Jennifer Several years ago I wrote a column about funeral food and how people in the South band together to feed the family of the bereaved when a loved one has passed away. I never expected to be so close, so soon, to the phenomenon. A few days ago my wife’s 37-year old sister lost [...]

The French Laundry Yountville, Calif. — “I have just eaten the best meal of my life. Hands down. No question.” Those were the opening sentences of a column I wrote just five weeks ago after dining at Per Se, in New York. Stop the presses. I have just experienced a humbling, 32-course culinary bacchanalia at [...]

Wisdom…or Lack Thereof When speaking of his wisdom teeth, my grandfather used to say, “I’ll never get my wisdom teeth cut out, I do some of my best chewing with those teeth.” Once again, I should have listened to my grandfather.After 44 years and some extremely successful chewing, I have removed all four of my [...]

Santa Fe SANTA FE— Travel notes and food quotes from my dining diary the week of July 8th: Have you ever wished for something for so long that there is no way the experience will live up to the “build up?” For 15 years, one of the restaurants on my “get-to list” has been the [...]

The Sword, the Bathroom, and the Pirate My son has a the bladder the size of an English pea. He also likes pirates. These two seemingly diametrically opposed statements converged during one fateful incident in a restaurant bathroom. I have often written of my son’s bouts with bathroomitis. Bathroomitis is a malady that strikes early [...]

Destin DESTIN, Fla— Greetings from the remnants of the world’s luckiest fishing village. As a kid, when driving over the bridge into Destin, I was greeted by a large plywood sign that stated “Welcome to Destin… the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.” A few days ago I crested the peak of that same bridge and was [...]

Per Se New York, N.Y.— I have just eaten the best meal of my life. Hands down. No question. That is a powerful statement for someone who eats for a living. Yet, there is no other way to describe my dining experience at Per Se as anything less than “perfect.” From the service to the [...]

New York NEW YORK, NY— I’ve just finished five days on the island of Manhattan with one goal: Eat well. Being one who is passionate about food, and also one who travels to the nation’s top restaurant city only once or twice a year, I usually have a lot of gastronomic ground to cover during [...]

Anticipation In the early 1970s, pop singer Carly Simon hit the top 40 charts with a song called “Anticipation.” A few months after the song’s release, a company that manufactures ketchup purchased the exclusive rights to use it in a series of television commercials. It forever changed my connection with the song. Instead of thinking [...]

Freeze! This is a Ham Up! I read a news story a few weeks ago with this headline: “Robber Allegedly Holds Up Bar With Ham Sandwich.” O.K., I thought, you’ve got my attention, I’ll bite. The story stated: “Police say a man used what they call a ‘gun-shaped’ object in his attempt to rob a [...]