Rachel Laudan

You’ve probably seen some of the few photos that have filtered out of the private annual congressional White House picnic that took place last Thursday. Barack Obama invited Alan Wong from Hawaii to prepare a Hawaiian luau, strewing the White House grounds with   straw huts and tiki lamps. When I saw these photos, a little [...]

It’s cookbook award time. And the number of stunning cookbooks that are out there is overwhelming: beautifully written, well-tested recipes, and glorious photography. Yet there are so many lovely books that are never entered, often books of the heart, books that had to be written, whether or not they were attuned to the latest fads [...]

Poi, as anyone who has been to Hawaii knows, was the staple food of the Hawaiians pre-Contact.  Now it’s often the butt of jokes.  Who would want to eat purple slime? Well, before you screw up your nose, it’s worth realizing that the poi now served in Hawaii is the poi equivalent of Wonder Bread.  [...]