Author

marcelasenise

I'm a foodie at heart. I never say no to good company over a meal. I love travelling. USA will always be my first choice of destination. Bourdain addicted. Food & Travel Consultancy / Communication, Marketing & Public Relations. Food writer for hobby.

All posts by marcelasenise

Flirting With Vegan

by marcelasenise

Spring is happening big time in NYC and so is all the planning for outdoor events and outings – including Food Tours!

If you read the post I shared on my Plant based section you know what I’m talking about… Tamar began these tours as a way to introduce more foodies to great food that happens to be vegan. What started as 3 local tours will expand to 5 tours this Summer. Flirting With Vegan is conquering the big apple with all its quality and fun!

This time I want to share what an incredible work FWV Instagram profile is. Full of updated great suggestions and some pretty critical reviews based on her own personal experience. You will enjoy her witty, sharp and engaging reels. Tamar surely knows how to engage with her audience!

Follow Flirting With Vegan account to be part of some excellent vegan friendly NYC experiences.

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@guidemeto_

by marcelasenise

I remember when Malu sent me a text message asking my opinion about her latest project. That was back in mid 2019.

Guide me to the blog was taking shape. In the most sophisticated and well written way. A space where Malu could finally share her talents and passions. Writing, traveling, photographing, exploring the world and finally being able to share her encounters.

She moved to Holland with her husband and cat to dive deeper into her new venture. Soon after pandemic hit the world but she didn’t stop. Digitally she carried on as much as she could and her Instagram account took a step ahead of her blog in keeping her closer to connections faster than her subsequently posts.

A perfect balance.

Three years have gone by, they now live in bellissima Florence and her work and daily life are true pleasure to watch how she shares through very entertaining stories and posts.

Lest you imagine what she has in store for the coming months with travelling more flexible.

An Instagram account to follow!

Andrea Strong

by marcelasenise

Over the course of her career, Andrea has been a lawyer, a restaurant manager, a waitress, a farm hand, a humanitarian activist, an advocate, and for the past two decades, a journalist.

Known for her pioneering food blog, The Strong Buzz, Andrea covers the intersection of food, business, culture, policy, and the law. Her work appears in The New York Times, Food & Wine, New York Magazine, Heated, Eater, and more.

1. What is the importance of your kitchen in your house?

The kitchen is the heart of our home. I live in a garden apartment in Carroll Gardens with my two kids Sam and Eiji who are 9 and 13 now. I am always in the kitchen, probably because it’s the biggest room in the house. It’s large enough to fit my desk where I write and work, and a big, old well-loved (marginally destroyed) dining room table where we eat all our meals, but also do homework, play board games, and have fierce games of cards. It’s where the kids can sit around with their friends and be ridiculous when they are not in front of the TV and their phones. I love to read and the kitchen is full of bookshelves stuffed with novels and many cookbooks. The front door opens right up into the kitchen, and it’s very homey and warm, and that’s important to me. When people come over I hope they feel the warmth and the love that’s in this room.

2. What’s the best part of the day for you to cook?

I have two kids so I cook all the time – particularly during the pandemic, it was three meals a day, for everyone, every day for months. It was a bit bananas. But things have smoothed out now, thankfully, and mostly I cook in the late afternoon. We eat dinner together as a family every night we are home, and the kids get hungry early (well honestly they are hungry all the time), so I cook around 4ish and we eat by 5:30pm-6pm. But I am always putting out snacks, slicing veggies and fruit for them, or making them toast, or bagels or what have you. I’m a very good short order cook.

I should also say that both my kids can cook, particularly my older son Eiji. Both kids have been cooking with me since they could stand. They started out putting flour in the bowl, stirring, adding chips to cookies, and as they got older, they did more. Eiji went to the Dynamite Shop, a tween and teen cooking school in Park Slope, and thanks to that he can cook anything. He cooks once a week for his Volleyball team. He’s amazing. Sam is also getting good—he can make scrambled eggs, fried fish, and lasagna. They both love to bake. Sometimes I’ll wake up to them in the kitchen making muffins. Lest you imagine some dreamy scene, you should know they are not particularly tidy cooks. The kitchen is usually a massive mess, like a tornado has blown through. But I don’t care. I am happy to see them cooking and enjoying being together. These are the memories that they’ll have forever. So if we have to clean up for a while, so be it.

3. Are you a creative chef or simply love to follow recipes?

I’d say I follow recipes and then create. I like the NY Times Cooking and Smitten Kitchen in particular. Once I have cooked a recipe once, I’ll put my own spin on it. I tend to like things with high acidity and some heat so I’ll usually add a squeeze of lemon juice and red chile flake to nearly every recipe I make. And I’ll play with different vegetables or grains or proteins, whatever is in season and in the house.

