SaltShaker

 Tomika: “Why aren’t you on a diet?”
Dewey: “Because I like to eat. Is that such a crime?”
- From School of Rock
New York City - It’s not a crime, but it’s not helping my waistline on this trip… I do like to eat, and I’m sort of packing in places left and right, definitely eating more [...]

 ”Let’s do Mexican,” generally means heading for the closest eatery serving a greasy Tex-Mex mishmash of tacos, burritos, and chimichangas, usually washed down with an inexcusably large margarita flavored sno-cone.”
- Dan Perlman, me
New York City - When I wrote that intro to a restaurant review, fifteen years ago, for some reason I’d thought that the [...]

 ’Comfort food is not just what gives you momentary pleasure or stress relief. That’s…’ Whereupon she employed a scientific term that rhymes with ‘perturbation’.”
- Colin Goh, Comfort Me With Burgers

Buenos Aires - I’m sorry, but Woo Yen Yen is simply wrong, burgers are absolutely comfort food, if… they comfort you. Though I agree with her [...]

 You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?”
- Rumi, 13th century Persian poet and theologian
New York City - There is a reason to crawl through life… appetizers. Appetizer Crawls. Winging our way from one restaurant to the next would be kind of cool if we had literal wings, I suppose, but then [...]

 Cassoulet has such a religion around it because it’s the plat de partage — the dish of sharing. When a cassoulet arrives at the table, bubbling with aromas, something magical happens — it’s Communion around a dish.”
- Philippe Puel, Chef, Le Cantou
New York City - Back in Manhattan for a few days after my Dallas [...]

 We often lie to ourselves and others about what we can and can’t get done. If you can’t tell the difference between what to say yes to and what to say no to, then you will be busy. You will have more going on than can be fulfilled meaningfully. Fulfillment is not just about getting [...]

 It’s hard for people to understand why they should want to eat old-fashioned Tex-Mex. Let me put it this way: You eat at these old Tex-Mex places for the same reason that you listen to scratchy old recordings of the Delta blues. It’s not about the quality; it’s about getting in touch with the roots [...]

 Native Americans inhabited the area that is now Dallas before it was claimed as part of the Province of New Spain by the Spanish in the 1500’s. In 1821, Mexico declared independence from Spain and New Spain became part of Mexico. Texas became the independent country, The Republic of Texas, in 1836 after the Texas [...]