Photo: Flickr/Jen SFO-BCN

Tom Ashbrook takes on an exciting (and delicious) topic during On Point’s second hour today: the history of African American food.   Culinary historian, Jessica Harris joins Tom from New Orleans to discuss her new book High On The Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. Local chef Tony Brooks of Cambridge’s Coast Cafe will provide the dishes.

Listen live at wbur.org or get the podcast HERE.

Photo: Courtesy of Simon and Schuster

It’s 2004 in Baghdad. The city is torn by war – a struggle that will end the lives of more ordinary citizens than soldiers or terrorists. And yet, somehow, families manage to wake up, run errands, go to work. Communities still gather around the dinner table. People take solace in their meals – but what do you eat when life seems more vulnerable than ever?

During the winter, food writers talk about “comfort food” so frequently that it’s become a cliché – but no cuisine deserves the title more than the food that families make together when their country is ravaged by war. Chicago native Annia Ciezadlo landed in Baghdad in the fall of 2003 to find a country relying more and more on warm and comforting homemade dishes. Moving between occupied Iraq to an increasingly violent Beirut, Ciezadlo tells a story of war from the vantage point of an ordinary kitchen table in her new book, Day of Honey.

Public Radio Kitchen talked to Ciezadlo on Wednesday about grape leaves, raw lamb and the beauty of everyday life in the midst of chaos.

PRK: I saw on your biography that you were born in Chicago. What drove you to move to the Middle East and report on culture there?

AC: Well, I was born in Chicago and then I moved around quite a bit, sort of lived in many different parts of the United States. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana… I lived all over the U.S., anywhere from Ohio to Minneapolis, a summer in Portland, [in] Arizona… A lot of this is in the book, and I sort of try to make it clear how traveling all over the U.S. kind of shaped my view of the world, and it especially made me attracted to food, because food was always this thing I could count on, I could rely on, and it was always this thing that I knew to go to when I was in a new place. Continue reading →

Photo: Muffet/Flickr

LOCAL BITES

Boston Baker
Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery + Cafe and Myers + Chang is everywhere this winter after the release of her first cookbook: “Flour.” On Friday, she cooked with Martha on The Martha Stewart Show, making vanilla crème-filled doughnuts. Chang said she sells them at her bakeries only on Sundays. 

Cook Less
It’s cold enough outside. No need to add to the misery with another frozen dinner. Personal chef JJ Gonson from Cuisine en Locale is offering weekly, prepared meals as part of her Shared Food Program. For $100 a week, Gonson will prepare a set of heatable meals, delivered to Season to Taste in North Cambridge. Email her at jj@enlocale.com for more information.

Grilled Cheese on Wheels
There’s  a new grilled cheese food truck in town–at Cleveland Circle, to be exact–and it’s called Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese. Their stealth ingredient may surprise you. Roxy’s also serves fried pickles! Try one and your life will change forever.

Farmer’s Market
The North Attleboro Farmer’s Market is celebrating its one year anniversary on Sunday, Feb. 6th, from 12 – 4 p.m. Local growers and producers will sell their wares, along with raffle tickets to support Lenore’s Pantry, a food pantry for North Attleboro residents.

Ice, Ice (cream), Baby.
If yesterday’s snow wasn’t enough for you, sample some chili-themed ice cream at Harvard Square on Saturday for the “Some Like it Hot Chili Cook-off.” Warm up afterwards as ten restaurants plan to participate in the chili portion of the contest. From 1 – 3 p.m., taste and vote for free. Continue reading →

Waiting for the mailman (Submitted to WBUR's Flickr group by Paul Keleher)

Even PRK got snowed in today!

Tune in for Tidbits tomorrow, stay warm and watch the ice, everyone!

(PS: one of these mailboxes just happens to be my family’s…)

Photo: Courtesy of Berkshire Mountain Bakery

Did you know that artisanal breads considered some of the best in the country are found right here in western Mass?

From our friends at Berkshire Food Journal, you can listen to Richard Bourdon of Berkshire Mountain Bakery talk about his upbringing in a family of 10, where his mom cooked everything and helped give birth to Richard’s love for baking. It’s a fascinating story, and process. Richard talks about “water, fire and time” in making his breads, naturally leavened by sourdough.

As a baker, Richard says he “orchestrates.” Must be some sweet music. Bon Appétit just named Bourdon’s bakery one of the top 10 in the U.S. Grab your snow shoes and ‘head West!’