Category Archives: Eating

Here we celebrate the best kind of food enjoyment: eating somebody else’s cooking, whether it be in a fine dining establishment or a hole in the wall.

Enough with the fruitcake jokes…

Bon vivant Calvin Trillin wrote that there is actually only one fruitcake in the world, and it is continually re-gifted each holiday season. That fruitcake joke, or a variation, has had just as much recycling to the point that giving … Continue reading

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Behold… the wedge!

Have you noticed? The wedge salad is quite the thing in high end steakhouses recently. The concept is simple: cut a triangle of chilled iceberg lettuce, and pile stuff on it. Blue cheese dressing (preferably house made, with lots of … Continue reading

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All I want for Christmas is my Instant Pot

Am I the last one to know about the Instant Pot? If the answer is no, it’s YOU then there is still time to get/ask for one of these beauties for Christmas/Hanukkah. Just click the Amazon affiliate image above. Instant … Continue reading

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Sussing out Saratoga Restaurant Week 2016

We’re at the midpoint of Saratoga Restaurant Week 2016, and I’ve made an earnest effort to review the meals that are on offer at $5 or $10 for lunch, $10, $20 or $30 for dinner. Some restauranteurs complain about restaurant … Continue reading

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The tyranny of leftovers

Tired of turkey? Sick of stuffing? I’m writing this on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and, if you’re still struggling with leftovers, I hereby give you permission to a/pick the remaining meat off the carcass and freeze in a zip-loc bag; b/make a … Continue reading

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Life imitates art at Soup Man

Does this strike anybody else as weird? A character modeled after Ali “Al” Yeganeh, the crotchety proprietor of the International Soup Kitchen in midtown Manhattan, was featured in the famous “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld. In order to be served … Continue reading

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Toné Dehydrated Onions

At one time I made frequent car trips between the San Francisco Bay Area and southern Oregon. I’d always stop at the same Arco station for food. It offered those terrible pre-cooked wrapped cheeseburgers, but with an irresistible topping: dried onions that had been … Continue reading

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Rolling with the Bad Boys, Broads and Bootleggers Tour

There was no finer way to decompress on the Saturday before Election Day than an afternoon wandering the neighborhoods of the Capital District on a chartered CDTA bus (we don’t do blackened-window Google land yachts here) for a touristic adventure sponsored … Continue reading

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Salting away shiso

Success! A few weeks ago I wrote of my scheme to make salt shiso pickles by sprinking a bit of salt on each of my homegrown shiso leaves and stacking them up in a jar. The leaves were then pressed … Continue reading

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How to hack your prime rib dinner

Last night I enjoyed a prime rib dinner at House of Prime Rib in San Francisco. This is a fine specimen of the genre, with long waits for tables and toque’d carvers rolling silver trays hither and yon. The concept … Continue reading

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