Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2014 i SAVEUR

LOS ANGELES 06:21AM If you rise early enough in Los Angeles, you will often find a chill in the air and sometimes even a blanket of fog. At this hour at the Hotel Bel-Air (dorchestercollection.com), a smoky blue dawn embraces the estate's palm trees and bougainvillea vines, dewdrops glisten like gems on the chaise lounges, birds dart in and out of patches of mist. Wrapped in a plush throw on my terrace, I cuddle up to a room service breakfast served to me by a dapper waiter named Felix, who pours strong French press coffee as if he were performing a ballet move. Brioche French toast is nothing new, but this one is ravishing, kissed with vanilla and dressed to the nines in a blueberry compote. In between bites, I…

Whether you prefer well-browned pancakes with a crunchy edge or a fluffy blond stack, it's all about knowing the right moment to flip that guarantees success. When batter hits a hot skillet, gaseous cells from the baking soda or other leavener expand and form tiny bubbles. If you like your flapjacks pale, flip them as soon as bubbles form along their edges. For a golden brown stack, wait 2 minutes until bubbles appear in the center of the pancake, giving the egg, milk, and butter proteins in the batter time to brown and crisp underneath. For a recipe, go to saveur.com/pancakes. The simplest technique for cooking vegetables is blanching them in salted boiling water. The secret to perfect doneness is to stop the cooking at exactly the right instant. Leafy…

This Korean version of maki rolls, adopted during the Japanese occupation in the early 20th century, features rice and vegetables rolled in seaweed with egg, spicy tuna (shown), even Spam. With boxed lunches like Moroccan meatballs drizzled in a creamy aïoli over fresh arugula, Leon has become the go-to takeaway chain for hungry Londoners (leonrestaurants.co.uk). This salad of heirloom radishes, Ahi tuna, and snap peas dressed in a ginger vinaigrette is a top seller at Lemonade, a fast-casual L.A. chain (lemonadela.com). This Kenyan lunch of collard greens, chile-flecked ground meat, and tomatoes, often served with cornmeal or mashed plantain, is such a fortifying part of the workweek that its name means “week pusher.” THESE METER-LONG, NARROW NEW ZEALAND PIES COME PILED WITH EVERYTHING FROM TOASTED PINE NUTS, TRUFFLE OIL, AND…

VAN NUYS: CALIFORNIA 04:00PM This afternoon I am less concerned with cooking dinner than I am with ensuring that my middle-school-age daughters, with their many and ever-changing activities, are not accidentally left by the side of the freeway. My car's Costco merchandise-filled trunk is our pantry, and our dinners together these days are more likely than not to occur at four in the afternoon—or as I call it, the Hour of Divorced Parents. As usual, I picked up the girls at three o'clock, and their dad will get off work at six, so he'll be delighted that they're delivered fed, at which point Mom will slink off for a vodka tonic and a marathon of old Breaking Bad episodes. Four o'clock is actually a good time for us to eat.…

Indulge in breakfast while staying at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles (701 Stone Canyon Road; 310/472-1211; dorchestercollection.com). In Sonoma County, eat at Twofish Baking Co. (35590 Verdant View, Sea Ranch; twofishbaking.com) and stay at The Farmhouse Inn (7871 River Road, Forestville; 707/887-3300; farmhouseinn.com). Eat at Kay 'n Dave's in Brentwood, California (262 26th Street; 310/262-1355; kayndaves.com). Learn more about Heartbeet Lifesharing in Hardwick, Vermont, at heartbeet.org. In Honolulu, visit Ethel's Grill (232 Kalihi Street; 808/847-6467) and stay at the Halekulani Hotel (808/923-2311; halekulani.com). Book a flight in Etihad Airways' Diamond First Class to enjoy sky-high fine dining (212/554-1300; etihad.com). For an exemplary working lunches, try Leon in London (visit leonrestaurants.co.uk for locations); New Zealand's Toto Pizza (53 Nelson Street, Auckland; totopizza.co.nz); and Lemonade in L.A. (go to lemonadela.com for…

SEA RANCH : CALIFORNIA 06:45AM By the time the sun comes up on the Sonoma coast, my partner, Hilla, and I have been at the bakery for three hours. When we got here today at 3:30 a.m., the first thing we did, as always, was make coffee. Then I started mixing the country wheat dough for our lunchtime sandwich bread. Once it was resting in the walk-in, I turned to rolling out and folding croissant dough. It's flaky and airy, and I use it for everything: plain, almond, and chocolate croissants; ham and Gruyère and spinach and feta ones; sesame sticks and knotted morning buns dusted in cinnamon sugar. All of these will go in the oven at 7 a.m., so when the doors open at 8, the crowd lined…

