http://hamptonroads.com/node/469737 Food en-us Copyright 2008 PilotOnline.com / HamptonRoads.com. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:12:16 -0500 I recently found myself wandering around a cavernous convention hall in New York City, a place seemingly as big as the whole of Virginia Beach’s Town Center. The event was the International Hotel/Motel/Restaurant Show and the 140th Salon of Culinary Art, organized by the Societe Culinaire Philanthropique. http://hamptonroads.com/2008/12/chocolate-sculpture-javitz-center-new-york-city Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:09:31 -0500 If you are so inclined, on Friday at precisely 5:32 ½ p.m., you’ll want to make a toast. It’s the moment of the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. We asked four of the area’s most popular bartenders to concoct commemorative recipes to mark the date and I promised to publish them here.   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/end-prohibition-commemorative-cocktails Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:46:44 -0500 Tonight, the baby girl and I will be making deep, dark chocolate truffles. We'll roll them in coconut and nuts and candy bars. We'll hide raisins inside. We'll have cheeks schmeared with chocolate; that’s part of the tradition.   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/truffles-and-traditions Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:36:37 -0500 Say the entire tribe is migrating to your place for the holiday?   If you find yourself at some point going the disposable cup direction, here’s something that’s kind of fun . . . and might ratchet down the disposable cup-per-person ration to 1:1.   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/keep-your-mitts-my-cup Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:26:34 -0500 I do so love Friday night, but I can’t wait until tomorrow morning. It’s the first of the Williamsburg Farmers Market Holiday Markets. I’ve never been, but how can this be anything but magical?   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/try-beat-me-williamsburg-farmers-market Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:51:53 -0500 Two turkeys in two days. Beat that!   Right now, I have almost 30 pounds of cooked turkey at my house, the result of an aesthetic experiment gone awry. Please come by and get some.   Taste was not a concern when cooking these birds. I was aiming for a particular look, a certain cache that most gobblers lack (yet still bask as the center of attention at the Thanksgiving table). http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/brine-it-baybeeeeee Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:17:38 -0500 OK. So I think we need a new law in the Commonwealth. This one is for grocery stores. The law I’m proposing is this: if you sell big ol’ turkeys, you must also sell big ol’ balls of kitchen twine with which to truss them.   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/trussing-turkeys-hard-way Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:19:42 -0500 On Saturday night, a bunch of readers and I loaded into a limousine and went cocktailing. We were in search of a cocktail to commemorate the fall of Prohibition nearly 75 years ago. That’s the theme of our November taste test (Um, November? How did it come to be November? I swear, that just now hit me even though I have a turkey thawing in my sink for another story altogether.)   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/roaring-back-20s-tidewater-style Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:32:40 -0500 For the past several days I’ve been immersed in research about Prohibition, the stretch when America couldn’t buy a drink. Well, a legal one anyway.   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/blood-orange-bitters-are-worth-shot Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:45:13 -0500 On Veteran’s Day, I ate at the VFW hall in Norfolk with a happy crowd that ladles their dinner into cupcake tins and spends a whole lot of time jacked up on capsaicin, the stuff that makes hot peppers hot.   http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/whole-bunch-hot-heads-pepper-lovers-club Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:33:22 -0500