Ruhlman's Newsletter

Every two weeks, you'll find a delightful blend of food stories, recipes, cocktail ideas, and travel adventures. Plus, you'll get recommendations for movies and books from me and my wife, Ann Hood, who is a novelist. We'll also share links to some of the most interesting articles we've discovered online.

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Articles

On the Road Again ...

2 weeks ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

I’ve been to Dingle, Ireland, six times, as Ann has long taught at an annual writers’ workshop here. Some people say they won’t go to the same place twice—there are too many new places to see. My father was like that. He never watched a movie twice either. Me, I love to return to the same place, if it’s as unique and fine as Dingle. But Ann figured the perfect compromise: we’d fly first to a new part of Ireland for us, Donegal, the very northwesternmost county.
Two fabulous finds below 14th St ...

3 weeks ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

Greenwich Village, from 5th Avenue all the way over to Washington St in the West Village, is one of the most restaurant dense areas in the world. There are so many great restaurants, I don’t think anyone could visit every one of them. And I’m talking destination Village restaurants, not the likes of Mamoun’s or ubiquitous pizza joints. Places like Dame and Lord, Dante, Tokyo Record Bar, Minetta Tavern (and those are just on MacDougal St. alone).
The Power of Flake

4 weeks ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

April 20th was Ann’s and my eighth wedding anniversary. Easter.
My Five Things

1 month ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

I’ll eventually shut up about onion rings but, sorry, along with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, these are a few of my favorite things. To try to get to the bottom of my onion ring obsession, my colleague Jonathan Dressler and I spent an afternoon with Michael Cecchi and Chef Cesar, learning how to make the city’s most perfect version of this addictive preparation. Jonathan is putting the film together now and I’ll be eager to post it, along with the recipe, when it’s done.
Tonkatsu

1 month ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

Throughout my youth, when Mom, Dad, and I sat down to dinner, I wouldn’t get more than two bites into the meal before Dad, with a happy grin, asked us, “What should we have for dinner tomorrow?” Ann’s father was the same way. These guys loved to eat. Ann and I are the same, but more often that not (because our schedules change so much throughout the week), that question comes in the morning.
Below 14th Street ... NoHo

1 month ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

If you’re planning to be in Noho—that odd nowhere land, a trapezoid bounded by Astor Place and Houston at top and bottom, between Bowery and Broadway—I have four outstanding restaurants to consider. Say you’re seeing a show at The Public Theater. Or seeing a movie at the Angelika. Or just want to go, as you should! One of them we had never tried, though it has been open since 2016.
Islay, Scotland

2 months ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

We arrived Islay, Scotland, a small island in the Inner Hebrides, at 6 pm after a twenty-two hour journey (JFK—>Amsterdam—>Glasgow—>Islay), in time for our 7 pm dinner reservation. Islay time. I snapped a pic of Ann on the tarmac with the ocean, beach, and surf behind her, then we tugged our roller bags across a two lane road, up a long gravel driveway to our accommodations, the lovely BnB, Glenegedale.
Arriving Islay …

2 months ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman |Ann Hood

We’ve just arrived Islay, an island 12 miles north of Northern Ireland in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, lured by our favorite spirit, the smoky, peaty whiskies of this rugged land, population just over 3,200. There’s something enormously satisfying about going to the source of the food and drink you love. To a place like Islay. The uniquity of this place (new word for me, thank you Anu Garg) is not evident until you are actually standing in the mud, inhaling the peat smoke.
Viewing recommendations ...

2 months ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman

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Martini Manifesto

2 months ago | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman |Robert Simonson |Laura Lippman

This week I got a letter from a friend describing his martini and tacitly admonished me for adding water to my straight-from-the-freezer gin, as if it were somehow unmanly to do so. I was inordinately annoyed—inordinately because, really, who cares? To each his own. But it got me thinking about why the Martini inspires so much emotion. What would seem an innocuous combination of gin and vermouth has inspired countless books on the subject, essays, even poems.