Buying boats is like playing leapfrog. You buy a boat, and you have to buy a truck to pull it. You buy a truck and then, one day, it occurs to you that your truck could pull a bigger boat. You want a bigger boat – you always want a bigger boat – so you [...]
Our cars are nothing to write home about. We’ve got a sober Saab sedan, a beat-up pick-up, and a decrepit Land Rover almost as old as I am. But, when I see a nice car, the kind of car I’d like to have, I don’t suffer from car envy. Sure, a brand spanking new Tacoma [...]
A note to my readers: I’m very excited to tell you that, as of today, some of my work will also be appearing in the Huffington Post’s food section. This is the first of what I hope to be a long and popular series on First-Hand Food . Uncertainty is the mother of superstition, and getting food [...]
I don’t generally tell you about our meals. Generally, we eat well. I’m a competent cook, even a good one, but most of what I make is pretty pedestrian. I’m a big fan of composed dishes like stews and soups and casseroles, and I make them out of whatever it is we’ve harvested lately. I [...]
I must be living right. That’s the only possible explanation for finding this, from a complete stranger named Jon, in my e-mail one morning a few weeks back: Hello Tamar, I have been reading your blog now for about a year with great interest and amusement. I do not know how I ran across the [...]
I’m just going to come out and say it. We caught a bluefin tuna. I use the term “caught” loosely. We reeled the fish in, but that never would have happened without the kindness — not to mention expertise and equipment – of strangers. There’s a story about catching that tuna, and it involves new friends, exciting adventure, [...]
Weirdly, not catching fish doesn’t necessarily make for bad fishing. I’ve been on lots of fishing trips where no fish were landed, yet a good time was had by all. A sunny day, congenial company, and the idea that you’re not home cleaning the bathroom or raking the leaves can make for a fine outing, [...]
Moral philosophy is a sticky wicket. While going through life behaving well isn’t so hard – most moral choices are straightforward – it’s very difficult to reduce “behaving well” to first principles. In general, I’d say I’m a greatest-good-for-the-greatest-number kind of girl, but I fully acknowledge the difficulty of such a far-reaching and enigmatic calculation. [...]
It started in the last week of May, with the Land Rover. We had friends over, and we decided to go to the Four Seas for ice cream after dinner. The Rover, a 1970 model, is our usual ice-cream vehicle, both because we can fit six people in it and because it just seems right [...]
It was probably round about when we caught our third keeper striper, earlier this season, that I reversed my long-standing policy of not freezing fish. Home freezing invariably damages food. As the food freezes, the water in it expands and breaks the cell walls. The slower the freezing, the worse the damage, and your average [...]
Tamar Haspel has been writing about food and health for over a decade. She recently moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She’s adjusting well. [Read More …]
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