4. Three ingredients that are never missing from your kitchen cabinet?

As I mentioned I like heat, so I always have a jar of Onino on hand. This is an amazing crunchy chili made in Brooklyn by Cristy Lucie-Alvarado, a recipe developer who has worked most of her life in food marketing. It’s nutty, spicy, garlicky, and just amazing on EVERYTHING. I eat it by the spoonful. No that’s not weird; try it and you will too.

I love good salted butter so I always have that out on the counter. I really don’t like cold butter, so it’s never in the fridge.

I love pesto, so I try to have pine nuts, or even pistachios or almonds in the pantry, some sort of nut that I can toast, toss in the food processor with a clove of garlic, some good Parmesan cheese, lemon, olive oil, and basil and make a quick pesto. Sometimes I’ll add some avocado or a zucchini or half a chili pepper. I told you, I like it spicy. And pesto is so versatile and forgiving. It’s also one of those sauces that’s just great on pasta but also as a sandwich spread, or on fish or chicken, even with raw veggies.

5. How did your passion for cooking come about?

I’d say I first had a passion for eating and for food and restaurants that grew into a passion for cooking.

My parents divorced when I was very young and my dad did not know how to cook. We’d see him once a week at his apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and he’d take us out for dinner, sometimes to neighborhood places and diners, but other times to really wonderful restaurants like Rumplemeyers and Maxwell’s Plum (I am giving away my age here). I was captivated by the food and the dazzling rooms, the magic of restaurants.

I studied law and practiced for a while and my passion for restaurants only grew – I was lucky enough to be eating out at the best restaurants in the city. Then I ended up working in restaurants and writing about them. I did go to Peter Kump’s Cooking School for a semester (now Institute of Culinary Education) so I had the basics down, but honestly I didn’t cook much until I had kids because I was too busy eating out. Sure, I’d cook a special occasion meal, but mostly on the rare occasion when I was home I ate a bowl of cereal or ordered in sushi or Chinese. But when I had kids that all changed. I needed to cook for my family, and I learned to cook family recipes from my Persian grandmother, and the rest I sort of cooked what I knew I liked to eat and what I knew they would eat. I was never into making one meal for the kids and one for the grown ups. We all ate the same thing. (Even though Sam used to be quite picky — I’d just make sure to have rice and beans for him at every meal.) And we always ate together. Family meals are very important to me. Yes there are many pizza nights in front of the TV, but I really like the ritual of sitting down to dinner together. Even if it’s fast and furious, it’s together. There are some words of conversation even too.

6. What’s your favorite dish to cook that you know can never go wrong?

That’s an easy one—Persian Rice and Choresh. These are two Persian recipes that my Bibi taught me. Choresh is a stew, there are many variations on it, but every Friday night I make Chickpea Choresh and a big pot of rice with a potato crust. We are Jewish and while we are not religious, I like the customs and the notion of having a special Friday Sabbath meal where we eat Persian food that my mother and my grandmother used to make for me as a child, It makes me feel like I am creating this lineage of love through food and the generations.

7. Would you receive an entire TV crew in your kitchen for a day?

If they can fit inside, yes!

8. Do you follow any tv shows or have a favorite cooking book?

We love to watch “Nailed It” as a family. The show cracks us up. It’s great. We have also watched the Great British Baking Show but it makes me too hungry. I always want to eat many pieces of cake afterwards.

Emporio Fasano

by marcelasenise

Gero Fasano has, at long last, opened the doors of his so longed-for emporio in São Paulo.

This project has been in the makings for years. First in his heart. Followed by potential partners that never took off. Then came his other dream of opening Fasano hotel in New York City. Extremely delicate health issues came along the way to put everything on halt. Including going through a world pandemic.

Come early 2022 with prospects of a glorious first semester. The Big Apple gets a stunning hotel and dining experience upgrade with the arrival of Fasano in town and São Paulo by late July with the brand finally opening its deluxe emporio doors.

You can sense every tiny detail of perfection put into that project as you entered the grandious 1000sq meters space. Gero is a renowned perfectionist with the best taste and so is his team.

On the ground floor you will walk around the bakery and fresh past counters along with a prime quality made on a exclusive kitchen site that delivers all Fasano freshly made products from their pasta to sauces, take away ready bowl salads and a selected range of fruits and vegetables. All harvested from small local farmers.

On the first floor you will find a wide range of wines and liquors from around the world. A very Italian cheese and charcuterie counter with a cheese lab next to it. All blended in a space with shelves of exclusive Fasano branded products like extra virgin olive oil, ready made sauces, arborio rice, dry pasta, seasonings all curated by Gero himself.

For those sweet tooth there is also some delicious options of jams, chocolate and delicacies to have home when welcoming friends over for coffee.

