After six years of serious eating and four of serious blogging, I’ve been thoroughly convinced that dining chic will never be relevant to my life. One week of eating in Chicago banged a few more nails in that coffin (a relatively easy affair when the hammer is made of pork bones), but perhaps no place [...]

I love diners with a love that transcends the quality of food, to the point where personality and convenience can be enough to make or break a meal before the food ever hits the table. I’m a big fan of Norm’s in L.A. at two in the morning. I’m a big fan of Denny’s when [...]

In varying instances of hunger and maturity, I’ve wavered on the issue of deep dish pizza. I’ve never seemed to make up my mind on what makes a good one. When I was 11, Pizza Hut‘s pan pie was valued despite (because of) its orange-slicked handshake the morning after purchase. At age 18, the sweet, [...]

Chicago is Heaven on Earth for people who love dated signage, and quite possibly Hell in neon for those who don’t. Every self-respecting bar in Chicago seems to be the victim of some kind of small business moratorium on renovation, disallowed from admitting that America made it through the ’70s and convinced that the people [...]

Sunita Apte is a writer, children’s book author and food blogger, living in Brooklyn and corresponding from Thailand. You can learn more about her kitchen culture at missmasala.com. My sister-in-law is very partial to seafood. Perhaps I should say she is obsessed. Yes, I think obsessed might be the better word. She eats it at [...]