarole of our non-hyperspace rat races. We've been slumping into beers and books a little too quickly in these first weeks of January, and our innate drive to spend three hours …

Old Ruffian

There have been days when we've cursed the Rocky Mountains for keeping the Colorado beers we love (and those we think we could love, if that love were only given a chance) from reaching our beer dealers in Los Angeles -- silver bullet indeed. We're used to …

White Widows

In lieu of super traditional New Year dishes like Tamales or Posole we opted for nothing but booze this year. In the bleary eyed aftermath (the last two weeks) we've all been craving a little something from the solid southwestern repertoire of beans, squash and …

White Widows

In Lieu of super traditional New Year dishes like Tamales or Posole we opted for nothing but booze this year. In the bleary eyed aftermath (the last two weeks) we've all been craving a little something from the solid southwestern repertoire of beans, squash and …

Hash Greens

Though we're more than happy to sling out menu ideas to restaurateur friends when asked, we also have a secret game we play whereby every dish we cook up gets graded for whether it could one day occupy the menu of a Hot Knives restaurant. This is one of those …

Sweet Rolls

In preparation for the morning after New Year's Eve, we've been scouring our brains and books for something new and different. What we came up with was a newfangled application for an 80-year-old organism: Madam Yellott's heirloom sourdough start. Meagan's …

Stufflets

We like to file this recipe adaptation under the 'My-kid-just-went-vegetarian-what-do-we-make-for-Christmas-dinner?' category. Because that's exactly how we started making it. After all, back in the '90s, before Food Network and Google booted the Joy of …

Beery Christmas

It is Christmas Eve, heathens. Time to make a chestnut fire, a batch of fresh bread and don wool socks. Of course, that can be a tall order if you have to, oh, say, work around the clock or spend Christmas apart from dudes and family. Our fallback many a winter …

Belgian Onion Soup

There are few perceivable pillars of French cooking that are as widely and voraciously loved as scalding hot onion soup cloaked in a blistering layer of melted gruyere. Like many of the epic French dishes that cannonnize the cuisine of rural folk vegetarians …

The Sandwich Search

Our friends Ali and Evan who opened a bike-friendly, veggie-heavy caf