Food & drink

Food & drink

When Jack Nicholson was filming Ironweed in Albany in 1987, he was first introduced to a bakery that would make a lasting impression. Nicholson's driver was from Schenectady, New York, and while the actor was in the area, the driver introduced the star to local favorites, including Perreca's Bakery. It didn't take long for Nicholson to develop an affinity for the bread made at the 106-year-old establishment, and the driver would take bread for the actor to set regularly. Photos of Nicholson remain proudly displayed in the bakery.

Of all the things you could buy at Target, baked goods might not be the first to come to mind. That said, there is an abundance of baked goods tucked not-so-secretly away near the produce section, most of them falling under Target's Favorite Day brand. I'm talking grocery store bakery classics like old-fashioned donuts and frosted sugar cookies, along with more unique additions like mini scones and tiny cream cheese croissants.

Taco Bell's growth story isn't just about value - it's about relevance. As much of the fast-food industry grapples with cautious consumers and slowing traffic, Taco Bell has managed to stand out with younger diners. The Mexican chain's parent company, Yum! Brands, reported earlier this month that Taco Bell delivered 7% same-store sales growth in the fourth quarter, fueled in part by transaction gains that skewed especially strong among younger customers.

On February 17, 2026, billions of people worldwide will celebrate the Lunar New Year (also known as the Spring Festival) following the lunisolar calendar. Though the holiday's origins trace back to ancient China, it's now celebrated across East and Southeast Asia and abroad. Friends and family trade cash-stuffed red envelopes and parade through the streets, while kitchens work overtime. Traditions vary by region and family, but one thing is universal: it's critical to show up hungry.

Churros are always a good idea, especially when they're from Mexico City's legendary churrería, El Moro, which just opened its second Southern California location in Echo Park. There will likely be a line forming down Laveta Terrace or Sunset Boulevard when you arrive, but it moves quickly. After ordering, you can observe the preparation process, easily visible from the outside. The patio makes a delightful place to eat long churros dipped in sugar and cinnamon or bite-sized moritos with El Moro's classic hot chocolate.

New York's pop-up pizza calendar just got a serious international upgrade. From February 24 through February 28, cult-favorite Tokyo pizzeria Seirinkan will temporarily swap Shibuya for the Bowery, taking over the kitchen at modern Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana for a five-night residency that blends neo-Neapolitan pizza with Lower Manhattan energy. If you're deep in the pizza rabbit hole, the name Susumu Kakinuma probably rings a bell.

HAGS is one of those truly New York dining treasures, an eclectic fine-dining queer restaurant in the East Village, run by co-owners chef Telly Justice and sommelier Camille Lindsley. Dinner is a tasting menu affair, but brunch is more accessible, with a pay-what-you-can approach on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. HAGS often hosts guest chefs; for my brunch, it was Austin baker Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panadería.

The former Toast Eatery at Polk and Sacramento has reopened as Goldenette, an old-school diner, with a lot of Millennial pink flair. As Tablehopper reports, Toast owner Eddie Naser partnered with Wes Rowe, of Wes Burgers 'n' More fame, to revamp the restaurant's menu, which now includes multiple breakfast sandwich and breakfast burrito options including a delicious looking chile relleno burrito and a new, reportedly excellent patty melt. Also, like at Wes Burger, there are tater tots served several ways.

RT Bistro doesn't need it. On a gray and drizzly Tuesday evening, stepping into their mountain cabin-inspired digs, all warm and filled with the kitchen's intoxicating scent, feels like coming home. The restaurant is a sliver of a thing, just 37 seats, but even with every party at their own blond wood, marble-topped table, there's a buoyant dinner party vibe.

Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show was a success, but can the same be said about his other business ventures? Ahead of Bad Bunny's historic Super Bowl performance, I visited Gekko, a Japanese steakhouse in Miami co-owned by the singer and Miami hospitality mogul David Grutman. Since its opening in 2022, Gekko has established itself as a celebrity hot spot in Miami, attracting stars like Kim Kardashian and frequently hosting entertainment industry after-parties.

