Last Chance Foods

There are few things as pleasing in life as baking on a cool, rainy spring day. While that may sound like one of Ruth Reichl’s haiku-like Tweets, baking doesn’t always have to be some unobtainable skill only enjoyed by well-off food mavens with oodles of time.

Like fashion trends, food trends are cyclical, and coconut oil is back these days like a pair of neon leg warmers. It was reviled in the mid-'90s as the artery-clogging, cholesterol-raising secret behind delicious movie theater popcorn. Now coconut oil has made a stealthy comeback—and this time around, it’s being considered by many as a health food.

Fisherman Alex Villani, who fishes off the coast of Mattituck, Long Island, has some good news about local fish: "The stocks have never been better. Every year is better and better. This year, for the first time in the United States, there's not one species of fish that's over-fished."

For people from many different cultures, comfort food comes in the form of curry—a saucy, gravy-like concoction usually eaten over rice or with a wrap. Savory curries can be found in culinary cultures from South and Southeast Asia to Japan and the Caribbean.

Every year, the average American eats more than six pounds of peanuts and peanut butter. Lee Zalben, the president of Peanut Butter & Co., believes that the love affair with peanut butter began at an early age for many. “Peanut butter has a very special place in the American psyche,” he says. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are often the first foods that we’re allowed to make for ourselves. It’s the first time we can be an active participant in preparing our food.”

Oatmeal, a humble winter breakfast food, has recently become a hot topic of conversation in the media. Food writer Mark Bittman expressed strong views on fast-food oatmeal in his recent New York Times op-ed, while Atlantic senior editor Ta-Nehisi Coates responded skeptically to Bittman’s claim that cooking oatmeal at home is more convenient.

You might not think about where ground pepper comes from when picking up a tin at the store. Grind it yourself and you’ll notice the spice comes from small peppercorns, which have been dried and come in a rainbow of different hues.

Even though temperatures on Friday nearly reached 60 degrees, sustained warmth is still many weeks away. Tubers from one type of sunflower—sunchokes—can be found at farmers' markets and grocery stores and are a welcome addition to standard winter root vegetables like potatoes and carrots.

The Meadow, a store that offers more than 100 types of gourmet salt, opened in the West Village this past November. At first glance, the timing seems like it couldn’t be worse. Last year, New York City joined the National Salt Reduction Initiative, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg heavily publicized the campaign to lower sodium in foods. The initiative was just the start to a much more nuanced debate, one that was dubbed “the Salt Wars,” by former New York Times columnist James Tierney.

The holidays are long over, but chestnut-lovers who have been roasting probably still have scars from the festive, yet dangerous, endeavor of roasting chestnuts. Fortunately, there are easier ways to cut into the nuts’ brittle outer shells so that they don’t explode over an open fire or in the oven.