Blog Posts by Esquire.com

It's another addition to our catalog of the best places to have a drink in America. As always, the project is guided by David Wondrich: Esquire's drinks correspondent, the world's foremost cocktail historian, and the best drinking partner anyone has ever had. So, here's the list.

A McDonald's

For all the criticisms lobbed against it, McDonald's is certainly good for some things. (Oatmeal, maybe. Fries, definitely. Cheap coffee, sure.) And yet it's hard to picture any of its proponents describing McDonald's as healthy. That is, until just recently, when the "senior director of culinary innovation" for the chain said, "I don't see anything on the menu that's unhealthy." Look, chef Daniel Coudreaut, I had one of those McFlurry things just the other day, but I think we can all agree there are some items at the Golden Arches that are not necessarily in our bodies' best interest. So as a sort of public service, we've rounded up the ten highest-calorie offerings among popular McDonald's orders, for your perusal below. Not because you shouldn't necessarily eat them from time to time, but because you might want to know about them. You might be surprised to find that the leader of the pack is actually a drink.

DRINK THIS, NOT THAT: The Healthiest Beers in America

1.

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Esquire's annual grilling awards highlight the ultimate supermarket staples of 2012, plus tricks and tips for throwing (or just enjoying) your best BBQ ever.


The Hot Dog (Fancy): Hartmann's Beef Wieners Hot dog

Ball Park, Nathan's, Hebrew National - all solid summer cookout choices, guaranteed to hit the spot when given a deep char and topped with a wide stripe of ketchup. But those dogs are not handmade by an Austrian master sausage-maker. Nor do they contain beef that's been lovingly hand-stuffed into natural lamb casings, free of any artificial ingredients. Nor are they gently smoked over hardwood imported from the forests of Austria. But you know what is? Hartmann's Beef Wieners. They're a cut above the rest, with a rich beefy taste, a touch of smoke, and a great snap. And despite their decidedly Teutonic name, I can assure you that they're made right here in the U.S.A. -Elizabeth Gunnison

About $10 per 1-lb package at Wegmans or hartmannssausage.com

MORE TRICKS: 8 Things No

Read More »from 10 New Secrets for Summer Grilling

esquire

By Chef Spike Gjerde, as told to Francine Maroukian

TOP CHEF SURVEY: The Best Fast Food in America

You can tell someone isn't from the Chesapeake region if they say "soft-shell crab." In Baltimore, they're "soft crabs," and we have them in abundance. But that doesn't mean we take them for granted, and I always celebrate their seasonal return with a big sandwich, humble and indulgent at the same time.

Getting soft crabs to market takes a waterman's art and experience. As the water warms up, the dormant crabs get the signal to move, and as they do they molt their shell, like a snake shedding its skin. That's what creates the window: The waterman must catch and then hold the molting hard crabs in tanks until they lose their shell, and then pack the soft crabs under wet newspaper before the shell hardens again. Like oysters, clams, and lobster, soft crabs must be alive when you buy them. When lifted, the crab should still move a bit rather than limply hang. Buy the softest crab

Read More »from How to Make a Crab Sandwich

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By Elizabeth Gunnison

Not so long ago in Esquire, Nick Anderer of New York City's Maialino talked about the critical role that pasta cookery plays in achieving an exceptional pork Bolognese. And here's the thing, to speak more broadly: Most of you are cooking your pasta wrong. Dead-wrong. You may not realize it, but it's true. And this greatly decreases the deliciousness of any given pasta dish, whether you're attempting a from-scratch sauce like that aforementioned Bolognese or simply heating and eating something from a jar.

EASY RECIPES: The Perfect At-Home Bolognese

Expanding on Anderer's spaghetti-cooking dictum, here's a brief primer on very easy ways to get the most from store-bought pasta, which is what people are generally cooking in their home kitchens on a given night. They will greatly enhance said kitchen output.

First, buy good pasta. The texture and flavor of dried pastas vary significantly from brand to brand, and it's really worth getting the

Read More »from How to Make Better Store-Bought Pasta

esquire

By John Mariani

As the 2012 James Beard Restaurant Awards (on May 4 and 7) approach, here's my third annual handicapping of who I think will win and why.

It's a good year overall for newcomer nominees - chefs who, under the awards' guidelines, "have set new or consistent standards of excellence in their respective regions. Each candidate may be employed by any kind of dining establishment and must have been a working chef for at least the past five years. The three most recent years must have been spent in the region where the chef is presently working."

TOP CHEF SURVEY: The Best Fast Food in America

The regional awards are the toughest to predict because, quite frankly, so few in so many regions are known at all outside their respective cities. In the national categories, like Restaurant of the Year and Outstanding Pastry Chef, the nominees are supposed to be "national standard-bearers," which of course favors chefs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San

Read More »from The James Beard Awards Predictions

Grilled Skirt Steak
Next month, Esquire contributing editor Ted Allen will release a cookbook of recipes for people who don't mind spending a lot of time in the kitchen. They're involved and challenging, and sometimes require a trip to the specialty grocery store. But a lot of them also sound delicious. Here, one of our favorites.

EXTREME GRILLING: 8 Chef Recipes to Upgrade Your Cookout

Grilled Skirt Steak with Roasted Jalapeno Chimichurri

People who haven't worked a lot with jalapenos, Scotch bonnets, anchos, guajillos, and poblanos might not realize that these different spicy chiles also have pronounced and unique flavors - or that those flavors change when the peppers are roasted or grilled. Here, the grassy-herbal jalapeno picks up a bittersweet char on the grill and still lends its familiar kick to this variation on garlicky South American chimichurri sauce. And there's no better cut for this recipe than juicy, chewy-in-the-best-way skirt steak, grilled just to medium-rare.

BEEF BUYING

Read More »from Steak, the Ted Allen Way

Esquire
By Francine Maroukian

Bolognese is the essential meat sauce of Emilia-Romagna's rich food culture, and nothing stops the people of that region from eating it year-round. But it's also a sensible between-seasons dish while we wait for the markets to fill with spring's early greens. A good Bolognese is vibrant enough to wake us from the hibernating foods of winter and satisfying enough to bridge that unpredictable gap when the weather isn't quite as warm as we think it is.

As complex as the flavor is, this Bolognese is a straightforward, short-simmered sauce. The most important moment comes cooking the pasta itself, a single step that can make the dish great or just okay. Executing this step properly will allow the spaghetti's starch to flow into the sauce and the sauce to flow into the spaghetti: It's osmosis, and it's the way spaghetti Bolognese is supposed to taste.

TOP CHEF SURVEY: The Best Fast Food in America

PORK BOLOGNESE

Chef Nick Anderer, Maialino, New York

Read More »from How to Pull Off Bolognese Sauce