Why I Love Going to Bars Alone

Table for One is a column by Senior Editor Eric Kim, who loves drinking alone and seeks to celebrate the beauty of solitude in its many forms.

I once walked into a bar during happy hour, headed straight to the lone empty seat and was about to sit—wh…

Table for One is a column by Senior Editor Eric Kim, who loves drinking alone and seeks to celebrate the beauty of solitude in its many forms.


I once walked into a bar during happy hour, headed straight to the lone empty seat and was about to sit—when the guy to my right grabbed the stool and pulled it closer into himself.

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The Healing Powers of Antoni’s ‘Polish Hangover Soup’

Good food is worth a thousand words—sometimes more. In My Family Recipe, a writer shares the story of a single dish that’s meaningful to them and their loved ones. This week, an excerpt from Emmy Award–winning chef and television personality Antoni Por…

Good food is worth a thousand words—sometimes more. In My Family Recipe, a writer shares the story of a single dish that's meaningful to them and their loved ones. This week, an excerpt from Emmy Award–winning chef and television personality Antoni Porowski's new cookbook, Antoni in the Kitchen—including his recipe for zurek, a comforting Polish soup his mother made for him growing up.

"The healing quality of this tangy, fortifying soup comes, ostensibly, from a fermented sour rye soup starter called zakwas," Porowski writes. "Though you can buy it at Polish markets, it takes just a few minutes to mix it up yourself. Just build in a few days to your soup-making plan for the fermentation to take place. The hearty combination of root vegetables, kielbasa, pickles, sour cream, and hard-boiled eggs makes this soup a meal."

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The Simple, Perfect Blueberry Pie That Traveled 3 Generations

Summer doesn’t happen for me until I’ve had a warm slice of blueberry pie. Growing up, we made them double-crusted and a little tart, from a squeeze of lemon and just a touch of added sugar. And we ate them outside under the stars, barefooted with our …

Summer doesn’t happen for me until I’ve had a warm slice of blueberry pie. Growing up, we made them double-crusted and a little tart, from a squeeze of lemon and just a touch of added sugar. And we ate them outside under the stars, barefooted with our hard-earned sunburns.

It’s a pie that suits my general mood toward everything come summertime: a) simple; and b) requires minimal time indoors. The prep is almost negligible, especially if you choose store-bought crust (it’s summer, c’mon): no peeling, pitting or hulling. Even for the filling, you can skip measuring entirely, eyeballing ingredients and adjusting the sugar, lemon, and spices to taste (note: all optional).

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The Genius No-Dairy Trick for Turning Vegetables Into Cream

Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Creative Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.
Today: Here’s a light, bright, totally and completely vegan alte…

Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Creative Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.

Today: Here's a light, bright, totally and completely vegan alternative to cream. Substitute it in every soup, sauce, side, and creamy-savory dish in your life. 

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The Chicken Recipe My Family Carried With Them on Their Journey to America

Good food is worth a thousand words—sometimes more. In My Family Recipe, a writer shares the story of a single dish that’s meaningful to them and their loved ones. This week, in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, writer Lisa Lee Herrick ex…

Good food is worth a thousand words—sometimes more. In My Family Recipe, a writer shares the story of a single dish that's meaningful to them and their loved ones. This week, in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, writer Lisa Lee Herrick explores her family's tormented past to reveal the roots of her favorite home recipe.


When I was growing up, there was only one thing that I looked forward to more than winter break and Christmas: my mother’s sticky chicken wings stuffed with ground pork and herbed glass noodles, roasted until golden with a spicy fish sauce–caramel glaze. It was a glistening, umami-packed delicacy delivered from her tiny kitchen only once a year for Hmong New Year, just in time for my aunt’s weeklong visit for the festival. I remember the salty-sweet tang of sea brine sharpening burnt sugar, earthy black mushrooms melding with savory minced pork, crispy roasted chicken skin crackling under the broiler, the redolent steam fogging every window and clinging to our skin like the sillage of a rich perfume. I dreamt about those chicken wings all through college and even once I moved to San Francisco, long after I had left my mother—but before I realized how much I missed her.

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The Best Ways to Use Lemon Balm at Home

Every week we get Down & Dirty, in which we break down our favorite unique seasonal fruits, vegetables, and more.
Thanks in no small part to Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy, it has become impossible for us to stroll through a farmers market w…

Every week we get Down & Dirty, in which we break down our favorite unique seasonal fruits, vegetables, and more.

Thanks in no small part to Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy, it has become impossible for us to stroll through a farmers market without thinking about which fruits and vegetables belong to which plant family. One look at lemon balm leaves—whether coarse and hairy in texture, arrowhead or heart-shaped, or scallop-edged—and you'd likely guess that the plant belongs to the same family as mint and shiso, rather than being a direct relative of the lemon fruit. And you'd be right. One more clever deduction, this time from its name, and you'll figure out that this herb is lemon-scented. Some compare its lemony flavor and aroma to that of furniture polish (and, in fact, the leaves can be used to polish wood), but you're probably better off putting lemon balm to use in other ways. It’s a culinary wizard and far too prime to use in place of a countertop spray.

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