Speaking of which, when arriving on the second floor you will be welcomed by the roasted smell of coffee on site at the coffeeshop. Fasano Casa section offers a range of home products from gorgeous candles to linen to mention a few. After enjoying the tour you must take a moment to have a seat at their terrace. Sit back, order a coffee with pastry. After all this is all part of la Bella vita as Italians do.

R. Bela Cintra, 2245 – Jardins, São Paulo – SP, 01415-009
Monday – Saturday 7:30am – 9pm / Sunday 9am-7pm

Happy Birthday Bourdain 2022

by marcelasenise

Flirting With Vegan

by marcelasenise

This is a project very close to my heart. So I might sound way too suspicious when telling you about Flirting with Vegan, how it started, how it’s going and where it’s heading.

But trust me it’s totally worth it!

Tamar has been a fishetarian for over fifteen years now. She defends the welfare of animals and climate change crisis. Rightly so as those two topics are well important for the future of our kinds.

For fun she created the hashtag #flirtingwithvegan using on her personal Instagram and reviewing food experiences on Google. Then it came one proper IG profile. Always with the intent of sharing a positive message. What can come out of some excellent FaceTime coffee sessions between two friends who are foodies at heart.

What started as a positive message is now shaping into a vegan friendly food tour in New York City.

We did some serious research about market needs, possible competition, best places to include in each tour area. Tamar has, so far, 3 itineraries on the go, all sold out and with very positive feedback.

: coming up!

: sold out past tours!

The idea is to carry on spreading a positive message and sharing a foodie experience with everyone. As the slogan says:

Because no one has time for mediocre food.

You can be vegan, fishetarian, flexitarian or simply curious about a different foodie experience.

Summer is going to be busy for Flirting With Vegan tours.

Follow FWV Instagram, Facebook and this blog for tour dates updates and much more to come.

Tamar Arslanian

by marcelasenise

Tamar Arslanian is founder of the popular blog IHAVECAT and author of the book Shop Cats of New York written-up in the New York Times, USA Today and New York Post. Most recently Tamar has recently founded “Flirting With Vegan,” a community and tour company that encourages all foodies to give delicious plant-based cuisine a chance.

Because no one has time for mediocre food.

1. What is the importance of your kitchen in your house?

Well I love to eat so I do spend quite a bit of time there. I live in NYC so by our standards I have a good sized kitchen. In the rest of the United Stated however, it would be considered minuscule.

2. What’s the best part of the day for you to cook?

Evenings.

3. Are you a creative chef or simply love to follow recipes?

I started off following recipes but during COVID I had more time to cook and became more comfortable with “going with my gut” so to speak. It was exciting to know what flavors go together to enhance a dish.

4. Three ingredients that are never missing on your kitchen cabinet?

Olive oil, zataar and salt.

5. How did your passion for cooking come about?

To be honest I would say I have more of a passion for eating well than for cooking, but seeing as I live alone, I have had to learn how to cook! My mom is an excellent self-taught cook so she has taught me to be very discerning when tasting food. She cooks delicious low-fat high flavor dishes from all cuisines and finds using butters and creams the lazy way of making a dish taste delicious. Herbs and other seasonings are her favorite.

6. What’s your favourite dish to cook that you know it can never go wrong with it?

A veggie curry with coconut milk.

7. Would you receive an entire tv crew in your kitchen for a day?

Of course as long as they were a NYC size crew to fit into my NYC size apt!

8. Do you follow any tv show or have a favourite cooking book?

My greatest inspiration comes from all the amazing TikTok chefs who are able to share incredible inspirational meals in 3 minutes or less.

Italian espresso is applying to become Unesco heritage

by marcelasenise

When we talk about Italian food and drinks two things comes to mind straight away: Pizza and espresso. Not just any coffee. Espresso.

That shot of creaminess with a perfumed and textured crema that tops the sip of espresso Italians drink from a porcelain cup.

Just like Neapolitans pizza makers having had their pizza added in 2017 to Unesco’s heritage list, now is the turn of Turin coffee makers to have a go.

“It is an authentic ritual, an expression of our sociality that distinguishes us around the world,” said Gian Marco Centinaio, agriculture undersecretary, confirming the application had been submitted.

Caffè Vergnano and Lavazza are two big international brands to come from Turin. A city that became the capital of espresso at the end of 19th century.

A great asset for the economy and a habit Italians do take it to their heart. Also a way to celebrate a ritual halted with pandemic days.

Let’s cross fingers.

Ugly delicious season 2 is now showing!

by marcelasenise

Since the release of its first season back in February 2019, David Chang became a dad, had another series produced, “Breakfast, lunch and dinner” also on Netflix, continued with his outstanding podcast. But everyone is waiting for the return of season 2 of “Ugly delicious“.

Wait no more! It is back on today and you can binge it all weekend.