We hope you’re hungry: Our food issue has just hit newsstands! Although we love each story we present in our pages, there are always a few that really stick with us. Here, our editors share their favorites from the May/June issue.
“I really like Anya von Bremzen’s story about the dining scene in Moscow. She writes with humor about both the Russian culture she knows so well and the bewilderment she feels about how that culture is changing. And now I really want to know what bread made from birch trees tastes like. The story also contains one of my all-time favorite bits of dialogue that we’ve ever run in AFAR:
‘The hookers aren’t here tonight,’ whispers Gennady.
‘Aren’t hookers so ’90s?’ asks Barry.
‘Moscow hookers,’ declares Gennady philosophically, ‘are eternal.’” —Jeremy Saum, executive editor
“In our Insatiable package, chef and author Samin Nosrat writes about a near-mythic Florentine sandwich that she first learned about while interning at Chez Panisse. I admire her passion and dedication to travel to Italy for a sandwich, and her determination to find it, despite the odds. Don’t miss Samin’s new book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which comes out next week.” —Julia Cosgrove, editor in chief
“Francis Lam’s piece about traveling in Malaysia with chef Azalina Eusope really stuck to my ribs—I think because of his personal connection to her. Francis met Azalina five years ago and got to know her (and her charged relationship with her family back home in Penang) as she built her food business from a market stand into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. This relationship adds a tenderness to his chronicling of her trip back to Penang. Plus, it’s relatable if you live far from your family and feel any kind of guilt over it.” —Aislyn Greene, senior editor
“I was excited to dive into a different side of Miami in ‘Miami’s New Heat.’ Miami often feels defined by the neon lights of South Beach, but Giorgio Rapicavoli’s inside look at the old-school Coconut Grove neighborhood invites readers to get a taste of why so many people visit Miami, fall in love, and never leave.” —Maggie Fuller, editorial assistant
“I’m obsessed with the idea of sampling the natural bounty of Germany’s Black Forest, thanks to David Farley’s engaging storytelling, along with Charissa Fay’s transporting images, in the May/June food issue’s ‘The Little German Town with All the Michelin Stars.’ Pine needle ice cream, anyone?” —Jenn Flowers, deputy editor
