SaltShaker

New York City – It’s official, as of yesterday. My apartment is now sold – closed, the check is deposited – and my real estate broker and friend of 20 years took me out to lunch. Her pick, one of her longtime favorites, Bouley. I only ate there once, years ago, at the original Bouley. [...]

New York City – As my time in New York draws to a close, people have been asking me all the usual “aren’t you going to miss…” type questions. Truthfully, no. I remember 23 years ago when I was headed to NYC from the midwest, a friend gave me a New Yorker magazine cartoon. It [...]

New York City – “Welcome!” isn’t a bad thing to hear when you enter a restaurant. The Japanese form, Irashimase, is something we often hear on venturing into our local sushi parlor. It’s often called out by a sushi chef or two from the bar. At En, a relative newcomer to the West Village [...]

New York City – From Michael Quinlon’s weekly World Wide Words newsletter: “ALTERPRENEUR – This slangy invention based on “entrepreneur” refers to people who leave their jobs to start a business of their own, not so much to make money as to improve their standard of living, get more control over their lives and generally [...]

Baltimore – I just finished the book In the Devil’s Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food by Steward Lee Allen (Ballantine Books, 2002). I love stuff like this. History, speculation, romance, and a bit of comedic relief, and it’s all about my favorite topic – food! The book is an exploration into food taboos, [...]

Key West – If you know a little bit about fermentation, you know you don’t need grapes to make it happen. Anything with a sugar content (or a starch that can be converted to a sugar) can be fermented. And wine doesn’t have to come from grapes. Anyone from my generation is likely to remember [...]

Key West – A little “Margaritaville” and a lost shaker of salt seem as good a place as any to start off this blog. I’m going to use the “diary” section of this for non-food, wine & spirits stuff where I just feel like posting something about my day. I’ve been down here for two [...]

New York City – Blogging begins. Today is my last day of employment before heading off on a self-imposed sabbatical to travel around and explore. My focus, for this blog anyway, will be on food, wine and spirits, and related themes (restaurants, bingeing & purging, I don’t know…). Other nonsense will continue on my homepage, [...]