On August 10, 2009, I called the best Thai Restaurant in North America to ask if it would be open on December 23, 2009. Then I booked a cross-country flight with a four hour layover in Las Vegas, with full intent of making good on this phone call. On December 23, 2009, I experienced what [...]
Tomorrow I set foot in California for the first time in over a year. As much as I like to think I’ll be able to spend my two weeks on the west coast exploring brave new worlds of flavor, my rotation of meals will probably be a lineup of long missed favorites, determined by the [...]
Nate Tabak is a journalist and a man of flavor working in California’s East Bay.
Like the dim red light baiting the baby-faced sailor about to make his first trip to a brothel, the logo of a smiling blue fish in central Pristina, Kosovo, beckoned me to the danger zone. Peshku. She wanted me, I wanted [...]
Shanghai has been in a state of growth for years. With all the talk about the city’s inestimable cost of development and the daily encroachment of skyscrapers upon those with too-humble means, perhaps the biggest offender of modernization gets off almost scot-free: Shanghainese food. How can the native cuisine of a city teeming with excitement [...]
I live for BBQ. I wake up for breakfast. Those who know me best will understand when I say that American breakfast is the backbone of my appetite. If done right, it’s cheap, satisfying and timeless. Two eggs over easy have nowhere to hide and everything to prove, especially when they’re on short order.
Some people [...]
Once, when my grandfather was visiting from Chicago, he asked teenage me if there was any good Greek food around. A Los Angeles native, I was rarely accused of a having a multiculturally ignorant palette, but this question confused me. Greek? You mean like Zeus and Socrates? What the hell is modern Greek food? It [...]
The basic purpose of food is to provide sustenance; the body needs it to function. Today, food serves many other purposes: social activity, hobby, art. Innovation with regards to food has been stupendous, as the variety of techniques used to render raw materials into a meal have expanded to add textures, bring out flavour [...]
Nostalgia can be the darnedest thing. Growing up a young Chinese American in a household that favored Chinese culinary etiquette, I often wondered aloud whether I was getting the short thrift on what, back then, I considered to be my sole birthright: home cooked Western meals. That should’ve meant lasagna nights. More pizza. Even the [...]
On October 29, 2009, this blog reached the age of two. I was supposed to post something about it that day, but I was in North Carolina, eating barbecue and playing Super Mario Bros. 3.
I held onto the announcement for a few weeks more, waiting for my good friend and roommate Amit to complete some [...]
