Alyssa Vaughn

5 days ago | americastestkitchen.com | David Yu |Alyssa Vaughn

Sometimes, a little sogginess is a good thing. Think of the way piping hot and crispy french fries relax under brown gravy and cheese curds in poutine, or how a golden nest of egg noodles sinks and softens in coconutty khao soi broth, or how marinara seeps into a cutlet’s nooks and crannies in chicken Parmesan. In nearly every food tradition where there’s a love for frying, it seems that there’s also admiration for that saucier, more yielding version of something that was once crisp.

5 days ago | americastestkitchen.com | Steve Dunn |Alyssa Vaughn

When the weather is balmy and company’s coming, South Carolina cooks haul out their stockpots. They fill them with water or beer and generous shakes of dried spices and set them over heat until the liquid bubbles and steams. That’s the signal to add a bounty of bite-size morsels: chunks of golden corn, waxy potatoes, smoky sausage, and fresh-from-the-sea shrimp and/or crabs, which soak up the flavors of the warming, peppery spices as they cook.

3 weeks ago | bostonglobe.com | Alyssa Vaughn

While it might be relegated to the title’s parenthetical, New York stands front and center in “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).” The musical, onstage at ART’s Loeb Drama Center May 20-June 29, winds its way across the city like a theatrical hop-on hop-off bus tour, zigzagging from uptown to downtown to Flatbush to the Plaza Hotel. There are hot dogs and bedbugs and fancy lattes and a “Taxi Driver” reference.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Alyssa Vaughn

By now, Natalya Baine and her daughter Nasya have their routine down pat. Four days a week, Natalya wakes up, cooks lunch and dinner, then stores the meals in to-go containers as 17-year-old Nasya packs up and gets dressed. They load their belongings into their car — the food, Nasya’s dance shoes and clothes, Natalya’s homework for her master’s program — make a quick stop at BJ’s for gas, call Natalya’s mother to say a prayer, and are on the road by late morning.

2 months ago | americastestkitchen.com | Andrea Geary |Alyssa Vaughn

Behind the RecipesCreamy cheese and whole grains make flapjacks that are both ultrasatisfying and more complex. By and Published Apr. 1, 2025. As soon as I open a diner menu, I home in on one word: “Pancakes.” It promises so much sensory delight: the steam that floats from the top of a towering stack, the way that pillowy loft yields to the fork, the satisfaction of swooping the last bite around the plate to swab up every drop of syrup. And then I order an omelet.