Pineapple Sherbet One day last week the weatherman at my local television station reported the day’s heat index as 117 degrees. Earlier that afternoon I had been running errands for my wife. My children were with me. One of our errands placed us near Kamper Park in my hometown of Hattiesburg. As a child I [...]

For Whom the School Bell Tolls I am now the father of two school-aged children. This week my daughter enters fourth grade and my son enters kindergarten (let’s all bow our heads and say a prayer for Mrs. Prine, his teacher). Back to school means returning to the daily routine of getting to bed early, [...]

Beautiful Swimmers When I was a child my family owned a small, rickety fish camp on the Pascagoula River near the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. When the year’s final school bell rang, shorts were put on, shoes were kicked off, and the slow pace of summer kicked in. I spent those days fishing, trolling for [...]

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 [...]