FR Test Kitchen

For many people across North Africa, tagine is the quintessential comfort food. We tested out this merguez version at a recent Food Republic Test Kitchen to much satisfaction.

Here's how proud the Baltimore area is of its crabmeat. Go ahead, look at the photo. Actually, mine don't do them justice — the real Baltimore crab pretzels are legit twisted stadium pretzels roughly the size of a dinner plate and positively coated with thick crab salad and shredded cheese. I use pre-made pizza dough to achieve very nearly the same results in an hour or less.

Yesterday the entire Food Republic team relocated to New York’s West Village for a daylong test kitchen and interview lounge, where editors prepared (and photographed) a range of dishes while chefs like Sean Brock, Amanda Freitag, Dale Talde, Angelo Sosa and Paul Qui stopped by for interviews. Afterwards, we threw a party the only way we know how — with lamb sliders, wines from Rioja and cocktails presented by our columnist Simon Ford. Here are some of the highlights, in photographic detail.