NEW YORK CITY 12:10PM When you work alone at home, time can become shapeless. There are no eleven o'clock meetings or afternoon coffee breaks. The light outside may clue me in to what part of the day it is, but if all is going well, the hours bleed together. But each day there is one distinct moment that never fails to come: the moment when I realize that it's time for lunch. Lunch feels necessary. It also reminds me of my mother. When I was growing up, my mother worked, and in the evenings, the whole family would sit around the dinner table and recount the day. Sometimes my mother would tell us about a proper meal at a restaurant, but most days she would matter-of-factly describe eating a yogurt…

UBUD: INDONESIA 02:00PM Lunch at my Balinese husband's family compound in Ubud is served in the informal Indonesian style: Dishes are put out on the rough-hewn wooden table, and family members come when they like, fill their bowls with food, and eat in the kitchen or on the steps facing the compound's central courtyard. Today's early afternoon meal is a typical one for us, made up of intensely flavorful dishes that reflect the fundamentals of Bali's cooking: fragrant greens, meats fried with fiery spice pastes, delicious warm salads, and vibrant, versatile chile-based relishes called sambals. It's a standard lunch, but it sweeps me off of my feet just as it did when I fell in love with this island's cuisine on my first visit here some 30 years ago. There's…

HUDSON VALLEY: NEW YORK 07:59PM I have never been able to keep a diary, and I've always been sorry about it. That's especially true when I run into an old acquaintance who tells me about the fun we had at some party I'm sure I attended but just can't seem to remember. At the very least I could have managed to keep a travel diary. I've been to so many places. And no snapshot could possibly convey what it was like to be in Afghanistan in 1970 or Prague soon after the Berlin Wall came down. The closest thing I have to a diary is food—that is, my memories of food. Luckily, my husband, Howie, has a stronger memory than I do. He has an uncanny ability to recall and…

INFLIGHT OVER WESTERN IRAN 10:47AM It's still morning local time—whatever local time means when you're at 35,000 feet en route from the Middle East to the United States—but it's night in New York, where we'll be landing in 11 hours, so in the interest of resetting our inner clocks, dinner aboard my flight on Etihad Airways (etihad.com) is served. It starts with a flute of Bollinger La Grande Année Brut champagne and a suggestion from Ancleto Sales, the onboard chef, who is standing outside the sliding door of my first-class suite: “If it's all right,” he says, “I'd like to design a tasting menu for you this evening.” That sounds very all right indeed, and before long, a flight attendant arrives bearing a glass of bordeaux grand cru, recommended by…

NEW YORK CITY 01:17PM Clapping his hands for the next round of plates, Jose Lucio, the maitre d'hôtel, tells us we're running behind. I look inside the oven to find my caponata moments from burning. I pull it from the heat with a gasp. So this is what it's like to cook at the James Beard House (jamesbeard.org/events). Chefs travel from across the country to prepare meals in the former West Village home of the American culinary icon. Now it's my turn. It seems as if the clock is operating on fast-forward. No sooner do pasta dishes leave the kitchen than it's time for the main course. My staff forms an assembly line, brushing celery root purée onto 50 plates, topping each with braised beef short ribs shiny with a…

SUZHOU: CHINA 02:19PM The kitchen fills with the scent of frying scallions, one of my favorite aromas in the world. My friend Zhang Qun, who is doing the frying, knows this because when I first met her at her tiny restaurant in Beijing, it was her glorious noodle soup drizzled with scallion oil that I loved the most. I raved about the green onions' fragrance, which wreathed every noodle. Now we're in Qun's hometown, Suzhou, the ancient Yangtze River city whose name means “heaven on earth.” Qun is here to show off for her grandmother and two of her aunts, who are hosting a mini family reunion lunch. Qun, who originally moved to Beijing to pursue a career in art, has kept one major detail of her life a secret…

SAN FRANCISCO 01:32AM Most chefs I know don't have much food at home: We're always in our restaurant kitchens. But I keep a few items on hand for nights when I'm so slammed at work that I forget to eat. Tonight I rummaged in my fridge for a little cheese, half an avocado, a jalapeño to char and dice, and some cilantro that wasn't wilted. Since I always have corn tortillas, I made my usual: a quesadilla. I cook it slowly so that it toasts and puffs, and the cheese oozes out and browns nicely. It's not fancy, but it's my comfort meal, one I learned growing up half Mexican in the Central Valley. I pour tequila, I hug my cat, and I eat. Food writer M.F.K. Fisher savored her…