If you've got Monday off, get a head start on festivities honoring the Year of the Horse. Dig into Chinese cuisine at Empress by Boon, get lucky at Graton Resort and Casino, and party at Thrive City. Save some room for Fat Tuesday celebrations in the Mission and Bayview. It's also the return of Noise Pop, SF Beer Week, and the Black Choreographers Festival in case you need another reason to celebrate.

Bar Japonais had only been open about a year and a half when it shut down for a rebrand. The 14th Street restaurant was initially billed as a French-Japanese izakaya with a lot of fusion dishes and limited sushi. But it turned out the main thing diners wanted was, in fact, sushi, especially after the restaurant brought in chef Masaaki "Uchi" Uchino, the Sushi Nakazawa alum behind Kiyomi omakase counter.

The restaurant group behind Goodman, Beast, Pinna, Chelsea Grill and Wild Tavern, has added a Japanese izakaya to its roster with the opening of Wild Izakaya in the City. Inspired by the establishments found all over Tokyo, Wild Izakaya features an open kitchen with counter seating, larger tables for groups, classic Japanese films on a projector, and a drinks list including Japanese beers, sake and cocktails.

Chocolate artist Chris Ford's whimsical creations - once available exclusively online and to celebrities - are now accessible at his West Hollywood pop-up shop. The Butter, Love & Hardwork space features themed, seasonal chocolate designs inspired by holidays and special occasions, from Valentine's roses to Easter eggs. Beyond chocolates, the shop now offers pastries, coffee drinks and a chocolate vending machine, with plans for a dessert tasting menu.

Somewhere between truffle fries and fully loaded fries, we crossed a line. What began as indulgent extras has turned into a full-blown flavour arms race. Carrots arrive drenched in hot honey and chilli. Cabbage is glossed with XO. Potatoes are crushed, confit, fried twice, showered in herbs, spice blends and something crunchy for good measure. Sides aren't padding. They're flavour bombs, competing with starters and mains for attention.

Ah, the everything bagel. An enigma of the bakery world. A bagel so confident it declares itself complete, despite being topped with just five seasonings and with no clear origin story. Many people lay claim to the combination of savory ingredients that includes poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, onion, and salt, all baked on top of a chewy dough ring.

In this cursed timeline of one alarming headline after another, I dream-on a daily basis-of shutting my laptop, plugging in some earphones, and diving headfirst into a steaming container of rotisserie chicken. (I have a whole rotisserie routine of arranging various sauce cups around the bird, which usually includes honey mustard, buffalo sauce, and ahem, Jezebel sauce.) But, alas, a new report by the Wall Street Journal has killed my high.

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Travelling there was a childhood dream of mine. I saw it as a way to test myself against something so much bigger. I nearly applied for a role at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) 30 years ago, but then my wife and I were expecting our first child. Instead, I've worked as a chef in Michelin-star restaurants in Paris and London, hotels in Kuala Lumpur and St Moritz, and even at a school in Oxfordshire.

My grandkids can't seem to get enough of s'mores-themed goodies. The chefs at America's Test Kitchen came up with these S'Mores Brownies, with a hefty graham-cracker crust at the bottom that supports the brownie layer above. And to capture that campfire component, a top layer of miniature marshmallows toast in the oven under the broiler. Two things. Be sure to use a metal baking pan and not a glass baking dish in this recipe.

Growing up in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, Tenzin Yeshi loved the buzz of excitement as Losar, the New Year celebration, approached in her Tibetan community. Ms. Yeshi recalls how nomadic traders, clad in heavy wool coats, would start gathering around one of the city's largest stupas, or Buddhist monuments, to sell yak meat. It was one of those little signs that made you know Losar was coming, she said.

Research has shown that canned fish like sardines have plenty of health benefits, and they can also be quite versatile and tasty. Chicken of the Sea offers a variety of sardines packed in olive oil, Louisiana hot sauce, mustard sauce, lemon, and tons of other flavors. It sounds like a delicious variety to choose from no matter what you're craving, but reviewers don't always agree.

But McDonald's Filet-O-Fish is also a wildly popular fast food item with a colorful origin story. Created out of a necessity for the meatless Fridays of Lent, the Filet-O-Fish got its start as a part of a cooking competition in the 1960s. The Filet-O-Fish beat out a fruit-centric pineapple pattied Hula burger, and quickly became an instant hit with Lent-observing Christians.

