Editor's Note: In our winter issue we looked to Sarah Owen's cookbook when we felt a sense of despair after the election. In light of the inauguration, we asked her how to bake through any situation that arises over the next four years. 

You're forgiven if “hotel food” conjures up images of bland, overcooked chicken marsala, maybe with a side of rice pilaf and steamed broccoli. Chances are, you’ve never been to Beebe’s. 

This nouveau Italian pizzeria opened in April 2018 in Long Island City’s Boro Hotel—in a corner of the ’hood that’s low on dining options—and it’s since proven a welcome departure from drab, paint-by-numbers hotel grub.

Editor's Note: This article was written before the COVID-19 crisis for what would have been our print Women's Issue.

At time of print, Richard Eng remains in critical condition after having been the victim of a violent, senseless crime. Our prayers are with him and his family.

Just before 10 on a Sunday morning, Richard Eng carries doughnut trays to a sheet pan rack at Nippon Cha, a tea house and ramen shop on Bell Boulevard in Bayside.

Lexie Smith, an artist-baker hybrid, bakes head-turning art bread in her kitchen-cum-studio in Ridgewood. On any given day, her Instagram may evidence creations such as phyllo paper cranes, a dubious, twisted lizard shaped from purple corn flour, or Neapolitan-bright beet and carrot naan doughs, “sewn together on the tawa.” Sometimes the bread is sculpted, figurine-like, braided or dyed, like a recent pâte à choux (light pastry dough) made with activated charcoal—and it’s all edible. 

It’s 6:30 on a Thursday evening in late winter. The dark doesn’t stop 3-year-old twins Caroline and Josephine from playing happily between boxes and trestle tables under the lamp-lit canopy. Their mother, Emily Sheahan, keeps an eye on them as she meets with the Flushing CSA Core Team to discuss the winter veggie lineup. 

When my kids transferred to a school in Queens from a school in Australia I discovered a local tradition. Children celebrating a birthday were expected to bring cake for everyone in their class. Butterfly cakes, a traditional Australian children’s birthday cupcake, seemed like a no brainer. Imagine my disappointment when my eldest daughter, Helen, reported that all but one of her classmates were too scared to eat them.

You expect New York to be cold at this time of year. But not Hong Kong, where average winter temperatures range from the high 50s to the mid-to-high 60s. Which is how I found myself in shivering in Wan Chai as temperatures dipped into the 40s with only a suitcase full of T-shirts to keep me warm. Well, T-shirts and wonton soup.

Brought to the United States by Cantonese immigrants, wonton soup has, like pizza and bagels, been part of this country’s culinary repertoire for long enough to be a comfort food to several generations of Americans, no matter their ethnicity.

Kew Gardens is extremely populated with flight personnel. The neighborhood has been a hot spot for flight crews since the 1960s, the heyday of Trans World Airlines (TWA). So many crew members (there are thousands) have crash pads and more permanent residences there that the neighborhood is colloquially known as “Crew Gardens.” It’s virtually spitting distance to both Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, and the rent ain’t bad either.

Chef Jonathan Forgash’s culinary career began simply by saying “yes” when a friend asked him to cater a photo shoot. He’d never really cooked professionally before, but he’s always believed in saying yes when opportunities come knocking. The Brooklyn-born, Long Island– and Greenwich Village–raised Astoria resident is a self-trained chef.

Thomas Chen has a quail in his fridge. It’s been there for two days, literally chilling, as part of a recipe test for a new appetizer at his East Village restaurant, Tuome. Most days, the 33-year-old chef, a tall, commanding presence in his home and work kitchens, drives the 45 minutes from his townhouse in suburban Flushing to his 48-seat restaurant on East Fifth Street.

How did a simple broth become synonymous with comfort? Mimi Sheraton wrote in her The Whole World Loves Chicken that its medicinal origins can be traced back to a 12th-century doctor called Maimonides, who claimed that consuming the broth helped maintain the body’s balance.

