Florian Pinel
Khachapuri Recipe
For this Georgian cheese bread, I favor a soft dough made with yogurt and baking powder, but you could also use store-bought dough.
Ice Fishing Is Amazing, If You Can Stand the Frostbite
Despite freezing temperatures, frostbitten fingers, labyrinths of fishing lines, and sex-toy-like fishing gadgets, ice fishing is surprisingly rewarding—even before you catch your first fish.
Georgia's Cheese Bread Might Be Better Than Pizza
Khachapuri is a cheese bread that's found all over Georgia—the country, not the US state—in at least a half-dozen varieties, sometimes topped with eggs and butter to turn a simple meal into a total gut bomb.
Becherovka Is Better Than Cough Syrup
With its origins as a medicine, Becherovka is akin to Fernet, Unicum, Jägermeister, and Chartreuse. It’s herbal, it’s bitter, and it’s the antithesis of everything that’s pleasant and enjoyable, but some people manage to love it.
I'm Happy to Have a Computer Help Me Cook Better
A few years ago, I joined IBM's new cognitive cooking project—better known as Chef Watson. Instead of just another technological crutch, Chef Watson could be the first specimen of a new generation of smarter cookbooks.
In Uzbekistan, A Bowl of Greasy Rice Will Make or Break Your Marriage
Most people who visit Uzbekistan head to Samarkand and Bukhara, but the spot for real-deal Uzbek cuisine is Tashkent. There, I found horse meat pasta salad and copious amounts of plov, a delicious dish of rice and meat that's said to seal the fate of...
I Ate Dinner in a Tajik Hellhole
Ask the average Westerner what they know about Tajikistan, and they'll probably draw a blank. (Is it a country? Isn’t there a war going on there?) Which made finding out more about qurutob, its national dish, even more interesting.
Qurutob Recipe
Skip the terrifying cab drivers of Dushanbe by making Tajikistan's national meat-and-bread dish at home.