Blog Posts by Epicurious.com

by Michael Y. Park, Epicurious.comPhoto by Michael Y. Park

In The Atlantic, an economist offers six basic rules for getting the biggest bang for your buck in a restaurant.

Here they are:

1) Order the least appetizing item on the menu.

2) Don't choose a place to eat based on the happy, beautiful people inside.

3) Strip malls offer better value than downtown eateries. Plus: Food trucks are awesome. (And if you're in Manhattan, stick to streets over avenues.)

See also: Healthy Comfort Food Recipes for Any Day

4) Ask around.

5) Avoid restaurants that put their budget into staff over the food.

6) Choose unpopular cuisines over similar popular cuisines (Vietnamese over Thai, Pakistani over Indian).

Though I know to keep in mind that he's focusing purely on getting the best value for your money, there are definitely occasions where terrible service or ambiance have ruined what would otherwise be a good meal, which make me question 2 and 5. And I don't know if I buy his argument for

Photo by Sara Bonisteel

by Sara Bonisteel, Epicurious.com

Home cooks all have certain dishes and techniques that are stumbling blocks. These are those recipes that need to be seen in action to be understood.

For me, current struggles include roux and risotto. But I'm feeling more confident about the latter after attending a class with Lidia Bastianich earlier this week in conjunction with the opening of Eataly's expanded cooking school, La Scuola di Eataly.

See also: Healthy Comfort Food Recipes for Any Day

"Risotto is all about technique," Bastianich says. "So what is the technique? First it begins in the rice."

Three of the most popular Italian rice varietals are baldo, carnaroli, and the best known, arborio. Bastianich prefers carnaroli as it "gives me the best creaminess."

"Rice is one of the oldest foods, it feeds the largest amount of people in the world, and there's over a thousand different species of rice," she says. "The simple recipe for risotto: one cup of rice, 3 cups of liquid will yield 2

Photo by CN Digital Studioby Sarah Kagan, Epicurious.com

Growing up, I always loved my mother's matzoh balls. I would watch her carefully forming them, cradling the batter gently in the palms of her hands so as not to deflate it. About two inches in diameter and as light as clouds, they disintegrated into a delicious fluffy mass in her chicken soup. They seemed to me the apotheosis of the form, and it never occurred to me to want something different.

Related: Recipes for a Stress-Free Seder

Then I met my now-husband, Jason, and celebrated my first Passover with his family. His brother-in-law's matzoh balls were the polar opposite of my mother's: The size of golf balls and almost as hard, they had to be skewered with a fork while digging in with a spoon, to avoid shooting them out of your bowl and across the room. At first I was appalled. But then I began to be won over by their agreeably chewy texture and rich flavor.

Thus I was introduced to the Battle of the Matzoh Balls. As I began to ask around, I

Photos by Ma'ayan Rosenzweig
by Kendra Vizcaino, Epicurious.com

Spring is a time of joy and renewal, but along with celebrating the new comes cleaning out the old. This year, when you purge your pantry and weed through your spice rack, hold onto those out-of-date seasonings. In a few easy steps, you can use ground spices, whole seeds, and dried herbs to create beautiful and unique Easter eggs. So ditch the dyes and read on to learn three simple decorating techniques-painting, stenciling, and appliqué-plus how to display your designs.

Related: How to Host an Easter Egg Hunt


Cleaning/Setup

There are two ways to prepare eggs for decorating: hard-boiling and hollowing. Both work, but hollowed-out eggs last much longer. A hollowed-out egg will keep indefinitely, while hard-boiled eggs will keep only a day or two if left at room temperature.

To hollow out the egg, use a pushpin to pierce a hole in both the top and bottom, then use the tip of the pin to widen both openings to about a 1/8-inch diameter. Place a straw

by Lexi Dwyer, Epicurious.comPhoto: Condé Nast Archive

Hosting a children's Easter party should be fun and easy. So what's there to do besides hiding some eggs? In fact, young guests (and their parents) will have a better time if you tailor the festivities to their ages. "You don't want the little kids getting lost in the shuffle or the older ones getting bored-giving the day some structure allows everyone to participate," says Leesa Zelken of Send in the Clowns, a children's party company based in Los Angeles.

Related: Easter Baskets for Food Lovers

With help from Zelken as well as entertaining experts Amy Atlas, Linda Kaye, Xiomara Roman, and Gwynn Wasson, we've put together a complete guide to planning and executing a lively and manageable Easter egg hunt for kids of all ages in your home or backyard. Read on for tips on what kind of eggs to use and where to hide them, plus creative ideas for prizes, food, and decor.

Party Prep

Size Up Your Space

First, decide whether your event will happen indoors or

Photo by Romulo Yanesby Siobhan Adcock, Epicurious.com

We've all heard the cook's adage that for best-tasting results, any wine you cook with should also be good enough to drink. Ted Loos, our resident expert on all things oeno, recently conducted an informal experiment in cooking with wine, attempting to answer the question: Just how good does a cooking wine need to be? That is, is there such a thing as a wine that's too good to cook with?

See also: The Epicurious Guide to Easter

Before we get to the answer, you may want to take a look at the top 5 fundamental truths about cooking with wine that Ted's experiment also uncovered:

1. "Stay far away from those $4.99 'cooking wines' you see in the grocery store -- the off flavors they may cause in your food simply aren't worth the savings."

2. When choosing a wine to cook with, think in the same terms as you do for olive oil: "There are times when you cook with the everyday stuff, and other times when you lovingly drizzle on the extra-virgin."

3. "The

Chewy Nut and Cereal Bars. Photo by Stephanie Foleyby Tanya Steel, Epicurious.com

You've heard it a trillion times: Eating breakfast is integral to starting the day right. It refuels the body and brain and keeps your metabolism running at an even and higher rate than if you didn't eat. Yet, only a third of adults and less than two-thirds of children take the time to eat something in the morning, according to a recent study conducted by Kellogg's. Those who do eat rarely get beyond the basics of cold cereal, a banana, or a piece of toast.

See also: The Epicurious Guide to Easter

I have become expert at ensuring we all eat breakfast. In my house, we must be out by 7:15 and half the time my kids run late and end up eating in the car. To guarantee they are eating a delicious and nutritious breakfast, I have ten go-to recipes, some of which are make ahead and portable, some of which are the essence of short-order cooking, and all of which are delicious:

Chewy Nut and Cereal Bars

Food editor Maggie Ruggiero touts these amber bars as the

Photo by CN Digital Studioby Michael Y. Park, Epicurious.com

In Slate, Mike Steinberger has a thought-provoking piece that details his explorations into whether he's encouraging or helping prevent alcoholism in his kids when they're adults by letting them have an occasional sip of wine now.

See also: Quick and Healthy Breakfast Recipes for the School Year

He ticks off the pros: the 1983 book The Natural History of Alcoholism, which concluded that kids from non-drinking household were seven times more likely to develop an alcohol addiction; the recent bestseller Bringing Up Bebe, and the conventional wisdom that the French don't binge drink at least in part because they grow up in a culture where you have a glass of wine (and only a glass) with meals.

See also: The Epicurious Guide to Easter

Then he brings up the con, and it's a doozy: Recent studies have found that binge drinking has exploded among French teens in the last few years, and they're starting to do it younger and younger. (And, not surprisingly,