What exactly makes a meal memorable? The New York restaurant scene is full of concepts, plates and experiences that are mostly devoid of personality. Going on my fourth year in the city, I still have the gnawing feeling that New York restaurants are often more brand than food – a name to an investment that [...]
Dear readers, A while back, Layne Mosler of Taxi Gourmet approached J.O. and me with her newest project: a series of self-guided food tours, written by local experts and sold through a mobile app used to explore good food throughout the world. I signed on because Layne’s approach to food is very much like my [...]
I leaned my head against the Shinkansen window, snacking on train station fast food. Japan passed by at 300 kilometers per hour, while I counted golf ranges and Ferris wheels at an astonishing clip. Then the track doglegged, and there was Mount Fuji, emerging from sparse countryside and hogging the view. Even the regulars paused, [...]
To recap my recent work for Serious Eats, in case you haven’t kept up with us on Facebook: Serious Barbecue and Birria in Chicago After writing about Uncle John’s and the style of barbecue on Chicago’s South Side, I devoted an entire column to the smoky miracle of the Chicago-style rib tip. A feature on [...]
The first time Mele and I stepped into a car in Japan was at the Kochi City train station. Josh met us in front of the Anpanman Terrace, and after we awkwardly waved hello at each other from two feet away, our host led us toward his tiny car, a white Daihatsu with enough horsepower [...]
I have never seen a Michoacan ice cream parlor off of Interstate 5. Now that I know of one that sits in the shadow of US-101, I see little reason to drive along the 5 again. There are, of course, other reasons for choosing US-101 over I-5 if a trip calls for traversing the 400 [...]
As it turns out, Heaven on Seven is not the only restaurant in Chicago’s Downtown Loop to nest in the upper floors of an office building. During my visit to the Loop I spotted at least one other in-office restaurant serving those who’d just as soon take the elevator for a meal or a pint [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