Growing up in 1960s Australia, we adhered to the northern hemisphere’s holiday calendar while living with the southern hemisphere’s opposite seasons. We spent Christmas Day eating hot roast turkey, ham, and pork followed by piping hot Christmas pudding, served with boiled custard. In Australia, Christmas is a summer holiday, and temperatures above 100 degrees weren’t unusual.

Claudia is the owner, publisher, and executive editor of Edible Queens and Edible Idaho. Follow her on Instagram!

New-town Creek,” those well-acquainted with the waterway repeatedly correct the unfamiliar. Many pronounce the 3.8-mile creek’s name like the Nabisco fig treat: “Newton.” The creek divides Queens and Brooklyn, bordering Long Island City, Sunnyside and Maspeth along the way. Newtown is toxic, a designated Superfund site.

This common “Newton” mispronunciation reflects the omission of a central inlet from the collective awareness of New Yorkers.

Most often found in the kitchen, Stewart finds time to write a few stories, take a few pictures, and work as the Digital Editor for Edible Hudson Valley and Edible Westchester.

As a New Yorker, you understand theatre and good food, but you probably wouldn’t expect to be entertained by chefs or fed by comedians. That, however, is the premise of The Food Funny, a live event that pits comedians against each other in a (very modified) Iron Chef-esque competition, while their professional chef counterparts hit the stage and battle it out for belly laughs. The cooking competitors aren’t chefs—they’re comedians. And the actual professional chefs? It’s up to them to provide the comedy.

Jonathan Alvarado was brought to New York from Peru when he was three. Fondly remembering the indigenous and native fruits of his homeland, he decided to share his culinary culture with Ridgewood, where he was raised. He opened his ice cream shop, Creme&Sugar, three years ago, while maintaining a full-time job as a veterinary technician at the Bushwick Veterinary Center.

If there’s anyone who can turn dog walking in a snowstorm into a job on an urban farm, it’s Heidi Woolever, one of the managers of Edgemere Farm. Most of us would be head down, minding our own business, but Woolever has one of the friendliest faces on the Rockaway Peninsula.  

Housed in a converted church circa 1858, the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (15310 Jamaica Ave) is a multifunctional, state-of-the-art performance space. The building features a gabled brick facade with brownstone trim, arched entryways, asymmetrical towers and stained glass windows.

Located in a cavernous converted trolley repair center, SculptureCenter is NYC’s only contemporary art museum solely dedicated to sculpture. Artists featured in the program of temporary exhibitions range from internationally recognized stars to emerging local talent. After a multimillion-dollar renovation in 2014, it added a bookshop filled with quirky gifts and artbooks and a stunning exhibition space. The 1,500-square-foot enclosed courtyard for outdoor exhibitions is not to be missed.

Two minutes into my visit, I made a rookie mistake: I asked for my coffee in a to-go cup.

“I love coffee, but I’m a slow drinker,” I explained to Stephen Schulman, Senior Vice President of Sales and Head of Specialty Coffee at Dallis Bros. Coffee. There was a pause, and then, “Try it this way, first.”

Did you know that New York City has the highest number of women entrepreneurs in our neighborhoods? According to New York City Small Business Services, women across the five boroughs employ over 190,000 people and generate approximately $50 billion in sales. This month, we’re proud to present our annual Women’s issue—dedicated to all the innovative women chefs, food entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, bakers, mixologists and more who help feed the borough everyday.

The vegetarian kibbeh (cracked wheat stuffed with Swiss chard, spinach, onion, sumac and lemon, served with garlic pepper sauce) and kafta kebab (grilled beef and lamb) at Deasura are two of Maram Jdeed Shami’s favorite childhood foods. She and her brother—and co-owner—Mohannad Jdeed, grew up in Latakia, a city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, sandwiched between Turkey and Lebanon (cuisines that share much with Syrian food, with small but important distinctions).