Travel

Way before Bill Buford wrote about “Room 4 Dessert” in last week’s New Yorker, Diana and I had been planning a visit there. “Let’s go to Room 4 Dessert,” we’d say to each other on a cold winter’s night. We’d both read about it in various publications and knew that the two of us, two…

Now that I’ve been bitten by the Chinatown bug, I make an effort to go there as much as possible. So on Friday night, when making plans with Diana, I said: “Let’s go to Chinatown!” and she agreed. We called a few more peeps from our posse and planned to meet on the corner of…

I recently finished reading Philip Roth’s “Operation Shylock” (a fun, if challenging, Roth read) and discovered, upon reaching the book’s final chapter, that the last scene occurs at a place I knew lots about but never visited: Barney Greengrass. What follows is a brilliant section that perfectly describes the scene and the role it plays…

Craig calls from work at 7 o’clock on Friday night and asks me what the plan is. “How do you feel about mutton?” I ask. There is a pause. “Mutton?” he replies. “Yes,” I say. “How do you feel about eating mutton?” Dating me requires patience, skill and tolerance for outlandish eating ideas. It took…

I am embarrassed. I have lived in New York for two years now and how often have I taken advantage of the cultural opportunities just outside my door? How often have I journeyed up to Queens for Greek food or to try the famous arepas from the mythical arepa lady? How many Indian supermarkets have…

Bene is a new Italian culture magazine that will be distributed in “150 of the best Italian restaurants in the United States, starting May 15th.” Why am I telling you this? Well Bene’s Editorial Director, Joanna Goddard, wrote me recently to see if I wanted to write for them. “Umm,” I wrote back, “You know…

I’ve been a blog slacker lately–updating less frequently and, more horrifically, not responding to reader e-mail. If you’ve sent me an e-mail over the past few weeks, I deeply apologize for not getting back to you. With my thesis reading and school ending and the kidney I donated to a nun, things have been quite…

Who is responsible for the lavish meals you see displayed before you on my website? No, I don’t mean financially: financially we owe our gastronomic livelihood to my father who slaves away in his Margate office almost ten hours a day so we can nosh on amuse bouches and petit fores. No, the question I…

I know that on Sunday night we ate dinner at the Gramercy Tavern. I know this to be true but as opposed to Daniel, which I wrote about below this, dinner memories aren’t flooding to the surface. Everything about the Gramercy Tavern was perfectly executed–the hostess was pleasant (and pregnant), the bar room was colorful…

The graduation feasting began Saturday night when mom and dad swept me away to Daniel, a place we’d visited once before but which I longed to return to. “I long to return to Daniel,” I informed mom and dad when they were making reservations. They even offered to take me to Alain Ducasse–that palace of…