Protein carries a lot of food-cred these days, and rightfully so. Regardless of where it tucks into meal plans, protein brings a host of health benefits for muscles, bones, body tissues, metabolism, and lots more. It may not be glamorous in its own right, but it certainly appears in plenty of tasty, creative meals - from everyday comfort foods to international specialty dishes, high-end meat and seafood recipes, and even your favorite fast-food offerings.

Prior to last week, I had never eaten at a Wawa. I knew of Wawa's food offerings, because Defector Media has a sizable, and vocal, Philadelphia contingent. The most vocal among that contingent was the late Dan McQuade. McQuade was so intensely Philadelphian that I thought of him any time I encountered anything related to that city, and I still do.

This soup relies on a layering of flavor from roasting both fresh and canned tomatoes, which each have different levels of sweetness, acidity and tomato-to-water concentrations. Then, a sort of vodka sauce approach enters the picture and contributes bisque-adjacent richness and spice. To develop the recipe, I tested through dozens and dozens of different ways to make vodka sauce so I could arrive at what I think is the perfect formula for this soup.

There were stricter rules completely banning the sale of some margarine in Wisconsin that were repealed in 1967, but there is still a law on the books that makes it illegal for restaurants to give customers margarine unless they specifically ask for it. Margarine may also not be served as a substitute for butter at state institutions. That means schools, prisons, and state-owned hospitals can't give you margarine unless it's deemed medically necessary by a doctor.

This unassuming marine macroalgae (to give it its proper name) is packed full of vital minerals and nutrients, and can make for an unglamorous, yet functional addition to your diet. Seaweed is exactly as the name suggests - an edible marine algae that grows along coastlines and on rocks under the water. It comes in thousands of varieties, but the ones we eat most commonly fall into three groups: brown (like kelp and wakame), red (nori, dulse), and green (sea lettuce).

If you only know trifle as a way to use up dry cake or as a quaint dish from the Great British Bake Off, you're in for a surprise. This chocolate strawberry brownie trifle is a scrumptious and special dessert to whip up for Valentine's Day, a romantic date night at home, or any time you need a sweet chocolatey treat.

By following more than 100,000 people in the U.K. for years, researchers found that people whose food choices scored high in any one of five diet categories tended to live longer than people who scored the lowest. Specifically, the team found that even after adjusting for confounding factorssuch as whether people smoked, how much exercise they took and what their education and ethnicity wasstudy participants who tended to eat according to any one of the five diets were 18 to 24 percent less likely to die of any cause. For women, that roughly translated into an extra 1.5 to 2.3 years of life. And for men, it added about 1.9 to three years.

Total same-store sales fell 10.1% over the quarter, driven by performance in the U.S., where same-stores sales were down 11.3% compared to 2% at international locations. Overall, global systemwide sales were $3.4 billion, a decrease of 8.3% from the previous quarter. According to Wendy's interim CEO Ken Cook, one way the company is addressing this trend is through ongoing "system optimization," which includes the closure of "consistently underperforming restaurants" to allow franchisee partners to focus on more profitable locations.

At The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, dining isn't just a meal, it's an experience that nourishes the body, delights the senses, and brings residents together in delightful, memorable ways. Set within one of Brooklyn's most iconic neighborhoods, this luxury senior living community elevates everyday dining into something special, with a trio of distinctive venues that celebrate flavor, choice, and conviviality.

In the ever-evolving landscape of fine dining, few chefs can boast a résumé as impressive as that of Chef Brian Lockwood. Renowned for his culinary artistry and innovative approach, Lockwood has worked alongside culinary legends like Daniel Humm at both Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad. His experience spans multiple MICHELIN-starred restaurants in Europe, including El Celler De Can Roca, L'Escaleta, and La Subida.

Shinola Hotel is ushering in a new chapter of culinary excellence with the appointment of Mary-Catherine Moore as the Executive Director of Food & Beverage and Managing Partner. Known for her extensive experience in the hospitality industry, Moore will oversee culinary operations across a dynamic range of venues, including the upscale Italian restaurant San Morello, the urban speakeasy Evening Bar, the beer hall The Brakeman, and the beloved fried chicken spot Penny Red's.