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I HAVEN’T BEEN BACK to Vietnam for a few years now, but I imagine that the latest generation of noodle bars and soup shops that have grown up around Hanoi, and in the trendier sections of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), look an awful lot like Ben Lowell and Sara Leveen’s fine little East Village restaurant, Hanoi House. I’m guessing that the dining rooms are small and accessible and fitted, like this one is, with long dining counters where you can sip glasses of frosty dark Laotian lager while enjoying traditional bowls of bun cha and artisanal phô. That there are rows of potted plants set

Despite their diminutive scale, peanuts play an outsized role in American culture. Peanut butter has long been a mainstay of the American lunch box, with its sticky, slightly sweet nuttiness flavoring the memories of generation after generation of kids. And it’s hard to imagine ball games without, as the song goes, peanuts and Cracker Jacks (which, of course, also contain peanuts). But today, peanuts are the source of both hope and fear: While there’s been a surprisingly steep rise of peanut allergies in recent decades that can—though rarely—lead to death, peanut butter is also the basis of a

FIRST THERE WAS the cupcake. Then cold - pressed juice. Now, poke. Known as Hawaii’s original street food, poke (pronounced po-kay) today mostly consists of diced raw tuna, salmon, or some other fish, served over rice and mixed greens, with add-ons such as edamame, avocado, seaweed, and toasted nuts. And suddenly it’s everywhere. The dish ticks multiple boxes. It’s a fresh, healthy, high - protein, and, at about $13 a bowl, relatively inexpensive lunch or late-night working dinner. A poke bowl takes the efficiency and compose-it-yourself satisfaction of a Chopt salad and gives it the deluxe s

Let's face it: Vegetarians are a strict minority of the U.S. population. The numbers seem to be increasing, though data from various surveys vary widely. For example, a Public Policy Polling survey of 500 respondents indicates a jump in non-meat-eaters from one percent in 1971 to a whopping 13 percent in 2013 — 6 percent vegans, 7 percent vegetarians. (Somewhat tragicomically, the question about vegetarianism is part of a poll titled: "Americans pick Ronald McDonald over Burger King for President.") Other sources show results which, if you are rooting for vegetarianism, are much worse. A 2006

Don't screw it up. Pexels Burgers: check. Hotdogs: check. Beers: check. Fresca: sure, why not? You’ve got everything ready for your big BBQ. But are YOU ready? No pressure, but you can’t blame the steak if it comes out tasting like a hockey puck. Better read up a little, and make sure you’re getting the best possible food out of that grill. We got you: Whether you’re cooking steaks, chops, chicken, or fish, the drier your meat’s surface, the better it will crisp up. “Until all the water on your meat’s surface is evaporated, you can’t brown it,” says Chef Lord of the Internet J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Alina Selyukh grew up in Samara, a city in southeastern Russia. One of her favorite childhood desserts is oreshki, a walnut-shaped cookie with a rich, sweet filling of highly concentrated condensed milk. Sometimes, nuts are also thrown in. "They were a staple birthday party treat," says Selyukh, a tech reporter for NPR. "The thing I liked most about oreshki is that they come with really delicious scraps that can be consumed while you're 'helping' your mom make them." Jump to the recipe The cookie was also popular in other European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. In Romania,

THERE’S A STORY that a few of the wistful regulars from my old diner, Joe Jr.’s, which used to occupy a narrow little space in the Village on the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 12th Street, still like to tell about the time Louie the waiter died of a heart attack. Like many vanished coffee shops, diners, and luncheonettes around the city, Joe’s was a loose, convivial club for the people who frequented the place. I would see the movie director John Waters at the counter, dressed in his neatly pressed suits, sipping coffee in a fastidious, mannered way. Isaac Mizrahi was a regular during h

Forget store bought. Make it yourself. Amazon My job is to find cool stuff. Throughout the week, I spend hours scouring the web for things that are useful or fun or ridiculously cheap. Often times, these choices coalesce into a guide of like items—for example, things to bring to the beach, awesome grill gear, or genius road trip items. But I often stumble across some pretty awesome stuff that doesn’t really fit into a list. So I made a list for those. Today's group is all DIY, all day. The five kits below will help you craft everything from music boxes to hot sauce. Music Box Kit Amazon It ta

