Spring Orange and Kitchen Arts
My selections from a warm weekend walk to a culinary bookstore in the Upper East Side.
On the first warm Saturday of the season, I decided to head out to the Union Square Farmer’s Market to enjoy the weather. In the way that only an early spring day can make you feel, I was not satiated — I needed more. I decided to start walking further north, and before long found myself all the way at 93rd St. On Lexington between 93rd and 94th St sits a quiet bookstore specializing in culinary arts. After an hour of browsing, here is the selection that came home with me.
Canal House Cooking Volumes
The Canal House is a multi-use space in New Jersey — studio, workshop, dining room, office, kitchen, and more — for all things home cooking related (and one of the best websites ever). Their restaurant, Canal House Station, closed in December and it is a huge regret of mine to never have visited. I have their larger cookbook, which is a major source of inspiration, and have coveted their smaller volumes for years without ever pulling the trigger to purchase. Seeing them in Kitchen Arts & Letters, I had to pick two up.
Each ~100 page volume follows a theme, be it a season, the grocery store, farmer’s market and garden, or Italian cooking. Each volume starts with a table of contents designed as a menu, outlining dishes by category.
They did not have the Spring issue in stock, so I opted to follow an orange-hued theme with Volume 7: La Dolce Vita and Volume 2: Fall and Holiday. Orange has quickly become my color of the season, between the cookbooks, the amount of citrus I have eaten in the past weeks, and the previously mentioned Inez Olive Oil.
As I am in the throes of planning Easter lunch, I am looking to their cookbooks for spring recipes and Easter menus. More on this next week.
Midweek Recipes
Jess Elliott Dennison’s Midweek Recipes and Weekend Recipes caught my eye while browsing. Upon opening, I found her approach to be similar to mine — simple but memorable meals that do not take a lot of time and are made with delicious, seasonal ingredients.
I opted to purchase Midweek first, and after devouring it over the last two weeks, I will absolutely be purchasing Weekend as well.
The book opens with go-to ingredients, before jumping right into a chapter titled Good Things on Toast before delving into other categories like Pasta, Beans, Soups, and more. My first recipe was Tomato and White Wine Beans with crispy lemon breadcrumbs — a delicious version of my mainstay beans and tomato dish. I think this book will quickly become a go-to.
Feat On Your Life
My final selection was a signed copy of Tamar Adler’s new book, Feast on Your Life. It reads like a daily devotional, with meditations on time spent daily in the kitchen. Every time I cook, I try to write down a line or two about mindful observations. I love reading this from others.
On The Map
Kitchen Arts & Letters
1435 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10128
Kitchen Arts & Letters is a food and beverage bookstore in the Upper East Side that sells both new and out-of-print titles. Despite the small footprint, they have every hard-to-find book I have not been able to locate at other book sellers in the city.
On the north interior wall sits a section dedicated to antiquarian books and menus. From early editions of M.K. Fisher to New York restaurant menus of years past, it is a fun browse.
In addition to their catalog selection, they also have an outstanding seasonal curation in their front window. I love seeing the collection of green cookbooks signaling spring.