Food & Wine September 2020

HAKKAISAN TOKUBETSU HONJOZO SAKE ($30) Hakkaisan, directly under the slopes of Mount Hakkai in Japan’s Niigata prefecture, manages to instill surprising complexity into this not-all-that-pricey sake—think earth, mushroom, and stone fruit notes against a background of steamed rice. 2019 BROKENWOOD HUNTER VALLEY SEMILLON ($20) One of my ideal end-of-summer whites is Semillon from Hunter Valley in Australia—typically low in alcohol and electric with citrus and lemongrass notes, it’s great when drunk super-cold by the water (pool, ocean, you choose). Brokenwood’s is a benchmark example. 2016 COS CERASUOLO DI VITTORIA CLASSICO ($35) A blend of the Sicilian varieties Nero d’Avola and Frappato (farmed biodynamically), this savory red has the oomph to go with grilled burgers at a cookout but is fresh enough and has such subtle tannins that you could also chill it down for outdoor…

AS JIYUN JENNIFER YOO told me the origin story for her online gourmet food shop, Gotham Grove, I thought back to the oh-so-familiar ritual of stuffing my suitcase full of spices and oils to bring back to the United States after a trip home to Turkey. In Yoo’s case, those trips were to South Korea, where she grew up. “I love to try to extend the memory of a place by cooking the dishes I had there,” she says. “Granted, it’s not going to taste anything like a grandma’s [food] or cooking on the sidewalk, but having certain spices on hand helps.” After growing tired of shuttling products back to the U.S., Yoo, along with her business partner, Rob Thompson, whom she met during an MBA program at New York University,…

WE RESPECT A GOOD POSTCARD or magnet memento from the road, but for team F&W, the ultimate reminder of an incredible trip to Italy, Australia, Turkey, or Mexico comes from popping into a local corner store for colorful, carry-on-friendly packages of sweet, salty, crunchy, and spicy snacks. Here are some of our editors’ favorite edible souvenirs from around the world—plus online sources that will ship them to your home. —OSET BABÜR DE LA ROSA PULPARINDO Made from tamarind pulp, sugar, salt, and chiles, Pulparindo candy is puckeringly tart, with just enough heat to make Associate Food Editor Kelsey Youngman go back for another bite. ($4, mexgrocer.com) ÜLKER BISKREM DUO We see your cookies and cream and raise you Biskrem Duo. For Associate Restaurant Editor Oset Babür, these cocoa cream–filled pinwheel biscuits taste like childhood summers…

IT’S OFFICIAL: 2020 is the year of the anchovy. These tiny fish have been showing up in all of the usual places, like Caesar dressing and tapenade, while also adding depth in less expected ways, as with masa-battered kelp served with pungent anchovies at Onda in Los Angeles. Their versatility is key to their appeal: “Anchovies contain richness, sweetness, and saltiness,” says chef Kyo Pang of Kopitiam in New York City. “If you fry them, they give off more texture. If you boil them, you get a different flavor. We use anchovies in the broth for our pan mee as well as in our nasi lemak, deep-fried anchovies mixed with homemade sambal sauce and served on coconut rice.” In San Francisco, chef Stuart Brioza is soon opening The Anchovy Bar, a…

I SPOKE WITH TODD RICHARDS twice over the past few months: first in March, as COVID-19 was starting to spread across the United States, and again in May, when he was recovering from the virus at home. The distance between the conversations felt enormous. Initially, we focused on his role as culinary director for One Flew South and Chicken + Beer in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and on how travel has been a part of Richards’ life since childhood, figuring heavily into his cookbook Soul: A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes. Two months later, we reflected on taking a pause—through quarantine or travel—to assess safety, routines, and goals. JT: Are you thinking about what people are going through as they’re coming to your restaurants? Anxiety can manifest in some unkind…

IN THIS LIFE, some of my favorite food memories are of Jackie’s West Indian Bakery, on 233rd street in the Bronx. From the oven emerged pillowy, soft coco bread and half-moon beef patties, filled with Scotch bonnet chile–studded ground beef. Jackie’s was just one of many terrific Jamaican bakeries in the north Bronx, which, along with Flatbush in Brooklyn, form Little Jamaica, home to over 250,000 Jamaican immigrants in the New York City area. I used to live for those patties, that bread, moments of pleasure during the long commute from my house to school. They reminded me of family. My father’s mother is Jamaican, Grandma Gloria. My father is Nigerian. And those two threads of cuisine wove through the meals that simmered on my mother’s stove. Jamaican food was on…