Cans aren't just for beer anymore. Open my refrigerator any day of the summer (or winter, let's be real) and you'll find stacks of canned cocktails, wines, beers and maybe a LaCroix or seven. Sure, canned cocktails may not be stunning concoctions representing the best of summer mixology, but who are any of us to pass up conveniently (and often adorably) packaged booze, ready to grab for picnics, beach days, impromptu trips to the park and more? Canned wine has doubled in sales since last summer, becoming a $28 million business, and canned cocktails have diversified greatly since Jim Beam intr

If you crack open a beer this Fourth of July, history might not be the first thing on your mind. But for Theresa McCulla, the first brewing historian at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the story of beer is the story of America. "If you want to talk about the history of immigration in America, or urbanization or the expansion of transportation networks, really any subject that you want to explore, you can talk about it through beer," McCulla says. Since taking the job earlier this year, she has combed through the Smithsonian's archives and pulled out treasures that show b

ROBOTIC BUTLERS THAT CAN COOK DINNER FOR THE FAMILY WON’T EXIST ANYTIME SOON. BUT THAT doesn’t mean technologists aren’t aiming to help out in the kitchen. A swath of companies, from appliance giants to gadgets startups, are fielding devices that help prepare meals and shop for groceries so families can eat more healthily. Here’s a look at some of the most promising devices so far: Keep you stocked 1 A MAGIC BUTTON FOR REORDERING GROCERIES Amazon wants to make replenishing staples as simple as pressing a button, preferably its Dash Button. You can reorder specific items that are available v

Yes, there’s a world where people pay almost $50 a pound for tiny lettuces. They assemble religiously in the crowded northwest corner of Manhattan’s Union Square Greenmarket, where the eerily perfect Windfall Farms stall appears on Saturdays and Wednesdays. While some stands radiate a hippie-casual vibe, at Windfall the exquisite, vibrantly colored vegetables are treated with the care one sees in a Madison Avenue boutique. Signs caution customers against touching the greens, because they’ve already been hand-washed several times. That care, systematic throughout the life cycle of these little

Photograph by Joanna McClure THE CHARACTERISTICS All-Clad Metalcrafters LLC is a Pennsylvania-based cookware manufacturer of copper, stainless steel, and nonstick pots and pans. The company is part of the French global kitchen appliance conglomerate Groupe SEB, which this year introduced the Prep & Cook. The machine can weigh, cook, chop, crush, emulsify, whip, mix, steam, blend, grate, and knead. It has 12 speeds, 1,400 watts, and 15,000 RPMs to blend and process food, plus a heating element that can be set in 10-degree increments to warm the contents of its 4.7-quart stainless steel bowl f

VERY GOOD Empellón 510 Madison Ave. (entrance on 53rd St.) 212-858-9365 empellon.com MANY TALENTED CHEFS and restaurateurs have ridden lowly comfort foods to fame and relative fortune in this post-gourmet era, but with the possible exception of David Chang and his pork bun and Danny Meyer and his ShackBurger, few have had more success in this regard than Alex Stupak—in his case, with the humble taco. The much-praised, award-winning pastry chef recognized the potential of this elemental, adaptable dish early on, and since opening his original Empellón restaurant in the West Village six years

Laura Shapiro's new book, succinctly titled What She Ate, explores the lives of six very different women through the intimate and sensuous optic of food. We learn about these women from their gustatory appetites and aversions. Why Eleanor Roosevelt, a deeply unhappy first lady, served the worst food in White House history, and why the otherwise iconoclastic Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown watched over her 105-pound figure with an anorexic angst. There is a profoundly moving profile of Dorothy Wordsworth, the classic unselfish spinster of English letters, who, after spending a life in se

R.R. & R.P. POUND FOR POUND—or, at a quarter-pound each, make that ounce for ounce—Saxelby Cheesemongers’ new Bone Char Pearl might be the poster cheese for this particular caseo-culinary moment. It’s got a chef collaborator (Blue Hill’s Dan Barber, who commissioned it), a dedicated affineur (Crown Heights’s Crown Finish Caves, which takes in fresh, malleable young cheeses like, in this case, Seal Cove Farm’s goat’s-and-cow’s-milk Pearl and transforms them through time and applications into edible works of art), and a coating of charcoal, that au courant ingredient in everything from cocktail

Ladi Adaikwu's top-shelf merchandise is hidden in a mud-brick shed in a warren of narrow alleyways in Angwan-Dodo, a farming village close to Nigeria's capital city Abuja. The steel door is secured with a heavy padlock, and when she opens it, a shaft of light cuts through the damp darkness to reveal what looks like a knee-high pile of narrow, dirt-encrusted footballs. But don't be fooled by their humble appearance: These are high-quality yams, and around here they're as good as gold. Adaikwu stoops to pick one up, and holds it under the light. "This one is just like a healthy child," she says.

