August 2011

Features

• Oysters: An Odyssey

  Every year, five million Island Creek oysters grow in the muddy flats of Massachusetts's Duxbury Bay. Most end up at top restaurants, but a few make it no further than Island Creek's floating "Oysterplex" for the farm's own seafood feast.

• Gastronaut: Tamale Recipe

  A veteran of America's most avant-garde kitchens shifts his intense focus to making extraordinary tamales.

• Editor's Letter

• The Fabulous Beekman Boys' Barn-Raising Potluck

  TV's fabulous Beekman boys, America's most unlikely goat farmers, step back in time with an old-fashioned barn raising and a potluck with their spectacular neighbors.

• The Help: Southern Food

  Crispy fried chicken, silky collard greens, delicate tea sandwiches: Southern food never looked more delicious than it does in The Help, the film based on Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel.

• The Hungry Crowd: Superfly

  The partners at Superfly Presents (the guys behind San Francisco's Outside Lands, Tennessee's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and the Superfly During Jazzfest Series) believe excellent food, great wine and world-class music belong together.

• Top Chef Top 10: Floyd Cardoz

  As he prepares for the end-of-year opening of NYC's North End Grill, Top Chef Masters contestant Floyd Cardoz muses on some of his favorite things, like TV's The Big Bang Theory and Sudoku.

• Trendspotting: Gardens

  During World War II, 20 million victory gardens helped feed America. Today's gardeners are in it for the ultrafresh food, of course, but also for the pleasure and health benefits of digging in the dirt. Here, a guide to modern seed-sowing.