City Cook (eBook)

Cooking in the CityWhat Is City Cooking? City cooking celebrates the flavors that come from our small urban kitchens. We cook with ingredients from downtown farmers' markets, small grocers, community supported agriculture deliveries, and neighborhood merchants. Our kitchens are small and space is precious. We often take public transit to work. Many of us live close enough to our neighbors to be welcomed home in the evening by the aromas of their dinners. More than half of Americans now live in cities, and for those of us who do, there is an adjacency to our lives that affects what we eat and how we cook. City cooking means finding a way to put daily home cooking into our always busy, often stressed, urban lives. Days start early and go late. Subways are delayed, and umbrellas are forgotten. Dogs need to be walked. But we're determined to make dinner instead of having it delivered. City cooking is about knowing how you want to eat every day and cooking your own meals with flavor and with confidence. We cook for our health, our budgets, and the pleasures of good food. And we want the satisfaction of making our own meals and of time spent in the kitchen with our families and our friends. Should we still eat in great restaurants? Absolutely. Our chefs delight, inspire, and motivate us. Likewise, we shouldn't abandon the convenience of takeout meals. I would feel very hard done by if I were never again to have sushi from my favorite neighborhood Japanese restaurant or couldn't comfort a winter cold with a container of hot matzo ball soup from a much-loved deli. But living in a city shouldn't mean we eat out or carry-in because we have no other options. It is impossible to think about being in an urban kitchen without celebrating the changes that are now transforming how we cook and eat at home. Influenced by chefs, food writers, urban farmers, environmentalists, and other activists, efforts are being made to improve and protect the quality of our food because home cooks are demanding better ingredients, improved sustainability of our food supply, and, yes, more satisfying flavor. This food revolution is under way in cities across America. Urban farmers' markets are held every day throughout the year. Community supported agriculture lets us give direct financial support to local farms in return for a share of the crops. Regional specialties, often made by the same methods for generations, are increasingly available. Beekeepers are harvesting honey on the rooftops of city apartment and office buildings. New rivals are challenging large supermarket chains as the small neighborhood market returns to viability and popularity. Finally, our cities are sophisticated global tables, inspired by the ethnic cuisines of our immigrant forebears and strengthened by our own regional cooking. Because we have access to many of the best ingredients in the world, home cooking makes the city kitchen a delicious destination.How I Became a City Cook I first learned to cook because I couldn't afford to eat in restaurants. I was working long hours plus going to school, first in Boston and then in New York. My apartments were always small, my kitchens even smaller. My first kitchen was so tiny that I could pivot on one foot to reach my stove, sink, and refrigerator. But these were welcoming havens as I would come home hungry after a long day, craving both the meal I would prepare and the satisfaction of domesticity. As I chopped and stirred, I would play back my day in my head and begin to relax. Or maybe I would watch the news or invite a friend to join me for supper,...