If you've been reading this blog or Appetite for China for a while, you may remember that I'm a little obsessed with ramps, the wild leeks that are only available on the East Coast for a few weeks in the spring. I've used them when making pasta, stir-fries, dumplings, eggs, and cold sesame noodles. And I've gotten quite a few of the students in my cooking classes addicted to them as well.
I had thought ramps were officially gone for the year, until I spotted a few bunches at the Greenmarket this past Friday. (The stand was also selling just ramp bulbs.) And they looked pretty good for being end-of-the-season picks. So I brought a bunch home and made ramp tacos for three straight meals.
Years ago while in culinary school, I spent a summer interning at Food & Wine. Food writing was my dream future career and I was ecstatic to spend a good part of my work days in their test kitchen. Until this week, even after many years of working in the food world on both the cooking and writing sides, it had been the only test kitchen of a major publication that I had seen.
So I was pretty thrilled to join a behind-the-scenes tour that Cookbook Create was organizing for food bloggers in the NY area. Yesterday, a big group of us visited the offices and test kitchens of Bon Appetit, The Daily Meal, and Food52, who graciously hosted us and prepared samples of recipes they've tested for publication. Of course, in addition to peeking inside the beautiful kitchens, it was a great way to learn about how the different publications operate.