The first honest-to-goodness Philadelphian I ever met greeted me from behind a plainly planted table at 30th St. Station. Girlfriend and I had just gotten off the bus and circled the terminal in search of assurance. Spotting the phrase “Travelers Assistance,” I approached the man, who nursed a stack of unfolded maps and a nonchalant [...]
Hours after a recent trip to Flushing’s newest destination food court, J.O. and I exchanged the following over SMS: “These food malls are like chucky cheeses for us.” “You are right. I definitely peed in the ball pit at Savor Fusion.” “Omg” Who said what isn’t nearly as important as the analogy. I’ve been to [...]
It took me five years to get over a brick of bread that yielded thick slices of breakfast while I was an exchange student in St. Petersburg. I said goodbye to those distant morning meals when I first stepped into Brighton Bazaar. A bustling Russian supermarket wrapped around a smorgasbord of prepared foods, the Bazaar [...]
I’ve known a few people who have attended the University of California at San Diego, a large public university condemned to the city of La Jolla, and each of these friends has harbored certain resentment toward this fate. La Jolla is a beautiful city, the kind of beautiful that has come to represent the city [...]
Indian food enthusiasts in Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito have a new go-to in Hamro Aangan, a relatively new Indo-Nepalese restaurant separated from the U.C. campus by several miles of the actual city of Berkeley. A meal here is worth the trip, by bus or by car, for pretty much anyone interested in serious flavor. [...]
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 [...]
After a recent trip to the Socrates sculpture garden, Girlfriend and I struck out for Arepas Cafe on the south side of Astoria. While we were there to enjoy the restaurant’s tasty Venezuelan arepas, Latin American drink menus are always eye-catching, and we couldn’t slip away without ordering cold glasses of chica and toddy ($4.75 [...]
Rice is rarely this audacious. Jinro is rarely the right choice. At a modest Korean restaurant in the far reaches of Queens, the rare thrill dormant in both staples springs to life in one sizzling sitting. Containing white rice soaked in a spicy marinade, a portentous mixing bowl greets the happy diners at Flushing’s Tong [...]
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 [...]
Floridians can get surly when it comes to Key Lime Pie. I don’t blame them when bakeries across California serve too-sweet lime pies colored green and label them “Key” on menus. I’ve never tried the real thing, but breakfasts at Lois the Pie Queen have got me thinking: Maybe the best key lime pie in [...]
