Salty Citrusy Pecan Bars

Plus: Sean Brock's Shrimp and Grits, Eric Kim Comes to Dinner, Hakka Cuisine, and Dwight Garner on Lunch Therapy.

Hey everyone,

This New York weather is throwing me for a loop. Two days ago it was 80 degrees and now it’s chilly and rainy… though I actually prefer the latter to the former, especially for cozy cooking. Winston prefers it too: he just zipped around our courtyard for three minutes at full speed. He hates being hot, so this weather suits him well.

Before I get to these salty, citrusy pecan bars in the lead pick, I have a very special guest on this week’s Lunch Therapy: NYT book critic and the author of The Upstairs Delicatessen, Dwight Garner.

If you’re a reader of The New York Times Book Review, you’ll know that Dwight Garner pulls no punches, so I was pretty intimidated to talk to him. Turns out, he’s a very sweet man: we talked all about his peanut butter and pickle sandwich (recipe here), Calvin Trillin (an influence on both of us), growing up in Florida, the link between eating and reading, how he stays so focused (reading three hundred pages a day!), whether he ever skims, and much much more. Listen to the whole thing here or wherever you listen to podcasts:

Now let’s talk pecan bars.