I grew up in a baking-centered household. My mom baked everything from birthday cakes to thousands of batches of our family’s secret-recipe chocolate chip cookies. These cookies went everywhere with us—to dance classes, Girl Scout meetings, 4-H meetings, play rehearsals, everywhere. There was not, nor is there now, a person in my small hometown who has not experienced one of these famous chocolate chip cookies. 

Baking and sharing was just our family way. It is a part of my DNA, just like those cookies that everyone refers to by our last name: Heitmann Cookies. 

Today, barbecue is a way of preparing food and, in some communities, a way of life. Nevermind the animal—pork, chicken, beef, even alligator—or the dishes served on the side, barbecue has always been first and foremost about good company and the unique smoky flavor the process lends a choice cut of meat. 

Walk up the hill from the Parsons Boulevard F train station and you’ll pass a squat, triangular building festooned with orange signs proclaiming “End fascism,” “End colonialism,” “End misogyny” and more. The next storefront overflows with plants, their waxy leaves pressed against the windows. Outside, a huge parrot sits in a cage. It’s as if this entire stretch of Jamaica has made a pact to stay wonderfully, delightfully strange.

The story of online food personality and chef Lazarus Lynch is a quintessential Queens story. Look closely at Anisha Sisodia’s photos in Lynch’s debut cookbook, Son of a Southern Chef, and you may recognize the house exteriors where Lynch and friends stoop sit. Maybe you’re familiar with the yellow cab where Lynch munches nachos, or the subway car where he enjoys handfuls of cookie dough. It’s all New York City, Queens—home. 

"Heartbroken” is how Sonny Solomon describes his mother when he entered the restaurant industry some 20 years ago, first as a dishwasher and then a waiter. A nurse, she had hoped he would become a doctor. But the heavy tomes the pre-med students lugged were a turnoff for young Solomon. Today all of his friends are doctors, but “restaurants are more fun,” he says, especially for his adventurous, curious nature. 

Everyone and their sibling seems to be talking about sourdough these days, but what is it exactly? What sets sourdough apart from other breads? 

Well, for starters, there’s the starter: Sourdough is mixed and leavened differently from other breads, which use commercial yeasts. 

The starter—a mixture of flour and water, creates the perfect environment for attracting wild yeast from the atmosphere. The yeast consumes sugars from the flour, emits carbon dioxide bubbles and ferments the dough to make it rise. 

Spicy Pizza Granola
Byrdfood

Savory breakfast people, unite over this small-batch, gluten-free granola. Bring it to a holiday party for your host to enjoy the following morning.

"Five years ago, I typed the words ‘hip-hop and food’ into a search engine and all I found were lyrics,” says Syreeta Gates. Knowing that hip-hop artists have always used food as a staple among their verses, Gates saw an opportunity to connect rap with the culinary world in a way no one else had. 

This week, France celebrates Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité—the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 and a revolution to overthrow tyranny. When I think of the Bastille, though, the first thing that comes to mind is ogling oysters, tasting funky cheeses and following the aroma of chickens spinning on the rotisserie. Shopping for groceries may defeat the purpose of vacation for some, but it may be among my favorite parts of the trip.

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.

Edible Queens and their friends, Joe DiStefano, Jonathan Forgash and Drew Kerr, are creating a video series highlighting members of Queens’ diverse food community in an effort to support local businesses through the current crisis. Each video introduces a member of the community and what they need right now, whether that’s takeout orders or contributions to a staff relief fund.

"We made jalebis during the winter storm,” says Sonny Solomon, sounding like he’s narrating the first line of an adventure novel about a band of pastry chefs.

This month, we're proud to present the Bread & Grains issue—dedicated to all manner of doughs, dosas and baked desserts made in Queens. To coincide with the print issue (you'll be able to pick up a print copy very soon!), every weekday throughout the month of February, we'll be featuring a different bakery in the borough. Some are old standbys, and some are new and on the rise, but each one reflects the diverse and independent spirit of Queens.

Taqueria El Sinaloense, located just steps from the 90th Street–Elmhurst Avenue stop on the 7 train, was my first transcendent taste of Sinaloan specialties. This is what we talk about when we talk about tacos. 

Terrazzo coasters
Lockwood

When you’re on your way to a gift exchange and still haven’t gotten anything yet, Lockwood is the move. A go-to for last-minute gifts, their Astoria, Jackson Heights, and Greenpoint shops have tons of crowd-pleasing, moderately priced options like these terrazzo coasters. 

Dressed in black on a 90-degree Spring day, Alexandria Fisk, a Londoner, was nothing but sunny after running late from the city to her cidery in Maspeth. Fisk, co-founder of Descendant Cider Company exuded a subdued sense of cool-- even with kegs to fill, clients to please and being 13 weeks pregnant at the time.

Before cider, Alexandria spent a decade as an investment bank analyst working as part of an executive team in the tech world for four years.

Omar Bravo has lived in the United States for 15 years, but ask him about tamales and in a second he is transported. Suddenly, he’s a kid back in Oaxaca, able to recall all the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the tamale-making parties, called tamaladas, that were a holiday fixture in his family and community. 

Bread and I have a complicated relationship. Not being one to daintily dip it in olive oil, I cannot resist a warm nubbin slathered with creamy butter. I have baked family-pleasing tea cakes like banana bread or lemon-poppy, but feeding a “mother”—the living, fermenting heart of sourdough—brings on pure panic. 

Doughphobes, be inspired: This Bread & Grains issue is filled with stories of passionate bakers and chefs whose creations are a feast for both nose and mouth.

A little over a year ago, my partner asked me on our first date—to Flushing’s Main Street. We met for afternoon tea and nervously moved on to a nondescript shopping mall, laughing about the name of a Chinese mobile phone company displayed in one shop’s window: iTalkBB.  

To say that we have all had our challenges these last few months is an understatement. Lives have been lost in so many ways. During my culinary school days, I externed under chef Floyd Cardoz. He commanded his kitchen with unsappy sweetness and strict aplomb. He terrified me, and I wanted nothing more than to impress him with my skills. His loss made COVID-19 profoundly real to me. 

The German-Jewish Cookbook by Gabrielle Rossmer Gropman and Sonya Gropman
Chicago University Press

A mother-and-daughter duo revive and document a cuisine that was, in many ways, intentionally buried. Their book shares not only recipes, but also fascinating cultural context. Wrap up a copy to give as a Hanukkah gift. 

There are well more than 800 lemons in Hannah Berger’s Ridgewood apartment. She pours them out of two cardboard boxes and a hill of them emerges, sweet-smelling and in various states of decay. A visual artist from Florida, Berger’s work with citrus is both nostalgic of her West Palm Beach upbringing (an orange tree in the backyard, sand, etc.) and symbolic of themes like aging and reproductive choice (in the past, women used sponges soaked in lemon juice to prevent pregnancy). 

Sitting here putting the finishing touches on our Holiday issue, I feel the warm days of summer giving way to cooler nights, and sense the branches gripping tightly onto their leaves. A gentle fading of one season into the next. As the publisher of a printed quarterly publication, I know that the magazine needs to be completely finished long before it is distributed. Perhaps writing about my own holiday memories is expected, but it’s the future of Edible Queens that I find occupies a greater portion of my mind.