Sam Calagione is used to getting love in his hometown of Milton, Del. He created Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, one of America’s hottest breweries, and is a major employer in town. People wave and say hi. Out-of-towners ask to take selfies with him. So it came as a surprise when a liquor store owner ran over with tears in her eyes. Related: The Perfect Product is a Myth. Here's How to Scale the Almost-Perfect Product. “I have customers walking into my store trying to buy your 60 Minute IPA and then yelling at me for not having it stocked,” she said. “Then they’re leaving without buying anything.

464 Sixth Ave., nr. 11th St. 646-448-6688 MELANIE SHURKA GREW up on Long Island eating Israeli and Persian food based on recipes handed down from her grandmother, but she had never heard of kubeh, the Levantine dumplings made of semolina and bulgur wheat and served in broth. “I had an Israeli-Iraqi boyfriend when I was 16. He said, ‘You’ve got to try my mom’s kubeh.’ I thought I knew all the good things to eat. I tried the kubeh, and it blew me away,” she says. Several years later, while studying law in Tel Aviv, she became so smitten with the dumplings that she went on a quest to learn all a

In March Thomas Sleight, the president of the U.S. Grains Council, flew to Mexico to calm worried partners. His association represents U.S. farmers who trade abroad, and while it has connections in more than 50 countries, Mexico is one of the most important; lately, it’s been a bit uneasy there. The future of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is uncertain, and after Trump took office Sleight heard that some Mexican partners they’d worked with for years were acting a bit “frosty.” So Sleight visited with Mexican farmers from the Yucatán and from the country’s western coast, and in bot

As competition heats up this summer, Halo Top is out with its first more traditional ad campaign, a series of digital commercials focused on angel vs. devil comedy. Halo Top, which sells high-protein pints ranging from 240 to 360 calories, until now relied on social media outreach, including Insta-worthy photos and giveaways, to boost its fan base. Now, it wants to be seen by a broader audience as "The Perfect Pint." Meanwhile, Yasso, a small, growing player in low-calorie frozen treats, is introducing its own digital ads and other marketing. The push by both marketers (coincidentally each wit

Welcome to the latest edition of Marketer's Brief, a quick take on marketing news, moves and trends from Ad Age's reporters and editors. Send tips/suggestions to eschultz@adage.com Chobani is eager to shake up the yogurt category. Again. After becoming the No. 1 selling yogurt brand solely with Greek-style yogurt, it's now going after yogurt eaters who just aren't fans of Greek and those who want a little variety. Chobani Smooth is the company's first take on classic-style yogurt, pitting Chobani against the mainstay products of competitors such as Dannon and Yoplait. The new low-fat line, whi

Ethiopia, the birthplace of the coffee bean, is poised to lose up to 60% of its suitable farming land by the end of this century thanks in large part to climate change, a new study published in the journal Nature Plants reported. The coffee bean, specifically Arabica coffee, provides the African nation with nearly one quarter of its export earnings, totaling more than $800 million, according to the study. But soon farmers will have to find new land at either higher altitudes or cooler temperatures to produce the coffee the world over knows and loves. "There is a pathway to resilience, even

For restaurants in America, it is the best of times, and it is the worst of times. Last century’s dystopians imagined that mediocre fast-food chains would take over every square inch of the country. But in cities across the U.S., residents are claiming that the local restaurant scene is in a golden age of variety and quality. I’ve heard it in Portland, Oregon, named the best food city in America by the Washington Post; in Washington, D.C., named the best food city in America by Bon Appetit; in New Orleans, where the number of restaurants grew 70 percent after Hurricane Katrina; and in San Fran

Chefs often work around the clock — the restaurant industry is nothing if not demanding. But for many, making time for family remains an important part of life, especially on Father's Day. Whether they're fathers themselves or they still cherish memories with their own dads, here's how eight famous chefs have celebrated Father's Day. From cookouts to fishing excursions to lazy days at home, take inspiration from these sweet responses. Claim to fame: Torres is a famous chocolatier and pastry chef, most known for his handmade chocolate treats. He owns Jacques Torres Chocolates.  The tradition: