Carrie,

I do! I definitely think it would be great with broccoli and apples; we always ate fondue as a full meal, with cubes of ham, broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms along with the bread.

Cheese- Sour Cream Fondue

6 slices bacon
1/4 c minced onion
2 t all-purpose flour
1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese shredded (about 4 c)
2 c sour cream
1 t worcestershire sauce

Fry bacon till crisp; drain, reserving 1 T drippings. Crumble bacon and set aside. Cook onions in drippings til tender but not brown. Stir in flour. Add remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until cheese is melted. Pour into fondue pot. Top with bacon. (Place over 1 fondue burner.)

Makes 6- 8 servings. Suggested dippers include hard rolls, rye bread, mushrooms, celery, apples, any other veggies you like.

My parents lived in Germany for years before I was born and traveled to Switzerland quite a bit while they were there, so fondue was a regular treat when I was growing up. If I recall correctly, my mom Americanized it (or kid-proofed it?) by using cheddar cheese, which we all loved, but I’ve always made a pretty traditional Gruyere/Emmenthaler/Appenzeller version. It’s been awhile; thanks for the reminder to take my pot back out!

I can’t believe the number of comments on this post! Telling...
For anyone who’d like a taste (ugh, sorry) of Barry Foy’s writing, he’s posted some hilarious pieces on Ethicurean. Such a witty guy.

I love steel-cut oats, too, but I’ve begun soaking them overnight first in water and a bit of salt and yogurt. They cook more quickly and reach a slightly softer (still chewy, though) texture that I prefer. I’ve also read that soaking helps to break down the phytates in grains like oats that hinder absorption of nutrients. Regardless, I love the way they turn out with an overnight soak.

Thanks so much for this piece! I also love this dish, but I have never made it at home. Though I’ve tried it in a number of Korean restaurants, the best version I’ve had by far was at Lantern, a pan-Asian restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., where there’s a huge emphasis on local ingredients. Consequently, I guess, the ingredients in this bi bim bap were impeccable; the chef even makes her own gochu chang, which was delicious, and the whole dish was just amazing. Now I know what’s going on my menu for next week.
If anyone has any thoughts on how to make gochu chang from scratch, I would love to hear them!

Yes, yes, yes! I love cast iron. I have a couple of hefty (and expensive) copper skillets, but what I find myself using 90 percent of the time are my cast-iron skillet (my mom’s, which was my grandmother’s), a Chinese hammered cast-iron wok, and my Staub Dutch ovens (which the company calls cocottes). The Staub pieces weren’t especially inexpensive (I guess for all that fancy glaze and the nubbed lids), but I use them every single day.
And I agree, estate sales and thrift shops are fantastic places to find perfectly good cast iron for next to nothing.
Best kind of cookware one can have in the kitchen, if you ask me.

When I lived in Atlanta, I ate pretty frequently in Korean restaurants (there’s a huge Korean population in Atlanta and lots of great food to be had), and one of my favorite dishes was called duk mandu guk (sp), which sounds a lot like the ttok kuk described here. Is that just an alternate spelling?
Enjoyed the article!

I, too, count Chez Panisse Vegetables among my favorite veggie references. I also adore Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors, the Savory Way and The Greens Cookbook (I have nearly the whole canon save Veg. Cooking for Everyone!)
My new favorite is Viana la Place’s My Italian Garden, which has a lot of really inspired but relatively simple recipes.

Oh, my, thanks so much for that amazing-sounding sandwich idea! I will scurry to make one before the Meyers are gone.

I adore lacinato kale. My favorite new dish is a raw kale salad that combines the shredded leaves with a pecorino, garlic, lemon and olive oil dressing, more pecorino and toasted bread crumbs. It’s amazing. The NYT and Saveur both featured similar recipes recently from the same chef.

I started wearing an apron after I’d ruined one too many favorite shirts—I am such a messy cook, I don’t know how I ever managed without one! I have only one; it’s a cream and black French toile, and I love it.

Btw, a flour-sack apron is just an apron made from the fabric of flour sacks. Until around WWII, flour came in these really soft, durable cloth sacks, and it was really common for frugal families to use them to make clothing. After awhile the manufacturers actually started designing their sacks based on what they thought women would find most attractive for sewing. My grandmother made my mom and her sisters nearly all of their clothes from those sacks until they were in high school, when they finally got buy a store-bought dress or two.

Thank you for this! I’m so pleased to see an article sticking up for pasta for once. We eat pasta frequently and guiltlessly, and it kills me to know that so many people think of it as an indulgence. I’ve gotten the “well, you’re a runner, so you can eat pasta” argument, which is nonsense (though running certainly helps one to eat more of anything). Next time I hear it, I’m pointing the pasta skeptic to this story.